Life on the cut — guides, and prints made for one boat
Narrowboat Gifts Canal guides · Personalised boat prints

For Boat Owners

Gifts for boaters that aren't tat.

Gifts for boaters, whatever they crew: canal boats, narrowboats, wide-beam barges, river cruisers. One thing done well: a typographic print of the boat's name, the waterway it lives on, and a date that mattered. Editorial paper, made and posted from the UK in two to four working days.

A plain brown-paper parcel and a kraft postal tube on the painted roof of a moored boat.

Search for boat gifts and you get sea-sailing novelties: anchor keyrings, compass coasters, a tea towel with "Captain" on it. None of it knows the boat. We make one thing instead, personalised to the vessel itself: her name set in type, the water she works, and a date that mattered to the people aboard. It suits a narrowboat, and it suits the boats that are not narrowboats too, which is what this page is about.

Gifts for boaters: not every boat is a narrowboat.

A wide-beam is a canal boat that will not fit a narrow lock. A river cruiser lives on the Thames or the Great Ouse and never sees a windlass. A Dutch barge is a converted working ship. A hire boat is somebody else's for a week, and the week is the thing worth keeping. All four have a name on the bow and a stretch of water they are associated with, which is everything the print needs.

The typography comes from canal signwriting: bottle green, oxblood, cream, the name large in a serif with the water in small capitals underneath. That tradition is specific to the British inland waterways, so we will say plainly that it is a canal design applied to your boat rather than pretend it is a yacht aesthetic. On a river cruiser or a barge it reads as a piece of inland-waterway lettering, because that is what it is.

Getting the two lines right.

  • The name. As it is painted, including the definite article if she carries one. If the surname of the boat is a private joke, type the joke: nobody here will correct it.
  • The water. The route field takes sixty characters and does not have to be a canal. "The Thames, Lechlade to Teddington" fits. So does "Boston to Denver Sluice", "the Broads, every August", and "the cut, anywhere". If the boat is kept in a marina and rarely moves, the marina is the honest answer.
  • The date. The survey, the handover, the first night aboard, or the week of the hire. One line, and it is the line people read twice.

Her photograph, rather than her name.

If you would rather have the boat herself on the wall, two other routes exist. We print your own photograph as it is, checked against every size before you pay so a small file cannot be sold for a big print. Or a painted version: upload one clear shot and pick a style, and you approve the picture before anything is made.

What it comes as.

  • Paper, A4 through to 70x100 cm, on 250gsm uncoated off-white archival, rolled in a kraft tube. From £14.99.
  • Framed, A3 or A2 in solid wood, black or natural, with shatter-resistant plexiglass and the wire already fitted. From £69.00.
  • Canvas, gallery-wrapped over the edges, 30x40 up to 60x80 cm, and framed canvas if you want a border. From £51.49.
  • Smaller things, an 11oz mug and a 500ml steel bottle. From £16.99.
  • Metal and plywood, for a photograph rather than lettering: 3mm metal or 10mm lined plywood, frameless, for a cabin where glass is a liability.

When people buy one.

Three occasions account for most orders on this page. A boat changing hands, where the date is the handover and the gift is from the family who watched the search. A hire week that turned into a plan, where the print is the receipt for a decision. And a boat being sold after years, where the name and the water are the whole point and there is no boat left to hang it on.

Related

More gift ideas

Questions before you go

I don't know the name of their boat.

Most boat owners are happy to mention the name unprompted: it's rarely a secret. If the surprise matters: check their Instagram or Facebook (boat photos almost always show the name), the boat licence disc in the cabin window, or the hire company's booking confirmation. Order with what you think it is and email us within 24 hours with a correction; we'll wait before printing.

Does it only work for narrowboats?

No: the customiser takes any boat name and any waterway. We print for narrowboats, wide-beam canal boats, barges, and river cruisers. The typography and design are rooted in canal boat tradition, but the result works for any vessel with a proper name and a waterway it calls home.

Will it arrive in time?

Standard delivery is 4–9 working days from order. December is busy: if it's a Christmas present and you're cutting it fine, email us first and we'll tell you honestly whether it's possible.

What goes in the route field?

Any waterway you like: the Grand Union, the Llangollen, the Thames, "the cut, anywhere". Up to 60 characters. We've had "every lock she ever steered", "Manchester to the sea and back", and "wherever the wind takes us". Type the moment, not just the map reference. Not sure of the canal name? Browse the full network on the Canal & River Trust website.

Do you make anything besides the print?

Yes. The same design goes on paper (A4 up to 70x100 cm, rolled in a kraft tube), framed at A3 or A2, on canvas at four sizes, on an 11oz mug and a 500ml steel bottle. A photograph of the boat can also be printed on 3mm metal or on 10mm plywood. All made to order in the UK.

Is this a better boat gift than a generic one?

Most boat gifts are the same everywhere: an anchor keyring, a nautical mug with a generic compass, a tea towel with the word "Captain" on it. A personalised gift using the actual boat name is the one boat gift idea that no one else will have thought of, because no one else's boat has the same name. Made in the UK, made and posted in two to four working days.