The annual IWA Trailboat Festival 2024 was held on the Ashby Canal at Moira in Leicestershire, a gathering of compact, lightweight canal boats that can be towed on a trailer behind a suitable car or van. These included Wilderness Beavers, Sea Otters and even a Caraboat!

There are some aspects of the boat's refurbishment that simply can't be achieved (or are difficult to do) while it's in the water so in this video I took the boat from its mooring at Stourport a little way down the river to a wharf where it's been hauled out so that I can work on it on dry land.

Formed in 1969, the Grantham Canal Society is undertaking the huge task of restoring a 33-mile canal dating from the Industrial Revolution, over 200 years ago. I went up to see how they're getting along.

Having brought the boat out of water for refurbishment, it first needed a really good shower to get some of the long-standing muck off. It's still a bit mucky in places but it was a good start.

I visit a rather splendid canal narrowboat which has just been bought after sitting in a marina for three years. It's new owner, Matthew, is a specialist and enthusiast in the systems on board.

The Evesham River Festival was held on Saturday July 13th and within it was a gathering of the Russell Newbery Register. I went along to find out why people love these engines so much - and to have a browse around the rest of the festival.

Join me as I take a wonderful trip on a wonderful, tiny, hand-made boat along the Leeds & Liverpool canal. Created by engineer Jonny Bowker, "Nessie" is an absolute beauty.

Canal boating on a brand new, tiny (and very pink) narrowboat. My good friend Lorna of ‪@lornajaneadventures‬ has just bought a brand new narrowboat and she kindly invited me to join her on a trip along the Market Harborough canal arm.

I have long suspected that the transom on my fibreglass cabin cruiser Twiggy might need to be replaced, due to various cracks and holes in the fibreglass which would have been letting water in and rotting the wood core. Therefore I decided to investigate by drilling some holes, which first required me to remove the outboard motor.

Despite the name of the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal, it doesn't actually go through the county town of Stafford so a group of volunteers are now trying to make that happen.

There are a small number of aluminium canal boats which are a hybrid of traditional narrowboat style mixed with river cruiser design. I went to see two of these and chat with their owners.

About three months ago, I visited Gabs Heneghan who had just bought a compact widebeam barge and was about to rip out the interior and completely refurbish it to her own spec. Mid-way through the process, I have been back to see how she's getting on and whether the project is going according to plan.

As described in the prior videos about the refurbishment of Twiggy, my 48-year-old fibreglass cabin cruiser, I needed to cut the back off the boat in order to replace the rotten wood in the transom. Unfortunately, things didn't go entirely to plan.

After enjoying my first cruise last December, I decided to go on another this year and the place that was on my 'must go' list was Norway. So I booked a week with P&O and this video is my review of the trip.

Although traditional steel narrowboats cost many thousands of pounds, even second-hand, there is a cheaper and easier way to get a foot on the water and that's with a fibreglass cabin cruiser. In this video, I visit a woman who's chosen exactly that as her first boat.

Ignoring, for the moment, the vast gashes I have carved into the back of the boat which will need fixing later, in this episode I tear into the transom and start removing the - extremely soggy - wooden core.

Having removed all the rotten transom wood (see the prior videos in my 'Twiggy transom' playlist, link below), I now needed to patch a couple of holes on the inner fibreglass skin. This video documents that process.

This is part 4 of my complete transom rebuild, see the playlist at the link below. In this thrilling episode, I place reinforcing glass fibre into the inner skin of the transom using vinylester resin. And I get buzzed by a hornet (maybe).