Puffing a-Wey

Puffing a-Wey – 11-13 July 2025

Dapdune Wharf, River Wey Navigation, Guildford

 Puffing-a-Wey, named thus by the National Trust, our gracious hosts, has been running since 2011 and still not everyone gets the name right!

It gets called ‘Puffin away’, which is obviously an event under the auspices of the RSPB for sea birds with funny beaks. Others call it ‘Puffing away’, evoking a weekend of serious coughing and wheezing sponsored by the tobacco industry.

A gift event: only charge is for the Saturday barbecue

But ’Puffing-a-Wey’ is the actual name because it’s held on the lovely, intimate, River Wey Navigation and it’s a gift event for those of us in the SBA who care to take our boats along to enjoy it. The only charge made to boat owners is the cost of the Saturday night barbecue for which boaters are charged £15 per head

We’re very grateful to the National Trust team at Dapdune Wharf for the waiving of licence and camping charges and free use of slips and other resources. It’s a real gift event for steamboat owners. Our presence brings in many more visitors than usual to their well-hidden but rather lovely town-centre site

It’s an undemanding weekend. Boats arrive for launching on the Friday and the quay at Dapdune is ours for the weekend. There’s a very usable slip and trailers can be parked in a nearby locked enclosure.  Larger boats can use a very gentle slip a mile or so downstream at Stoke Lock in North Guildford. Dapdune itself is the former barge-building and admin centre for the Wey and Godalming Navigations when they were in private ownership and it is tucked away behind the town’s cricket ground, so although Guildford surrounds the site there is a sense of being in the countryside.

Saturday is the day we’re on display to the public  

On the Friday night there is a shared pub meal at a venue close to Dapdune and the main event is the Saturday. SBA boats are asked to stick around not too far from the site so that they can be seen by visitors and owners can talk to those who are obviously interested, maybe even taking them for a short run on the water. There are waterside pubs in both directions from Dapdune and those are the ones to use on the Saturday so that the quayside at Dapdune always has some boats milling around providing atmosphere and colour to enhance other activities also there – a model railway exhibition and exhibits by local model engineers for example.

Saturday evening sees a barbecue, but the National Trust asks steamboat owners (of suitably sized boats) to be prepared to take some of their River Wey maintenance team volunteers aboard for a short early evening cruise while the barbecue is in preparation, along with the Trust’s own electric boats. On their return the open air barbecue,  a joint SBA/NT effort is shared with the Wey volunteers and is always accompanied by music from local entertainers.

Sunday is a free day. Some choose to pull out and head for home while others enjoy the river and set off for a distant pub, but there’s no hurry to go if you have the time.

Ian Buckland / Mark Rudall

Boat owners please complete and return the attached Boat Declaration Form to Ian Bucknall as soon as possible but definitely before the event

 declaration_form sba.pdf

This is a Type 2 Rally

Key to event types

1 - SBA Organised Event (owner's declaration required)

2 - SBA organised participation in 3rd party's event (owner's declaration required)

In event types 1 and 2 the SBA organisers and SBA members are covered by the SBA Liability Insurance; 

3 - private meeting of members with or without boats

4 - private, individual participation of members in 3rd party's event

5 - for information only