Seagull Trust Cruises

Free Canal Cruising for People with Special Needs

Royal Patron HRH The Princess Royal

Highland Branch

The Highland Seagull is equipped with lifesaving appliances and fire fighting equipment to Department of Transport standards and is at all times in radio contact with International and British Waterways frequencies. In the nineteen years from 1989 to 2009 we have made 2,681 trips carrying a total of 24,607 passengers at an average of about 9 passengers per trip.

As in all walks of life qualifications and certification of ability are becoming more and more a requirement of operation and insurance and so to this end Seagull Trust Cruises has instituted a training and certification scheme for our boat skippers under the auspices of the Royal Yachting Association.  Under a recent E. U. Directive it is now a requirement that all of our skippers have to hold a qualification approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.  Some of our skippers are professional ship captains and seamen, many of them holding recognised Master Mariner Certificates of Competence.  However, the majority of our volunteers require formal training and this is provided by a qualified RYA Inland Waters Helmsmans Instructor.