TWO women who launched a floating restaurant business the year before the pandemic hit are celebrating after winning a prestigious Travel and Hospitality award for Best Boat Tour of 2020.

Jess Harris and Charlotte Whyte, who live in Penryn, set up their business Blue River Table in 2019 taking groups of up to 12 to dine on the Carrick Roads in their 36ft classic converted Cornish motor launch Tethra.

Both women, who grew up together and went to school in Flushing, have spent their lives working on boats, including in the Caribbean and Scotland, as sailors, cooks and mate and decided to combine their skills to launch their new business.

The first season was a big success but, as they prepared their boat for the 2020 season, the pandemic hit and the boat had to be mothballed until May. But on the day the lockdown lifted Channel 4 broadcast the launch of their business on its Devon and Cornwall programme which had originally been shown on More4 and things went crazy. Their episode followed the launch of their new business, centring on how they hoped to make it through the teething troubles of their first week after months of planning and hard graft.

"It's been amazing, because we have had that brilliant exposure on Channel 4," said Jess. "We have only just received that award just before Christmas. It was a very nice end to the year to have that recognition. We're very new still so we keep not expecting these things to happen. We were like 'Oh we've been nominated for this award' and then 'Oh, we've won it'. A very positive thing to receive for our little business in Cornwall. We were just really honoured that someone nominated us and that we were given the award."

Travel & Hospitality Awards said it was proud to announce that Blue River Table had been awarded in its 2021 European Travel Awards programme.

"While this year has been the toughest the travel industry has ever faced, we endeavour to recognise those who deserve praise and to promote the hard work of tenacious travel businesses. It said the recipients of awards in 2021 were scrupulously selected based on the aggregation of reviews from multiple third-party sources.

Selected by a panel of experts who analyse submission material, review customer feedback and compare the facilities of each entrant. The winners are those who can demonstrate their uniqueness, quality of services and facilities and exceptional levels of customer care across a number of categories.

"In this extraordinary year of the awards over 4,000 nominations were received for this year's programme, and the standard of entries was incredibly high. The judging panel had great difficulty in narrowing down the entries but the winners reflect the very best in travel and hospitality standards. We were overwhelmed by the quality of entries this year. We hope this guide will be a useful tool for discerning travellers planning their next luxury getaway. Congratulations once again to all our winners.”