Happy New Year and all the best for 2025; here's a chatty little video with me discussing what I'm going to be doing in the coming year on this channel.

This is a long talky video in which I discuss the various costs associated with owning and running a canal boat whether traditional narrowboat or fibreglass canal cruiser.

Viewers may recall my fondness for tiny narrowboats (see video links below) so it should come as no surprise that with my cabin cruiser out of the water for refurbishment, I may have strayed into a boat brokerage and 'accidentally' bought another narrowboat...

It's just 26 feet long and 7 feet wide but my 'new' (built 2001) Sea Otter narrowboat can sleep two adults and two children, has a full galley, plus shower and toilet. See how it's all packed in, in this video!

I had a chance to take a flying midweek visit up to my tiny narrowboat and spend the first night aboard. This was a great opportunity to bring all the things I'm likely to need and then realise what I'd forgotten!

Having revealed my 'new' tiny narrowboat, I have received lots of questions including plenty about what's going to happen to my fibreglass cabin cruiser, Twiggy. So here I sit down for a chat about it both of them.

I did my first proper check on my fibreglass cabin cruiser "Twiggy" since I left it for winter and although it was too full of condensation to do any sanding, I set about taking off some soggy wood from the roof with the multitool. Inevitably, chaos followed.

Recorded on Feb 1st & 2nd when it was still very chilly, this was my first full weekend spent aboard the boat and only my second visit since purchase. As you can imagine, I had lots of things to sort out from a new propane cylinder to new mooring lines and many other miscellaneous jobs.

This is a "bonus" video, extra content that's a bit of a shambles but might be of interest to some viewers who like technical stuff. I recorded myself trying to diagnose and fix the throttle linkage issue on my narrowboat (basically that the throttle would not return to idle without also disengaging the gearbox, whereas I needed the engine to run at idle while still in gear) and it's very much a "stream of consciousness" recording rather than a how-to or any kind of tutorial.

At last, on my second weekend aboard the boat since purchasing it, I had a sunny day and the time to take it out for a short "test cruise" to see how it went along. I turned left from Burton Waters marina and went the two miles to Lincoln whereupon I turned around and came back. It was a glorious trip!

The day before I went on my first cruise on NB Gentian (see the link for that video below), I pottered around the boat doing a variety of odd jobs as this was only the second weekend I'd spent aboard since buying the boat so there was still lots to finesse to my liking. This is the document of that day.

With the weather nearly warm enough to be working again at the boatyard on Twiggy, my Microplus 600 cabin cruiser, I decided to get a 'straightforward' (?!) job out of the way and remove the old and rather odd leisure battery setup. This had for some reason been installed under the sink and comprised three batteries of two different sizes but there was a surprise or two as I took them out.

For the second cruise on my 'new' tiny narrowboat, Gentian, I turned right out of the marina and headed about 7 miles west along the Fossdyke Navigation until I got to Torksey lock where I stopped for the night before heading back. In this video I also reveal the mystery of how to change the lightbulbs!

In order to fix the holes in the sides of my boat that I made when trying to find out where the transom wood ended, I need to open them out a bit so as to give me a space onto which to stick new fibreglass so that meant buying an angle grinder and making the holes even bigger. Don't worry, it's all part of the plan.

Although lots of technical data about narrowboat propellers exists already, it largely relates to the traditional diesel engine. With electrically-propelled canal boats now becoming more commonplace, boat-builder Ortomarine held a practical trials day to see if changing prop made for a better or worse experience when your narrowboat has an electric motor.

I attended the Inland Waterways Association's annual restoration conference the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, and heard what delegates and speakers had to say about the state of the canal network in Britain.

After a long period where it seemed that all I did was make holes in my fibreglass cabin cruiser, "Twiggy", I have at least started to repair them. This time I use sheets of "1708" fibreglass mat soaked in vinylester resin followed by dollops of the same resin mixed with chopped up fibreglass strands, to give a contour to the corner (this will all be sanded and gone over again with more 1708 later)

Who could resist an offer to try canal boating in the South of France in May? Certainly not me, so with a friend along to help out at the locks, we jetted down to Beziers and stepped aboard Mystique 1, for a journey up to Trebes over the course of a week. On the way we stopped at the most gorgeous cities, towns and villages for some sight-seeing as well as enjoying the spectacular scenery of the Canal du Midi.

This is Part 2 of my trip along the Canal du Midi courtesy of Le Boat, travelling from Port Cassafieres to Trebes, near Carcassonne. I was joined by my friend Sally - and in this episode, another, familiar, face too. We went up the incredible Fonseranes lock flight and met a lovely dog at a "mini-golf cafe" as well as cruising along some gorgeous French countryside, though the clouds and wind threatened to spoil the trip.

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.

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, from BW to Newark-upon-Trent. I grumble a lot in this video. Do not watch if you are prone to grumbling about me grumbling.