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 (the narrowboat gifts page is written for those), and it suits the boats that are not narrowboats too, which is what this page is about.
Personalised boat gifts: 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 layout is a canal one: bottle green, oxblood, cream, the name large with the water, year and mooring 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.
Personalising and choosing formats.
Three practical steps cover writing the name and route, choosing a photograph instead, and picking the right format for the wall.
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. We print it exactly as you write 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 right 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, not 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 portrait in a painted style, made by AI from your photo: 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; A4 posts flat, larger sizes rolled in a tube.
- Framed. A3 or A2 in solid wood, black or natural, with shatter-resistant plexiglass. It arrives framed, with a sawtooth hanger on the back.
- Canvas, 30x40 up to 60x80 cm (the sides carry a soft, blurred band taken from your picture's colours), and framed canvas if you want a border.
- Smaller things, an 11oz mug and a 500ml steel bottle.
- Metal and plywood, for a photograph instead of lettering: 3mm metal or 10mm lined plywood, frameless, for a cabin where glass is a liability.
Gifts for boat lovers: 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
- Canal boat and narrowboat gifts, the same range written for canal boaters and hire-boat regulars.
- Boat gifts for him, and for her, if you would rather browse by who it is for.
- What to buy a boat owner, including the things we do not sell and where to get them.
Choosing between a print, a photo, a mug and a canvas.
Start with what you have. If you know the boat's name but have no good photograph, the name print is the answer: it needs the name, the water and a date, nothing more. If you hold a clear shot of her on the river or in the basin, a photo print shows the boat as she is, and the pixel count is checked against every size before you pay.
Then think about the wall. A4 or A3 suits a small space on any boat, from a hire cruiser's saloon to a Dutch barge's wheelhouse, while the larger sizes go up to 70x100 cm for a bigger bulkhead. A canvas, from 30x40 up to 60x80 cm, has no glass to break and is lighter than a framed print, which helps on a boat that moves about.
Finally, the occasion. A mug is the small gesture: 11oz white ceramic, dishwasher and microwave safe, with the boat's name wrapped around it. It suits a hire-boat crew, a birthday on a wide-beam, or a gift where you know the name but not the wall.
Sea-sailing gifts are not what we make. Everything here is for inland waterways, printed to order.
Wide-beam, river cruiser or Dutch barge, a boat gift at Christmas is made to order, so order early. Our Christmas gift ideas for boaters compare the formats and explain the timings before you commit.