r/Narrowboats

What's the etiquette when a boat is on the lock landing for a lock you're about to go through? Presumably double mooring onto them will be a pain for them when they're about to set off either through the lock or the other way. Do you just bob about waiting if there's no more space on the landing?

Hi All,

We're hoping to get a few boaters to test a new app / service to validate if this is going to be a useful service or not. For those of you who are familiar with Waze (the car map / navigation app) this will probably make a little more sense - its that, but for the UK canal network.

For those of you that have never used Waze, its a routing / navigation service that allows users to flag issues relating to their journey (in the case of Waze, its road closures, speed cameras etc).

Now, Obviously "SatNav for boats" is reasonably pointless on its own, given that the directional options are more... limited, however what we thought was useful was an amalgamation of all the public data about the network (CRT closures, Amenities etc) combined with user input, real time traffic (boats queueing for locks), user added hazards and so on.

You can find the landing page here: https://canalnav.com - and the map here: https://maps.canalnav.com . There is also a dashboard ( https://dashboard.canalnav.com )

Right now, there's no need to download anything (you can save it as a PWA - for those that know how to do that), we'll likely push it out as an optional App later.

Some important functional things:

1. Plan a route (obviously), this will take into account your start time / day, and trip length to flag any CRT closures enroute that will effect you on a specific day, either planned or existing ones.
2. Save routes for later
3. Add your own POIs (make them private or public, flag hazards, broken waterpoints etc)
4. a "my boat" dashboard page, track engine hours, services etc
5. Shareboat functionality (multiple users, one boat)

and a heap of other stuff.

Its free to use, and will always have a free tier - however we want to get a general idea of user feedback / update before we look at paid packages which are likely to be mostly commercial (allowing trade boats to drop their locations onto everyone's maps, Canalside businesses to advertise, hireboat companies to give their hirers access for x period of time etc)

As i said, its _very_ Beta at the moment, so feel free to drop the team an email (contact info on the main landing page), any and all feedback welcome.

also, apologies if this breaks any subreddit posting rules - someone let me know what i need to change and i will.

Thanks,

Update: thanks to feedback in the comments, I've corrected the solid fuel, gas and maintenance figures!

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I have spent the last few days building a free calculator for narrowboat running costs. It covers the licence, mooring, insurance, heating, maintenance and everything else.

I am not a boater myself, so I want to be completely upfront about that. I have tried to be as accurate as possible. The CRT licence fees are pulled directly from their official pricing calculator rather than old blog posts, which I noticed are mostly years out of date. However, things like mooring costs, heating usage and maintenance are honest ranges based on research rather than lived experience.

That is exactly why I am posting here rather than just putting it out quietly. If any of the assumptions are off, especially mooring, which I know varies hugely by region, or heating and fuel usage, I would genuinely appreciate you telling me. I will fix it fast.

It also generates a free PDF summary of your numbers if that is useful to keep.

Link: narrowboatcosts.co.uk

No sign up needed to use the calculator itself. Hope this is okay to post here. I am happy to take it down if not, and please be as brutal as you like on the numbers, because that is how it gets better.

For various reasons, I cannot permanently relocate to the UK; nonetheless, I'd like to explore the country at length. I am retired in the US. I can spend about $5250 a month, though I have ample savings squirreled away that I may use. I don't need to work for an income.

In October last year, I visited the UK for the first time. Being fascinated with the canal system, I stayed with a friendly liveaboard I met here for a couple of nights. I also volunteered for a day on a workboat cleaning up a section of canal.

I now idly daydream of buying a boat. I then spend a relatively short time, as in about six months, as dictated by visa requirements, faffing about and continuously cruising the canals. When I'm ready to leave, or must leave because of the terms of my visa, I would sell the boat via a brokerage.

Alternate versions of this involve purchasing and living aboard as above, but mooring the boat for whatever period would be required for me to exit and return to enjoy it.

I want to know if this is an entirely daft idea, this buying a boat for six months to sell it and/or buying a boat to moor it while I am away. Would I get a similar sale price as what I paid to begin with? Do those who pay for a permanent mooring? Would I be able to see and do interesting things (museums, historical sites, hiking) while based on the canals?

I've just been made redundant and I was thinking about getting a narrowboat and cruising while using an ebike to earn money doing food deliveries in busier areas. Still working out how feasible this actually is but I'm curious how others doing it make their money.

Hi r/CanalBoatWorkshopUK!

To help kick things off in our new community, I wanted to open up the floor and offer my help to anyone working on, upgrading, or troubleshooting their boat.

I’m Sebastian Meier, a mobile marine engineer and the owner of Marine Heating Solutions. I spend my days travelling the UK inland waterways helping narrowboat, widebeam, and cruiser owners keep their vessels warm, dry, and safe.

Because life on the water has very unique demands, my qualifications are tailored specifically to boats:

- Gas Safe Registered: Marine LPG boilers, cookers, and water heaters (Alde, Propex, Thetford, etc.).

- OFTEC Certified: Covering all oil and diesel appliances (Webasto, Autoterm, Refleks...) as well as solid fuel stoves and backboiler systems.

- BSS Examiner: I inspect boats for the Boat Safety Scheme, meaning I know exactly what passes, what fails, and where people accidentally cut corners on CRT regulations.

What can you ask me? Anything! For example:

"My diesel heater is throwing an error code/blowing smoke, how do I troubleshoot it?"

"I want to install a solid fuel stove (like a Morso Squirrel or Hobbit) myself. What are the clearance and flue rules?"

"How do I properly balance a radiator system on a 60ft narrowboat?"

This is a bit of a weird one but, I’ve had a boat dry docked in England for over a year now and I was booked in to get it transported up to Scotland this morning, but when they got there they couldn’t take it as they measured it at 64.5ft instead of 62ft, which is what the measurement is in the survey. They apparently need a pilot car for a 64ft boat and that needs booked in a couple days in advance so they had to just leave the boat where it was. So, I paid to get the boat craned onto the lorry, which didn’t happen, so now I need to pay to get it put back where it was. So I’ve essentially paid a lot of money for the boat to go on a little walk around the boatyard. I’m out of pocket and set back quite a bit because they didn’t measure it properly in the survey, my question is, is there anything I can do about this? It’s a long shot but I thought I’d ask.

What in the world am I going to do?

In Scotland, you need a home mooring, CC isnt permitted. So, you put your name on a list, but, you are only able to put your name down 2x per canal. (Deep breath)

I was on a list for a year when my name came up, BUT, you only get 7 days to decide. At that point I didnt have a boat, so had to let the mooring go. The second list, I've been on for close to 2 years, again should I get that email, I will have to give up that mooring, again...no boat.

Am I meant to buy a boat and just dry dock it for potentially a year, 2 years?

Can I buy a temporary license then buy a winter license and have access to the canals?

I genuinely feel hopelessly stuck with this, my marriage has ended and I need to move into my OWN SPACE, but how in the hell do I do it up here? How can I move onto the water quickly and without falling out with Scottish canals?

Give me some hope reddit, I need it badly. Based in Glasgow.

My boats been dry docked for about a year where an engine was installed. I thought they put coolant in it, but looking at the coolant tank there’s nothing in it. The boat is going to be launched in a couple of days, what coolant do I use? And how do I fill it up? Do you need to know the make of the engine, or is it one size fits all kind of thing? Cheers.

As the title. PLEASE share your wisdom with me!

Just wondering if anyone else has had their solar controller drop the ampage that it is putting in during this extreme heat.

Where I am it's been around 33c for the last few days, my panels are going to between 60c and 70c during the day. My voltage is correct on the solar controller (35.2v) and it's not my BMS on my lifepo4 because if I start the engine my B2B smashes the amps in but I'm only putting in 5a off the solar at any given time.

This has only started since the heat came, up until then I was getting upto 40a off the solar during the day. I'm guessing it's my mttp getting to hot but again I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this?

For science, hypothetically, for a friend, who by the way isn’t scared

Me and my boyfriend (both 21) have just finished university and bought a boat. We got said boat in November so we have experienced the winter and it actually did not bother me one bit however nobody mentioned to me how hot it gets in summer. Its awful! it's like being in a tent!! we still wouldn't change it for the world though!

Hi, apologies if this has already been covered but couldnt find anything - looking for some reassurance before I ring our hire company and sound like a complete idiot!

We are having our first canal holiday next month and I am currently planning the route along the Grand Union. We want to moor outside pubs so that we can enjoy the evening and not do too much cooking on the boat so evening meal is sorted.

I am confused about the "parking" - is it literally as easy as if there is a spot I can moor there? (I know there are time limits on some that I have seen, we would be less than 24 hours in any spot). I have the interactive map from canal and river trust that I've been referring to the locations tagged as "visitor moorings" - I assume that is where we can stop?!

I am ok with planning the distance etc, I seem to have that down using canalplan.uk

Is there such a thing as a mooring being full? or can you stop before/after the last boat as long as its not too narrow there?

I know this will sound stupid but this is the bt I am struggling with, what should we do in that case, if we cannot stop where we planned?

Thanks!

Hello! I'm looking for a private charter on the River Stort for July 25th. We have a wedding party of ~25 people and need transport from central Bishop's Stortford down to Spellbrook Lock, setting off in the early afternoon. Looking for a commercially licensed widebeam or pair of boats already local to the Stort network who can accommodate a skippered afternoon event.