Everything we know about life on the cut, in the order you meet it. Guides and short answers together, in four sections. Free to read, no sign-up.
These guides are for people who want the whole subject laid out: how a narrowboat differs from other canal craft, what the locks and moorings ask of you, and what it is like to live and cruise on the network. Each is written to be read start to finish, with sources named where a rule or a figure comes from.
A sensible route begins with what a narrowboat is, since the dimensions of the boat explain a great deal about the canals built around it. From there, the guides move on to buying, with a full walk through viewing, surveys and licensing in buying a narrowboat, and then to the costs of keeping one. Others deal with steering, locks, maps and the individual waterways.
The lighter side has its own pages too: how boats get their names, the craft of signwriting and the painted folk art on the cabin side. For short, direct answers, the questions section is quicker. If you are shopping for a boater, the canal boat gifts page is the place to start.
Thinking about it
The stage that costs nothing. Whether the life is possible, legal and yours to have.
- What is a narrowboat?. Start here. The boat itself, before any of the lifestyle attached to it.
- What is a canal boat called?. Narrowboat, barge, longboat. Which word to use, and which one boaters wince at.
- Life on a narrowboat. What the life is like once the novelty has worn off.
- Can you legally live on one?. Yes, with conditions. The conditions are moorings, and they are the whole answer.
- How deep is a canal?. How much water's under you, and where it runs out.
- Living aboard in retirement. Doing it later in life, trade-offs and all.
- What to take on a hire boat. What to pack for a week you don't own the boat for.
Buying her
Money, in the order it arrives: survey, licence, mooring, then everything after.
- Buying a narrowboat. The purchase itself, survey included, from viewing through to handing the money over.
- Wide beam narrowboats. Wider than 7ft: where it can go, what the licence adds and which tunnels you book.
- What they cost to buy. What they go for. Sourced, not guessed.
- How long they last. How long a steel hull lasts, and what shortens it.
- The cost of living aboard. The whole monthly picture, not only the mooring.
- What one costs to run. Running costs, year by year.
- What a licence costs. What the licence costs.
- Do you need a licence?. Whether you need one, and for which water.
Living aboard
Steering, locks, distance, plumbing. The half of it that never makes the photos.
- How to steer one. Handling her. It starts at the tiller and it is less obvious than it looks.
- How canal locks work. What's happening in the chamber, step by step.
- How many miles in a day. Planning a day at walking pace.
- The Grand Union Canal. The London to Birmingham main line: length, locks, tunnels and branches, from the Trust's own pages.
- English canal maps. Which map for which job: the Trust's, the IWA's, a printout or a free app.
- Waterway signs. The signs on the bank, and what they ask of you.
- The toilet question. The question everyone wonders about and few like to ask.
- Narrowboat interiors. Making a very narrow space livable.
- Cruising without a licence. What happens if you cruise without one.
Making her yours
Her name, her paint, her portrait, and the tradition all three come out of.
- How boats get named. Where boat names come from, and who gets to choose.
- The name generator. Free tool. Press it until something fits.
- The names people pick most. The names that keep coming up.
- The big list of names. A long list to read through when nothing on the shortlist has stuck.
- Funny narrowboat names. The puns, collected. They're worse than you think.
- Roses and castles. The folk art itself, and where it came from.
- What roses and castles means. What the motifs mean, in a paragraph.
- Signwriting on the cabin side. Lettering on the cabin side, done properly.
- What signwriting is. The craft, short.
- What signwriting costs. What a signwriter charges.
- How a boat is painted. Bare steel through to finished livery.
- Canal boat art. The wider tradition, well beyond the cabin side and older than most of the boats.
- Best gifts for owners. Ideas for someone who has the boat already.
- Christmas gifts. Christmas, afloat.
- Holiday keepsakes. Something to keep from a week afloat.