Essentials for Boating
- Boat Licence – From narrowboats to barges, canoes to large river cruisers, you need to licence your boat if you want to keep and use it on our canals and rivers.
- Boat Safety Scheme– The Boat Safety Scheme, or BSS, is a public safety initiative. Our purpose is to help minimise the risk of boat fires, explosions, or pollution harming visitors to the inland waterways, the waterways’ workforce and any other waterways users.
Planning your journey
- Canal Plan – an interactive guide to the inland waterways of Europe, it helps you plan your journey or holiday, calculates the length (distance, number of locks, time taken etc) of your trip.
- Canal & River Trust Notices & Stoppages – an interactive guide to check if there are any closures or works affecting your route
Charities
- Canal and River Trust – As the UK’s largest canal charity, their role in protecting and revitalising our nation’s canals never stops.
- Waterways Association – Known as the voice of the waterways the association is a registered charity it advocates the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of all inland waterways for the benefit of the public.
Media
- Waterways World – The biggest-selling and longest-established inland waterways magazine.
- Towpath Talk – Towpath talk is the number one free waterways newspaper packed with news, competitions, letters, stoppages & restrictions, and boats for sale.
Shopping
- Midland Chandlers – Inshore boat chandlers for all your boating needs.
- Kinver Canopies – Narrow boat, Wide Beam, cruiser catch/canopy covers.
Helpful information
- Renting a Boat – If you are thinking of renting your boat out then here is a useful link of what you need to do.