The Boaters' Christian Fellowship

Meet a Committee Member

Tim Clarke (Webmaster)

Boat Name: Sola Gratia.

Born in Bournemouth, Tim moved to Shoreham-by-Sea after leaving school, where he met and married Tracey. A career in retail led to accounts, until redundancy gave him the opportunity to convert a hobby into full time work running his own computer business. An opportunity to work for one of his customers led to a new career in the bus industry - and a PCV licence!

Born into a Christian family, Tim drifted away from the church in his early teens. However, joining the youth group at the church, where his father was organist, brought him back to faith. Two summers were spent working on the Ffestiniog Railway deviation with the Inter Schools Christian Fellowship. Over the years, Tim has been worship leader at a number of churches in the Worthing area, and is still known to wield his guitar or bass at BCF events. Family circumstances kept them in Newbury for a couple of years, where Tim was able to join the worship team with his bass.

Tim's love of boating dates back to 1990 and a week's holiday with friends on the Norfolk Broads. A second holiday in 1991 was followed in 1992 by a narrowboat holiday (and a failed attempt to cruise the Cheshire Ring). It was not until 2008 that they returned to the Waterways and the Black Country Ring. Within half an hour, he was completely hooked! At that time, the vision to move onto a narrowboat seemed like an impossible dream. However, a series of miracles later Tim, Tracey and her Guide Dog Oakley (since retired) moved onto their narrowboat "Sola Gratia" (Latin for Only by Grace or By Grace Alone) in March 2015. They are now part of the Canal Ministries team.

Tim, along with Tracey, edited the BCF Word magazine for eight years. Tim now looks after this website.

Although they Continuously Cruise, Tim & Tracey now have a church base in Oldbury, where they attend as often as they can.