Hopes will be high tomorrow in Cradley Heath, West Midlands, where the congregation of Holy Trinity Church, Old Hill, a Grade II listed Victorian building, will no doubt be praying for the success of a highly idiosyncratic Black Country event — a “boat pull” to raise money for the church repair fund. The boat pull is the brainchild of a local canals enthusiast, Peter Wright, 44, an IT and accounts manager. Last year a similar event raised £1,700.

That first boat pull involved a team of men being sponsored to pull a single narrowboat two and a half miles along a local canal from Hawne Basin, Halesowen, to Windmill End in Netherton and back again, “legging” the boat twice through the 509-metre Gorsty Hill Tunnel. Tomorrow’s boat pull involves three boats.

“It’s the Trinity theme,” is how Mr Wright explains it. “Holy Trinity Church. Three boats. And three different methods of propulsion.”

One boat will be pulled by a Clydesdale horse, which at 16.3 hands high is too tall to pull its boat through Gorsty Hill Tunnel. Unless he finds a last-minute volunteer, Mr Wright will have to join the team that will be legging that boat through. This would be in addition to his helping to leg a second boat through later, the one that a relay team will be pulling the full five miles.

The third boat will be powered by its own motor, and a key part of this year’s fundraising will be a 50p-a-go “Guess the Time Each Boat Will Take” competition, early entrants for which have fluctuated wildly in their surmises.

“Pulling is quite strenuous,” admits Mr Wright. “Getting the boat going is the main problem. After that, the effort changes from intense to constant.

“Last year, one or two blokes who were walking along with us asked for a try, but they soon said, ‘There you go, thanks a lot’. Legging is just as hard work as pulling because it’s lying on your back and ‘walking’ along the tunnel wall.

“I hope we’ll raise as much as last year, but the economic climate is different and we’ve lost the £500 in corporate sponsorship we had then.”

Mr Wright must hope he finds himself in a similar position to Neil Perry, treasurer for last month’s flower festival at St Laurence’s Church, Guestling, East Sussex, where a record £4,200 was raised for the church repair fund — so much money that it took Mr Perry and his wife five hours to count it all.

For details of the Holy Trinity boat pull, visit holytrinity-oldhill.org.uk/boatpull.htm