Who writes this, and how.

There are twenty-three guides and twelve short answers on this site, covering licences, mooring, what living aboard actually costs, how a lock works, and how boats get their names. They are free to read and there is no sign-up.

They are written by Craig Fearn, who runs this studio, not by a content farm. That is the whole reason the practical detail is there: what blacking costs, what a survey is really telling you, how far you get in a day.

Where a number matters, it is traced to a primary source — the Canal & River Trust, or the legislation itself — and named as such. Where we could not source something, we say so plainly rather than inventing a figure that sounds about right. There are no invented statistics on this site. That is a practice rather than a promise, and it is the part a competitor cannot copy.

The other half is what we make. Every boat on the cut is somebody's pride and joy, and her name deserves better than a fridge magnet. We set it properly: bottle green and oxblood on cream, the canal and the year beneath. Or upload a photo and we will paint the boat herself in watercolour, ink, oil or as a 1930s travel poster — you see a free, watermarked preview before you spend anything. Or we will print your photograph exactly as it is, checked honestly against every size we sell.

Everything is made to order in the UK — prints, frames, canvas, mugs — and posted with free UK delivery. Nothing sits in a warehouse; nothing is printed until someone's boat is going on a wall.

The two halves are related: the objects pay for the guides, which is why the guides can stay free and why they are not written to sell you anything. If you only ever read, that is the site working as intended. Start at the first lock.