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Feeling Flush? Don’t invest in a Toilet until You’ve Read This!
Feeling Flush? Don’t invest in a Toilet until You’ve Read This!

If you get a bunch of boaters sat around in a pub it’s never long before they begin to discuss toilets: Pump out or Elsan, which is better? How long does your tank last? How can you get the best from your cassette and make it last longer?! Is it...

#Canal Boaters Top 10 Tips for #Boat Bathrooms
#Canal Boaters Top 10 Tips for #Boat Bathrooms

It’s time to come clean about narrowboat bathrooms, so what do you want to know?! I asked the canal boaters of Facebook, what they wished they had known before buying their first boat and what tips and advice they had to offer. Before I had chil...

Four Sure-Fire Ways to Power Your Galley
Four Sure-Fire Ways to Power Your Galley

Canal boat kitchens can range from basic to luxurious, and can include a Rayburn, dishwasher and washing machine - with a decent water and electric supply! However, your available power will dictate to some extent what facilities you can have ...

Three Kitchens That Are Cooking on Gas
Three Kitchens That Are Cooking on Gas

A canal boat or narrowboat galley can vary from the very basic to almost as advanced and modern as a kitchen on dry land. Your power sources, gas and diesel may all have an effect on the facilities available. Likewise a kitchen fit out can range f...

Top 3 Ways to Get Romantic on the Canals
Top 3 Ways to Get Romantic on the Canals

A Birmingham canal bridge has been adopted as part of the “lovelocks” trend that has been appearing on bridges across Europe. The Birmingham Mail reported that couples are keen to commit their love publicly, by writing their names on a padlock...

5 Top Tips for Surviving When the #Canal Freezes
5 Top Tips for Surviving When the #Canal Freezes

Because the canals and waterways are generally very slow flowing they freeze easily at this time of year. For anyone living aboard this means that the water in the domestic water tank may freeze, and even the pipes at the local supply tap may free...

#NYE: Our Top 5 Tips for #Canal Boaters in #2014
#NYE: Our Top 5 Tips for #Canal Boaters in #2014

I love this time of year, when you can look forward optimistically to the year ahead and nostalgically review the year that you leave behind. Our blog this year has included canal news, boater’s stories and more of our useful ‘How To’ guides...

BoatBid.com  ‘Perhaps the future of boat sales’
BoatBid.com ‘Perhaps the future of boat sales’

Boatbid.com is an online auction site for used boats. Set a reserve, enter your boat into an auction and our clever algorithms will highlight potentially interested buyers from millions of boat viewings our systems collect and then match these bu...

How I Sold a #Narrowboat in Record Time
How I Sold a #Narrowboat in Record Time

This is the final instalment of the incredibly true story ofall the boats that I have loved before. From my first true love, (IHad a Gut Feeling: I Wanted This Narrowboat!) to my unlikely bargain (I Bought a Narrowboat for Just ONE PO...

 I Bought a #Narrowboat for Just ONE POUND!
I Bought a #Narrowboat for Just ONE POUND!

Last week I told the tale of how I met my first true love, a little red narrowboat called Emily Rose, and that much as I loved her, I eventually had to sell my boat.

I Had a Gut Feeling: I Wanted This #Narrowboat!
I Had a Gut Feeling: I Wanted This #Narrowboat!

I’ve bought and sold four narrowboats in my life – not as a broker, I mean I have personally owned four narrowboats; although not all at the same time! When you own a boat it’s like a chapter in your life; the time that you spend together, ...

The Canal Lingo Secrets of Liveaboard Boaters
The Canal Lingo Secrets of Liveaboard Boaters

There’s nothing worse than confusing your windlass with your winding hole. The next time you’re cheesing your ropes, breasting up, blacking your bottom, opening the paddles, or shafting off, spare a thought for those non-boaters who don’...

Free eBook: Selling a Boat: The Ultimate Guide
Free eBook: Selling a Boat: The Ultimate Guide

Discover how to sell a boat in record time, without the stress!

3 Secret Canals Every Grand Union Boater Should Know
3 Secret Canals Every Grand Union Boater Should Know

Boaters in West London and Uxbridge will be pleased to know that the Canal and River Trust are about to spend £700k on dredging the Slough Arm. 10,000 tonnes of silt, refuse, supermarket trollies, bicycles and plastic bags will become a thing of ...

How Award Winning Canal Boats Can Help You Change the World
How Award Winning Canal Boats Can Help You Change the World

The Princess Royal has been canal boating in Wiltshire this week reports The Wiltshire Times. She took a short narrowboat trip to meet the local people of Devizes who helped restore the Caen Hill flight 40 years ago. The Queen reopened the Kennet ...

5 Great Canal Journeys of the Grand Union
5 Great Canal Journeys of the Grand Union

If you’ve been following Timothy West and Prunella Scales travelling the canals in Great Canal Journeys recently then it may have inspired you to visit other waterways and discover new places. However, it made me think of a few great canals jour...

How to Learn About Locks Without Even Buying a Boat
How to Learn About Locks Without Even Buying a Boat

Buying a second hand canal boat can be a big investment, but there’s no reason why your current finances should prevent you from boating right now. At popular tourist destinations such as Camden lock there is never a shortage of spectators watch...

How to Sell a Boat: The Ultimate Guide
How to Sell a Boat: The Ultimate Guide

Over the years our blog has offered tips on buying and maintaining a canal boat, suggestions of canal places and events to visit, waterways news and historical anecdotes. But if you’re thinking of selling a boat it might be useful to access all ...

How to Buy a Boat - The Ultimate Guide
How to Buy a Boat - The Ultimate Guide

Searching online for the boat that suits both your needs and your budget doesn’t have to be time consuming. The lazy boater’s way to find the perfect boat is to use our Boatshed Flexi Search.

How to find your perfect boat even if you’re a complete newbie
How to find your perfect boat even if you’re a complete newbie

Once upon a time, many years ago, I saw a painted narrowboat moored up near Camden lock in London. I thought;