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The Ice Cream Tug Boat Skipton 10th anniversary: How owner and cute dog created a business that can’t be licked
Over the years Skipton’s ice cream tug boat has become a town institution – a sure sign spring has arrived.
As soon as owner Catherine Hewes starts planting out her troughs of bulbs and annuals, locals know summer – and its iced treats – are on their way.
This year Catherine, who says she and husband Nick fell into the business by happy accident, will celebrate their 10th anniversary onboard Fox, along with “front of house” Jack Russell-Chihuahua cross Roo.
The boat, berthed on a busy stretch, close to where the Leeds Liverpool Canal meets the Springs Branch, is now very much on the tourist trail, and has appeared in countless photos, and paintings.
Once a working boat – it dates back to around the turn of the 20th century – it has two winches at the front which used to be used to drag butties (narrowboats without engines) up to it and then push them around.
It was converted to sell icecream around 15 years ago.
There isn’t enough space in the 21ft boat to serve more than a couple of flavours – old favourites – a vanilla, paired with chocolate, or strawberry, or mint chocolate, made at a family farm in Blackburn, Lancashire.
The couple bought the business after a regular at a pub Nick goes to said he who was wanting to sell, but struggling to get the price he wanted. Nick put in a bid in an attempt to bring the price up – but ended up getting the boat.
Not that the couple, who live in Skipton, ever regretted it – nor Roo, a “super scrounger” who enjoys working her way up and down people sitting on benches for an odd chip or two.
Catherine, a former primary school teacher, says it is a very pleasant way of earning a living: “If it hadn’t been an enjoyable, profitable thing to do we wouldn’t have carried on as long.
“It’s fun – people come to you with a smile and leave with a smile. We have swans and ducks. What’s not to like?”
As they don’t have any power on the boat and don’t fancy using a diesel generator they have an admirably low tech method of keeping the ice cream cool.
They chill industrial-size freezer plates at home to minus 22 and then bring them down to the berth in a cart. That’s enough to keep the ice cream cool for the day.
There’s gas bottles for burners for the teas, coffees and hot chocolate they also serve.
Catherine said: “It is very weather dependent. If you have really nasty weather coming down the cut you don’t sell very much ice cream but on warmer days you are working your socks off.”
From now until the end of September into October, depending on the weather, they’ll open every day from midday to around 4.30pm.
As for the future she said: “We might scale back a little, we’ll see how we go.”
