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Making life better by water
Campbell Robb on boating, safety, quarter of a millenia and a learning curve (amongst others) in latest edition!
The National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port, celebrating its golden anniversary, recently hosted the Easter Historic Boat Gathering. A history buff himself, our chief executive, Campbell Robb, attended the event and a colleague managed to drag him away from the show to answer a few questions about improving navigation, the challenges the canals are facing, and the central role of boaters in the future:
Next month, on Sunday 24 May at Crick Boat Show (more below), Peter Johns, Waterways World publisher and Crick Boat Show director, will be putting questions to Campbell, to find out how Campbell sees the near, and long-term, future of the waterways and boating.
We get it. Sun’s out = boats out. For many this weekend, dawn-to-dusk sunshine has been forecast, so what better time to brush up on water safety as the allure of the cut will see many taking their first cruise of the year. Many of you will be familiar with this advice so please treat it as a refresher – and for those new to boating, please take the time to familiarise yourself with this important safety guidance.
Belt and braces time – first, refresh your general water safety knowledge.
Then, as a boater, there are extra things to be aware of and to do:
If you live on, or own, your boat then you should practise your man overboard drill regularly. If you're new to boating, there are some simple principles to follow (and then practise!):
Ultimately, boating is an incredibly safe and fulfilling way to spend your time. The biggest challenge you're likely to face is wrenching yourself away from the lifestyle! That said, like any other activity, the unexpected can happen anytime and being prepared for it gives invaluable peace of mind.
I don’t know about you but, sometimes, it can be hard to imagine just how old some of the network is. To put the age of the Selby Canal into context, construction began in the same year James Watt built a successful prototype of a steam engine, Mozart wrote his five violin concertos, and as the American Revolution – in 1775.
The story of the canal begins with the original Aire & Calder Navigation, accessed via the River Ouse and the tidal River Aire to Chapel Haddlesey, where the first lock on the navigation was built.
Selby Canal
As trade increased there was an evident need to improve navigation: because the River Aire was narrow and shallow, a plan was developed to construct a five-and-a-half-mile-long canal from Selby to West Haddlesey, removing the need to navigate the tidal River Aire.
Construction began under the renowned engineer William Jessop, employed on a salary of £250 per year. The canal opened on 24 April 1778, having cost £20,000 to construct, around £2.8 million in today’s money (navvies were only paid the equivalent of just over £14 a day).
Although relatively short, it played a vital role in the development of Selby's economy, with cloth and agricultural produce among the first goods to be transported. But the success of the waterway was to provide its undoing - the volume of traffic at Selby caused delays, and the port was too high up the tidal Ouse. So, in 1826, a new, larger canal was constructed from Knottingley to a new port at Goole. This section of the Aire & Calder Navigation soon stole most of the Selby Canal's traffic.
Originally there was good passenger traffic from Selby: the steam packet service to Hull ran six days a week and by the 1830s carried 20,000 passengers each year. A railway between Leeds and Hull opened in 1840, but the packet boats continued to operate, with the service only ceasing in the 1870s.
So, why not head north this summer and celebrate a quarter of a millennia on the Selby Canal?
Length: 23.92m / 78ft 6"
Width: 5.03m / 16ft 6"
Draught: 1.52m / 5ft
Headroom: 2.9m / 9ft 6"
As a long time reader of Boaters’ Update you’ll know that every year I plug Britain’s biggest inland waterway festival, Crick Boat Show. As someone who’s been several times, I’m always amazed at its evolution and how much each new show has to offer.
You’ll always find the nation’s biggest one-stop boating marquee where you can buy everything from a mooring and a boating holiday right through to solar panels and stoves for your boat. And that’s just one, albeit huge, marquee.
Taking a relaxed bimble around the show village you’ll find more boating goods than you can shake a barge pole at: boaters’ clothing, fenders, off-grid electrical systems and boat beds through to boat insurance and binoculars for spotting wildlife. Every year I can be found spending a whole day perusing new exhibitors and learning new things.
Quite literally, the unmissable showpiece of the village and marina are the showboats. If you’re in the market for a new boat, a single visit to Crick can save countless days travelling the country in search of your new pride and joy.
Of course, the boats always incorporate new technology and designs which mean that even if you’ve been to Crick before, and already own a boat, a visit will offer fresh inspiration.
Much like the canal network, boats, and boating, have been evolving pretty much since day one. Understanding and incorporating these new technologies and designs can be daunting. That’s where the seminar programme, boating handling taster courses, one-day intensive beginner’s boat courses and Masterclass talks come in.
As with other aspects of the show, the seminar programme changes every year to reflect the emerging and most relevant topics. This year, for example, are two new topics that you’ve been regularly in touch about – converting your boat to electric and cost saving ideas for your boat.
Sponsored by Haven Knox-Johnston, the show returns to Crick Marina, near Daventry, over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, 23–25 May 2026. The show’s exclusive Trade & Preview Day on Friday 22 May offers the chance to have quieter and more in-depth discussions with boat builders and brokers.
In the next edition of Boaters’ Update we’ll look at what you can do after you’ve done all that learning – yes, it does include coming for a chinwag in our marquee, free boat trips, live music and the real ale & cider festival!
We've launched a public appeal for help tackling an invasive weed on the River Soar in Leicestershire which, if left unchecked, can choke native wildlife and spoil boater’s enjoyment when on a cruise.
We are attempting to raise funds to help our efforts to remove floating pennywort from the river as part of the Big Give ‘Earth Raise’ match-funding campaign, which takes place between 22 April and 29 April.
During the campaign week, public donations made to the project on Big Give’s website are doubled if it receives a minimum of £25,000. It means that we could get up to £50,000 to help our ongoing efforts to manage the problem weed on the River Soar. A very generous local donor has already pledged £12,500, and we're now asking individuals, businesses and community groups in the area to get involved and help protect their local river by supporting the project.
Floating pennywort, which was originally introduced into the United Kingdom in the 1980s as an ornamental plant for garden ponds, can grow up to 20cm in a day and is able to double its weight in as little as three days.
Without intervention the plant can spread in large, thick mats over the surface of the water smothering native plants and depriving the water of both light and oxygen which endangers the fish living beneath. It can also block overflow sluices, causing flooding, and restrict boating by clogging up propellers.
The most effective way to eradicate the weed is to physically pull it out, and we, alongside support from its local volunteers, will use the funding to help towards the costs of removing the weed by boat
Removing Floating Pennywort
Hannah Booth, environment manager for Canal & River Trust, said: “Floating pennywort is a big problem on the River Soar, and if we didn’t tackle it then it would choke the water, causing problems for boats navigating the river and harming our local wildlife.
“Tackling the weed is a sizeable and ongoing task and, ahead of Earth Raise week, we’re appealing to people living and working in Leicestershire to help in our charity’s vital work.
“At a time when native wildlife is facing so many threats, this campaign gives people in Leicestershire the opportunity to take local action and every donation, no matter the size, can make a difference. We’re so grateful for the generous pledge we’ve already received, and for any further donations made during Earth Raise week as we work to keep local waterways alive now, and for future generations.”
People wanting to support the campaign can make a donation by going to Protect wildlife from pennywort in East Midlands – Big Give.
As someone who’s out on, or by, the water more often than most, you’ll know that there are times when we need to fix things that unexpectedly break.
When this does happen, or we have to unexpectedly repair something, we get notices up on to our website as soon as we can – it’s always best to have a scan while you’re planning your cruise and also just before you set off. You can find out how to get stoppage notification alerts on your smartphone in this article.
Follow this link to see where navigations are shut this weekend.
If you have any questions about a specific closure, or spot an error in our system, please get in touch.
Each winter, when fewer boats are cruising our waterways, we carry out essential repairs and maintenance. In many cases we need to close the waterway completely, and sometimes even the towpath.
Before we finalise our winter works programme, we like to consult with the people who use our waterways to make sure these stoppages cause as little disruption as possible.
Your input and feedback as a boater is vitally important to us, not only making sure that disruption is minimised but also ensuring we’re fixing the things that will make your boating experience better.
With this in mind, I wanted to highlight that the first phase of consultation starts on 5 May - before the next edition of Boaters’ Update is published. It will be found in the ‘notices & stoppages’ section of our website and feedback is accepted until 29 May.
Don’t worry, I’ll flag this in the next edition and keep you posted about the following rounds of consultation.
As you may know, we have a welfare team here at the Trust who offer support to boaters in need. Our team consists of one senior welfare officer, three welfare officers and two welfare administrators.
If you need our help or advice, our administrators are the first point of contact and will assign your query to the correct team/officer.
Our officers are trained to give advice in relation to all manner of welfare queries including: financial advice, cruising advice, signposting to support services and working with local projects to make boating easier – and much more.
Over the last few months, the team have been updating their dedicated webpages to offer the most up-to-date and helpful information as possible. Visit the pages to find out more.
Every year we carry out an online satisfaction survey that asks hire boaters about their recent experience on the waterways.
As someone who is likely to meet many hire boaters over the next few months, we’d really appreciate your help in getting as much feedback as possible, from anyone who has been on a hire boat (both holidays and day trips). We have asked all hire companies to share the survey link by email with their customers, as well as promoting it on social media, through our volunteers and business boating team.
We’ll collect the results for analysis after autumn half term. However, the online survey will remain open for people to complete at any time.
Revenue from the hire boat industry contributes to the work we do for all boaters. It also creates jobs and interest in the network. That’s why we want to know about their experience: what works well, what doesn’t, and what we could do to make the experience better.
The information we collect helps us take into account all boaters when we plan and prioritise our work. What’s more, it has never been more important to show our key partners just how much a thriving canal network contributes to the local economy and community.
If you’ve hired a boat this year, please fill in the survey and let us know how it went!
If you’re not a hire boater, you could encourage those you meet to give their feedback by sharing the URL below or by getting them to scan the QR code below. Or, even easier, just direct them to our social media pages and they’ll find it there. Thank you for helping to spread the word!
Last Edited: 23 April 2026
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