A VINTAGE boat brought back to its former glory has been the first to set sail on two sections of a disused canal for the first time in 50 years.

Colin Ogden launched his restored boat, named Whimbrel, on the Lancaster Canal's Northern Reaches at Farleton Fell and then on a section at Holme - and now has plans to bring the waterway back to life.

It is the first time each of the stretches has seen a motorised cabin cruiser touch the waters in half a century and Mr Ogden said the response to it being used once again has been 'overwhelming'.

Built in 1965 at Shepherds Marine, Bowness, as a 'one off build water taxi', the Burnley engineer found his boat abandoned on the shores of Windermere four years ago and spent two years restoring it.

Hoping to get the boat into the water again, Mr Ogden was granted access by a farmer to reach the canal via land at Farleton Fell and launched the boat last month.

The landmark occasion spurred the engineer on to launch it again at Holme on August 8 and he is now in the throes of reinstating a dinghy rally last held in the village in 1975.

Mr Ogden is working tirelessly to raise awareness of the hidden gem and believes rather than the Lancaster Canal Trust restoring the waterway northwards from Millness, Crooklands, to Stainton, it should be working down towards Tewitfield.

"I believe they should come south and join up with the main line near the Longlands Hotel," said Mr Ogden, who has received the 'blessing' from Richard Parry, CEO of the Canal Rivers Trust, to go forward with opening it up.

Frank Sanderson, public relations officer for the Lancaster Canal Trust, said: "More and more people think that is the way forward and I have a lot of sympathy for that idea.

"I wish him luck and believe he's doing a good job. The more boats there are on this section of the canal, the more people will realise its potential."

Mr Ogden is also organising the boat to be towed across the filled-in canal stretch between Kendal and Sedgwick by Lorraine Smith, of Morecambe - the boat's mascot and the 'only' female Jack Sparrow impersonator in the country.

The event will take the form of a reenactment of a scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie At World's End where Captain Sparrow tows a ship across a desert.