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Hello and welcome to the festive edition of the Cruising the Cut newsletter.
Festive means I am sitting here wearing a jolly red hat as I write, with my Christmas tree just brought down from the attic and ready to be put up and covered in twinkly lights and tinsel.
It occurs to me that someone could make a fortune selling 'half' trees which would sit up against a wall in small living rooms (ie not half height but half width - as if chopped vertically down the middle) because much as I love my festive tree, it takes up an awful lot of space.
Anyway, if you celebrate it: merry Christmas for 2025!
Cheers
David |
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*** News from the canal world. Send press releases (about canal topics!) to newsletter@cruisingthecut.co.uk *** |
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Licence to Kill
The Commission set up to consider how best to modify the legalities behind boat licencing on the inland waterways has completed its report and published it for all to see.
The review has taken ten months and resulted in an 82 page document containing 36 recommendations, some of which will certainly be contentious amongst boaters, to say the least.
Before anyone starts panicking however, it is crucial to note that this report is not a statement of what's going to happen - it is a set of suggestions which the Canal & River Trust will now consider.
Not every recommendation might be pursued and not necessarily in the form suggested. Plus, any changes would also require legal enactments from Parliament to give the CRT the appropriate authority - and we all know how long-winded a process that can be.
There are too many items to list here individually but some of the initial points raised are that:-
- The current system "is operating sub-optimally"
- The current requirements "are complex to understand and difficult and expensive to enforce"
- The Trust should "define a new, clearer movement requirement to replace the concept of bona fide navigation"
But it also includes recommendations that will definitely cause a raised eyebrow or two, that:-
- The statutory notice periods before the Trust can remove non-residential sunk, sinking or abandoned boats from its waterways should be removed
- The Trust should consult on the case for granting it the power to use reasonable force as a last resort when removing a boat
- The Trust should have the civil power to levy fines on licence holders in response to breaches of its licence terms
- The Trust should have the right to fit a tracking device to any vessel where there is clear evidence of a failure to comply with movement requirements
Download the full report at https://tinyurl.com/crt-commission-report
The Canal & River Trust has welcomed the report and endorsed the analysis and conclusions, with further details of its response to be published in the new year.
See https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/endorsing-the-boat-licence-commissions-report
Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum
The Canal & River Trust has announced an increase in boat licence fees of 4.85% from 1 April 2026.
To counter this, they say the Trust will widen the scope of the Better Boating Plan to have "an increased focus on addressing lock gate leaks, removing sunken boats, accelerating offside vegetation removal and filling gaps in facility provision"
Meanwhile, due to a cock-up in processing data from the National Boat Count last March, the Trust carried out a second count in September. This highlighted that licence evasion has risen to 14.1%.
You can calculate what your new fee will be at https://licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/LicencePrices
You Lift Me Up. Or Not.
After months of the Anderton Boat Lift being broken, trapping boaters on the River Weaver below (see the excellent recent videos by Heidi, the Narrowboat Pirate at https://www.youtube.com/@TheNarrowboatPirate), the CRT has announced it's going to prioritise fixing it ... in time for 2027.
They say there's a fault with the structure’s caisson gates but they also want to install new gate lifting equipment to replace the original wire rope system.
They say this will be "robust, future proof, safe to operate and safer to maintain".
A bigger project to repaint the lift and invest in the Visitor's Centre has been paused due to the cost.
See https://tinyurl.com/crt-andertonboatlift2027
Electrifying!
The third annual Electrika boat show has been confirmed as taking place on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th July 2026, once again at Brinklow Marina near Rugby.
Organisers say the event is "the only UK boat show dedicated to Electric Narrowboats" and are promising "A full program of talks plus ten show boats, live demonstrations and a large community of experienced electric narrowboat owners to answer questions."
Rather delightfully, tickets are free (!) but must be pre-booked at https://electrika.uk
Top Notch
And finally, the industry organisation British Marine has announced the winners of its first awards for the Inland Boating Sector.
Congratulations to boat brokerage ABNB for taking the "Business of the Year" award; Grand Union Narrowboats being praised for outstanding customer service; and Cafwin Cruises Narrowboat Holidays taking the Sustainability award.
All will now be entered into an overall National Awards encompassing wider boater sectors, with the winners to be announced at next year's Southampton Boat Show.
See https://britishmarine.co.uk |
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My recent videos
With YouTube being a bit rubbish at telling subscribers about new videos, here's my recap of recent uploads to the channel.
These include two parts of my trip aboard Gentian, specifically as I brought it from Springwood Haven marina down to Brinklow marina (during the second day of which there was absolutely torrential rain despite it being mid-July).
And there was a "final" (for this year) update on Twiggy's never-ending transom refurbishment.
Click the links below to watch.
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Book your perfect canal boat holiday! |
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What am I up to?
With the winter canal maintenance well underway and much colder temperatures upon us, liveaboard boaters will be cosying up to their woodburners by now, while weekend and holiday boaters will (hopefully) have winterised their craft so that burst pipes don't cause a problem upon defrosting.
I'm in an odd middle ground where I don't live aboard but still want to visit the boat over winter so I don't want to drain the whole water system down. Yet I also don't want it freezing!
I take some comfort from the fact that when buying the boat, there were a couple of very cold snaps up in Lincoln and the boat survived perfectly well before it was in my ownership but, just in case, I have purchased an inexpensive thermostatic mains supply switch, which I will plug into one of the sockets onboard, and set to come on at about 3 degrees Celsius.
This will be plugged into my small, 500W oil-filled radiator, so hopefully this will come on if we get really cold snaps, and be sufficient to ensure the inside of the boat remains above freezing.
Obviously I will need to keep the boat plugged in to the marina shore power, so I am pleased I bought the chunky isolation transformer which sits between the shore and the boat, ensuring no electrolytic corrosion of the hull.
Other than that, I have been busy fixing a handful of small issues which needed addressing for the boat's four-yearly Safety Certificate, which is due to be examined on December 4th (and the old one expires on Feb 1st next year, thus giving me time to sort out any problems)
I've also realised that I could turn the saloon area of the narrowboat into a superb (albeit tiny) home cinema so that's definitely going to make a video project for the spring! |
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Into the dusty archive...
I think, given the chill in the air, there can only be one choice for the trip into my video archive this month, and that's the very early one where I assembled the lumps of coal with military precision in the stove aboard Wreyland, which prompted much hilarity in the comments.
Watch and enjoy at https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/2016/02/14/vlog-22-grate-expectations/ |
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My YouTube top pick of the month
Long-time viewers of my channel will be aware that I have become partial to a cruise-ship holiday as well as cruising around the canals. However, there are very few cruise holiday channels I watch on YouTube because I just find many of them to be not very well produced.
That said, I did hit "subscribe" this past week to a channel called Cruise Blog, hosted in voiceover mostly by an American lady called Allie though there also seem to be other contributors occasionally.
Whilst the content is certainly US-focused, for obvious reasons, I do find some of it interesting and it doesn't waste your time while watching but just gets on with whatever the video title promised.
Have a watch at https://www.youtube.com/@CruiseBlogGuide |
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Final Thoughts
I had a rather splendid email this month from a reader called John Higgins who wrote: "I am currently out in the deserts of northwestern Australia conducting a minerals exploration drilling campaign where it’s over 40 degrees in the shade. Whilst waiting for my drilling rig to finish the hole I am reading your latest newsletter and thinking longingly of the green fields and canals"
And here he is doing exactly that:-
Thank you John! This got me wondering who the furthest-flung reader of this newsletter is and where that might be?
So if you can "out do" John's location, please do drop me a reply to this newsletter and let's see who's where in the world!
Cheerio for now!
David |
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