Buy your boat licence

From canoes to large river cruisers, narrowboat or barge , you need to licence your boat if you want to keep and use it on our waterways.

What you need to get a boat licence

Before you buy a boat licence you will need:

Boat insurance
A Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) certificate (not required for canoes, kayaks, rowing boats, Stand Up Paddleboards (SUP). If you have a brand-new boat you may have a Recreational Craft Directive (RCD) certificate instead.

What we mean by ‘boat’:

All types and size of boat with or without a motor, ie, a river boat, canal boat or houseboat
Any small ‘open boat’ such as canoe, paddleboard, rowing boat or dinghy

What type of licence?

Where do you want to keep and use your boat?

Not all rivers and canals are managed by the same authority, known as the Navigation Authority. Different navigation authorities have different licences and fees. You need to contact each one separately, depending on where you want to use your boat:

The Canal & River Trust looks after 96 canals and navigable rivers in England and Wales
The Environment Agency (EA) looks after the River Thames, the River Medway, and rivers in East Anglia
The Broads Authority looks after the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads
For Scottish waterways visit the Scottish canals website
See the Inland Waterways Association’s waterway pages for any other navigation authorities

We have two types of licence: business or private

If you use your boat for any kind of business such as a floating café or shop, renting it out for people to live on or holiday boats, you'll need a business licence.

If the boat is purely for your own private use there are three choices for a private boat licence:

Long term – if your boat is always or mainly on our waters
Short term – if your boat is small, like a canoe, or you’re visiting from other waterways
Gold - this combines the Canal & River Trust and EA licences into one licence