Scotland’s first tourist e-boat sets sail from The Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies

The Scotsman

Scotland’s first tourist e-boat sets sail from The Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies  Scottish Canals latest offering at The Falkirk Wheel was officially launched by Transport Minister, Jenny Gilruth MSP alongside Scottish Canals CEO, Catherine Topley as part of Climate Week.  Visitors to the world’s only rotating boat lift, can now experience a little more canal side scenery in an environmentally conscious way by hiring one of Scottish Canals new e-boats.  Curious captains can now hire a boat and cruise along the Forth & Clyde Canal between The Falkirk Wheel and Bonnybridge enjoying the views from the waterway.  The venture, at one of the nation’s top tourist spots, The Falkirk Wheel, has been met with a flow of interest as a growing number of tourists and day-trippers seek to enjoy new experiences in a sustainable way.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:13 I'm Alistair Dalton from the Scotsman.

00:16 I've ridden on electric bikes, tried electric scooters and driven electric cars,

00:20 but this is a new one for me.

00:22 An electric boat on the Forth and Clyde Canal at the Kelpies in Thorcoke.

00:28 [Music]

00:46 Here we've got our e-boats which we're piloting down here.

00:48 I had them at Falkirk last year and we're going to give them a shot here at the Kelpies.

00:52 What you can do is you can take them from this point here all the way up to Lock 3,

00:55 which is by the visitor centre and you get a half an hour on the boats

00:59 and you can tour around, get a backdrop of the Kelpies for some fantastic photos.

01:03 One of our instructors, Rebecca, who we have out in the water today,

01:06 will give you all the instructions that you need to go out in the boat and handle the boats.

01:10 They've been really popular, so everybody that's been on them, the feedback's been terrific.

01:13 You can go from the Falkirk wheel down to Bonny Bridge and back.

01:16 It's really good that you can take out a couple of family members

01:18 and just tour up and back yourselves without relying on one of our staff.

01:22 There's certainly other potential, so we could look at the likes of Winchburne,

01:26 we could look at other options across the central belt canals, the Fortinclide and Union Canal,

01:31 and possibly even up at the Caledonian Canal as well.

01:34 We'll be running them at the Falkirk wheel right the way through the winter, weather dependent.

01:38 So provided there's no ice in the canal and the weather's favourable,

01:41 you can hire them at the Falkirk wheel throughout.

01:43 You find that people are a bit iffy at the start.

01:47 They seem to be like, "Oh," and then put the power on too much or don't put the power on enough.

01:51 But when they come back from their trip, you ask them how it went and stuff,

01:56 and they went, "Oh yeah, we got the hang of it, it just took a couple of tries."

01:59 So it is quite hard or iffy at the start to get used to it,

02:04 but it's just like anything, riding a bike, anything.

02:07 If you're on the boat with, say, an 18-year-old, then a 16-year-old is allowed to use it,

02:13 as well as if you want your child, as long as they're over the age of five, eight,

02:18 and they know what they're doing, you can let them have a wee shot of just twisting it to let the power go.

02:23 This is definitely completely different to any job I've had.

02:27 My previous jobs have either been in retail or in hospitality.

02:33 This is a mixture of both, but I've always loved it outdoors, so getting a job in that industry,

02:39 doing the thing that I love, is completely better than a previous job that I've had,

02:46 because it's something that I grew up with and I'm now finally doing it as my full-time job,

02:51 so there's nothing that could make me happier, essentially.

02:55 Coming to work happy and leaving happy is the best thing that you can do.

02:59 So quite a new experience. These electric boats are pretty zippy.

03:03 You put on the power and they really start to move.

03:07 I had a little bit of a problem trying to manoeuvre into dock,

03:11 but I'm sure after a bit longer I could do that more proficiently.

03:15 But certainly a fun activity to try out.

03:20 [Music plays]

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