Videos – Page 5 – Cruising The Cut

Vlog 379A: And Mondays

Posted on September 20, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

We return to the journey of narrowboat Gentian in this episode, documenting the trip from Mercia Marina down to the village of Alrewas – and it rained, a lot, on the way.

Vlog 378: Wood it fit?

Posted on September 9, 2025September 9, 2025 by David Johns

In this episode I make a template for the new wood core of my boat’s transom and then cut it out of two sheets of marine plywood (and also explain why in the end I went with marine ply). The question is, having made a template that fits beautifully, will that mean the wood version will fit? Well, this is DIY…

Vlog 377: Mind the Gap

Posted on August 30, 2025August 30, 2025 by David Johns

Having not been able to do any restoration work on my cabin cruiser Twiggy for a while, I finally got back to the boatyard to do final preparation before fitting the new transom core. This involved a bit more fibreglass work as well as mixing up thickened resin to seal the join between the top and bottom halves of the hull, which were coming apart.

Vlog 376b: Mercia Me!

Posted on August 20, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

At the end of the last video, I came to the end of the River Trent at Derwent mouth where it joins the start of the Trent & Mersey canal. In this video, I take the boat onto the canal and up to Mercia marina, where I’d be leaving the boat for a week until I could move it again.

Vlog 376A: The Endless River

Posted on August 10, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

Having left my narrowboat at Beeston marina for four weeks, I now returned for a weekend to move it onto the canals and stash it at Mercia Marina temporarily (until the next move!) This is part 1 of that move.

Vlog 375B: Nottingham Forests

Posted on July 30, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

Day 2 of my weekend spent moving narrowboat Gentian from Newark-on-Trent to Beeston Marina. In this episode, I take the boat from Stoke Lock on the River Trent, onto the Nottingham & Beeston canal.

10 Years on YouTube

Posted on July 25, 2025July 28, 2025 by David Johns

A quick note to mark my ten year anniversary of this channel on YouTube and to say thank you to anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed my videos. Cheers!

Vlog 375a: Rush Hour

Posted on July 20, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

Part 2 of my trip to bring the narrowboat Gentian down from Lincoln to the East Midlands, here I move it from Newark-upon-Trent to Stoke Lock which is not a million miles away from Nottingham. It was a bank holiday weekend (first weekend in May) and there was a lot of traffic on the river, all of which overtook me with ease!

Vlog 374: Tide Up

Posted on July 9, 2025October 19, 2025 by David Johns

Back in April, I began the slow process of moving my recently-purchased narrowboat from Burton Waters marina near Lincoln, down to the East Midlands. This video is Step 1 of that journey.

Vlog 373: Bon Voyage

Posted on June 30, 2025 by David Johns

In this final part of our Canal du Midi press trip, organised for us by Le Boat, we move from Roubia up to Trebes where we handed the boat back and went for a day trip to Carcassonne, to look around the historic medieval city.

Canal Life