The latest Wheelyboat E-Newsletter
Welcome to The Wheelyboat Trust
E-Newsletter, Sept 2025
Welcome to our E-Newsletter highlighting our work over the summer and early autumn. Here is a taste of what we've achieved, including news of boat deliveries and of our new projects.
Our new Wheelyboat for Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale has now been delivered - see below - and following on are the new boats for Bewl in Kent and Woolverstone in Suffolk. Three more boats are already on order this year, including for Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire. We have new fundraising projects starting and a waiting list already for next year. Demand from disabled people for Wheelyboats only seems to grow!
Each boat supports over 250 people a year and will be out throughout the spring, summer and autumn months - they can go out on as many as 100 individual trips a year! A new Wheelyboat can cost up to £60,000 to supply, without our support the boats would largely be unaffordable for the charitable groups that we work with. Please keep supporting us if you can!
New Mariners of Bewl Wheelyboat
Hugh congratulations to the Mariners of Bewl for their newly supplied V20 Wheelyboat and successful fundraising campaign. The Wheelyboat will have years of activity at their site in Kent. Thank you to all the funders and supporters for a tremendous outcome. She's a beauty!
A fully accessible Wheelyboat gives all people, irrespective of disability, the same opportunities of experiencing water sports and outdoor activities, especially in terms of reducing isolation and anxiety and improving wellbeing and the impact on both mental and physical health. Wheelyboats provide isolated disabled people with an opportunity to get outside and actively participate in healthy life-enhancing activities on the water.
New Wheelyboat for Hollingworth Lake
A new V20 Wheelyboat has been supplied to Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale, following a long and successful fundraising campaign between operators Your Trust and the Wheelyboat Trust. The Pennine Queen will be a popular addition at the lake, giving all access to activities there. Congratulations to all involved for this successful project and thank you to the funders and supporters for the achievement. We look forward to years of happy service!
Mylor Wheelyboat upgrade
Cornwall's Mylor Sailing School has been a long user of Wheelyboats, to ensure that all users are able to access the water, regardless of disability. After 10 years of ervice from their previous V20 Wheelyboat, we were please to upgrade their Wheelyboat to ensure it continues to operate successfully. High demand for the new Wheelyboat has continued through the summer and will for years to come, thanks to the upgrade.
'Poppy' has another busy summer
We are always very proud to highlight the work of Wheelyboat operators and 'Poppy' the North Norfolk Wheelyboat shows no sign of slowing down. This summer, the team were out over 100 times through spring and summer, benefitting many disabled people and groups. Well done to all of our operators for another successful year. The pictures of 'Poppy' in action are always a joy to see!
New projects for 2025
We are currently fundraising for projects across the UK, we know that there are disabled people waiting to use the new boats that we supply and we work hard to meet this ever growing need. If you would like to make a donation towards the costs of providing new Wheelyboats please click here. Further details of our current fundraising projects include:
Draycote Reservoir
We have joined forces with a group of disabled anglers at Draycote Water to fundraise for a fully accessible C16 Wheelyboat, to give all users of the site full access to the reservoir. Access on and around the reservoir for wheelchair users and others with limited mobility is currently very much restricted.
Castle Semple
Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, Castle Semple Centre and the Wheelyboat Trust have joined forces to fundraise for a fully accessible Coulam V20 Wheelyboat to provide more disabled people with powerboating and powerboat training, pleasure boating and angling at the outdoor activity centre in Renfrewshire. The Wheelyboat will enable people with disabilities to access and enjoy water-based activities who previously couldn’t as demand is outstripping availability at this hugely popular site.
Rye Harbour Sailability
The Wheelyboat Trust and Rye Harbour Sailability (RHS) are collaborating to raise funds for a new wheelchair accessible V17 Wheelyboat for RHS to operate at Rye Harbour in East Sussex. A fully accessible Wheelyboat will give all people, irrespective of disability, the same opportunities of experiencing water sports and outdoor activities, especially in terms of reducing isolation and anxiety and improving wellbeing and the impact on both mental and physical health.
Thank you!
We don't send our newsletters out too often, so we hope you enjoyed this one. This newsletter is a good opportunity to thank our many donors and supporters for their kindness in supporting the Trust. We can't do it without you and are very grateful for the support you give. To discuss supporting The Wheelyboat Trust please contact Paul at pe@wheelyboats.org.
In this newsletter we'd particularly like thank and pay tribute to the support of the Bruce Wake Charitable Trust, who have supported our work over many years.