The owners club was set up by a group of owners in 1982. It’s an informal club which provides contact for owners past and present. The club has changed over the years and at the time it was formed there were a large number of David Piper boats at the old yard at Red Bull, where as well as building complete individual boats, we also built shells to various stages. Thus friendships and little “self-help” groups were formed with the result being lots of informal get togethers, cruises and general putting the world to rights.
We no longer have this hub of moorers and narrowboats are spread all over the system, not to mention the new wide beams. The club still exists, providing a quarterly magazine with news of members and their boats, old and new. It has its own website complete with a forum.
There are a two annual dinners, one in early December actually in the form of a Christmas lunch and the other one on the weekend before Easter is an evening dinner. These events still take place relatively local to the place where all the boats were built and all members and their friends are welcome. We don’t get the large numbers attending as we used to when most people were moored or fitting out locally but they’re a pleasant way to meet up and catch up. Many ex owners, who may have retired from boating, like to keep in touch and say they enjoy their Pipelines!
