Crick Boat Show 2026

We're back in Crick in Northamptonshire for the biggest boat show in the boating calendar.

So we're more doubt on the towpath among dozens of boats that are here for people to either work at the show or volunteer at the show or even just visit the show. And to get from the towpath to the show site you have to go over this temporary bridge. Well, the bridge brings you out in the corner of the Marina, and this is where there are more than a dozen brand new boats on show and people have been queuing up to look round them. And then on the field behind the Marina is where the show village is, and that's where there's a big boating marquee with stands from marinas and insurance companies and things like that.

And then there's a food and craft tent and there's a big beer tent. And that's where the live music happens in the evenings.

With Paul and Anthony from Narrowboat Life Unlocked, you might have watched on YouTube and you're actually showing your boat this year. Yeah, we've got our brand new boat from Elton Moss. It's a collaboration with Autumn Marine and it's called Dexter Star. We've named the boat after our last dog. So just tell me a bit about the boat. So it's a 58 foot series hybrid with a backup diesel generator. It's got 2.3 kilowatts of solar on the roof. We're actually currently beating autamarines own customers with the solar production.

I'm quite a geek. You should probably be gathered the interior fit out was done by autumn Moss. The electrical interfaces were done by autamarine. We're and we've got an in gyro motor 15 kilowatts. We're really excited to be seen now how she handles on the water. Yeah, because electric boating is is quite a thing, isn't it? Yeah, we think electric boating is definitely the future and you're going to get the traditionalist, and I can understand that. And actually we do miss the sound of an engine sometimes.

But I was cruising the boat down from North Killworth to Crick for the boat show last week and I could hear a cuckoo in the distance and birds that we've not heard for ages. It's just it's so quiet, so relaxing, and you can chat to each other on the back of the boat without shouting. And we feel like we're trying to do our bit for the environment as well. Now, of course, the quick show is not quite all relaxing. And what's it like having hundreds of people looking at your boat do? You know what, it's really nice.

It's like when you get a new house and you can't wait to show it off to your friends and family. And we've met so many amazing viewers of the channel and people who've come from overseas to the show to see us, to see the boat, meet other vloggers, and it's just such a nice feeling, isn't it? Well, they feel like extended friends, and that sounds a bit cliche, but they sort of feel like they know us. And then we're really humbled by the fact that they want to come and say hello once they are home.

Yeah, it's quite a humbling experience. And you've been doing videos about the whole build, haven't you? So lots of these people will kind of know what the boat's like. Already. Yeah. The only thing we didn't do, we show the interior, probably because it was still being done right to the wire. But they've done, they have done us proud. They did an amazing job at the interior. I know we're biassed but it does look amazing and the feedback we've been getting has been along the lines as well. And there's always a vote for the favourite boat and everyone says, oh, you know, we're not interested in winning, are you interested in winning?

Do you know what, we came to this show without any expectations at all, but everybody seems to love the boat and it would be fabulous to win, not for us, but for the boat builder and for autamarine to give them a higher profile and, you know, just show that all the boat builders at the show do an incredible job. And at the moment I'd say, you know, the boat building industry, it needs that kick and to get people buying boats again and enjoying the sounds like we do. Yeah, because this is show is a bit smaller than it's been in the past, isn't it?

I mean, you've been coming quite a few years, haven't? You. Yeah. So I was a little bit shocked by how few boats there were here this year. However, it seems to be still the footfall. To be fair. I'm interested in winning. I'm going to be honest. It's who doesn't want to win like but again, like Paul said, because of all the hard work that not just the boat builders but also the suppliers that helped us on this journey. It would just be a nice nod to them to be honest and all the hard work they've put in.

But down on the Marina, one of the boats here is showing off a new paint job. And Charlotte from Seaward Sign Writing, you're actually doing some live sign writing as we speak. Yeah, we're trying. It's a bit on today, but we're going to try and get this side on the front of the boat and make it look pretty. So you've done one side already. These are the bow flashes, and it's quite a complicated design. So how do you do that? So I'm currently drawing it on and we've got an image that's already ready to go.

Chalk on the back. I'll chalk it onto the boat roughly and then will it expand from there with the paint and add to it as I go? Really. And just tell me about what sort of paint it is and do you need special brushes and things? Yeah. So it's a sign writing enamel that we use. And with the brushes I've got long haired chiselled brushes so you can especially for the lettering, you've got a long straight brush which will give you a straight edge for the the letters and that sort of thing. So. So it's quite a time consuming process.

Is it or is it, I mean, maybe you just, you know, once you've got your outline there, you just do it. Yeah, I mean, this shouldn't take me too long. So I'll get it drawn on now and then hopefully by the time the sun's disappeared, we'll it'll all be painted and give us, I don't know, maybe an hour or so and we should have it all on. So this design you're doing is all sort of cogs, because the boat's called all the time in the world. Do people like lots of complicated things? What's the most complicated thing you've you've had to paint on the boat?

Pirates is the one that's been very complicated to do, but everyone has their own ideas of what they want and it's entirely up to the customers, to their design or but I will help them if they haven't got an idea. I will come up with some things and these guys obviously wanted the clock face and the name and all that sort of thing. And then we've expanded it with the Cogs and the steampunk sort of thing. It's entirely the customers choice as to what they want and how far we go with the design. And do you prefer a short name or a long name?

Normally a short name but this one was took a while but it looks good in the end. Well, I've noticed that quite a lot of the boats on show at Crick this year have got the Water Freedom system fitted and I'm on the Water Freedom stand and Matthew is with me. So just tell me what the Water Freedom system is. In essence, we we take water from canals, rivers, wells, boreholes, from rainwater harvesting, and we clean it to levels of purity that exceed regular tap water standards. So this means that if you're on a boat, you can take water from the canal and then it goes through what, a whole number of philtres and then comes out your tap.

Absolutely, yes. The main systems that we fit go through a seven stage filtration process where it philtres the water initially and then ultraviolet light treatment to kill all the bacteria, viruses and cysts. That water then gets chlorine dosed so that when it goes into your water tank it remains fresh and doesn't go stagnant in your water tank. Bring the chlorine levels up to a similar standard as regular tap water. That water at that particular time is for 90% of the water that you use on board.

It's for washing your dishes, showers, washing up. You can even have a washing machine on board and actually use it or fit a bathtub and have regular baths. It gives you an unlimited supply of water at the touch of a button. From there we tee into the regular pipe work underneath your sink and we fit what we call the Water Freedom Pure that produces that uses reverse osmosis to produce water of a quality that far exceeds mains tap water. It gets. We get it so clean, in fact, that we have to put stuff back in before you can drink it.

And I suppose that means that you would never really need to go to a water point again. You don't, No, no. Yeah, Some of our customers say that when the Thames is on red boards, for instance, and they can't move their boats, they're the only ones. With with. Tap with drinking water When people get frozen in in the winter, our customers are the only ones with water because even on, even when they're on moorings, often the water stand pipes freeze, whereas our customers just have to break a hole in the ice and they can throw their hoses in.

So I think you've actually got one of your systems here on the stand, haven't you? That's correct. Yeah. So quick this year, we've got 2 stands, one's a showroom up in the regular shopping village. And down on the quayside we've got what we call a hydration station, where we've got a fully functioning system, where we're taking water out of the Marina here, filtering it. And we're serving water purified water, both chilled and sparkling to the public where 10 minutes ago it was canal water. In order to do this, we had to apply for a catering licence and part as of last week I was here it quick with a fully functional system in order to do water samples as part of that catering licence.

And we took those samples over to ALS Laboratories in Coventry where they did 111 different water tests on them and we zeroed almost every single one. Fantastic. Well, maybe we should have a taste then, do you think? Yeah, by all means. Would you like ambient still or sparkling? Still I think please there. You. Go have a taste of that. Tell me what you. Think. I mean, it certainly looks like drinking water. Let's see what it tastes like. I mean, it just tastes like water, and what it doesn't taste like is canal water.

Quite right? When I'm in the middle of the historic boats here at the quick show and I'm sitting on the tug deck of a lovely little tug called Sandbach and Rupert, the owner is with me. But Rupert, last year I spoke to your wife in her capacity as something to do with the IWA and in passing we mentioned your boat and it was in a different colour scheme last year and she wasn't really allowed to say anything about it. But Sandbach has been a film *. Yes, it was used for the filming of the Netflix film The Immortal Man, but they they didn't like it red and shiny and things.

They painted it black and grey with WGE on it and a misspelt canal whirling and Essington. So that's the Peaky Blinders film, and I gather you were quite involved in the actual filming. Well, we were contracted to supply the boat and me as a it was interesting and exciting. It was also very boring when you're sitting around waiting for nothing to do and very frustrating because they keep changing their minds as to what they want. And it's extremely stressful. Especially when you're inside the boat, nominally in control of the engine, with some actor on the back holding the tiller, and you know that you are heading towards the bank and you're listening to the walkie-talkie for them to say cut so that you know that you can put it hard in the reverse.

And lots of the filming took place at night, didn't it? Most of it did, yes. At Gas St Basin where they did 1 scene that started at about 6:00 and went on to about two in the morning. Lots of runs and fire and all sorts of things happening. But the interesting thing is they'd call that a filming day and the catering starts with breakfast, but if they're starting at 6:00 in the evening, that's when the breakfast is served. But it is a very good breakfast. I mean, films are notorious for their catering, aren't they?

Absolutely, yeah. And what about different locations? Because there were a number of locations all over the country I think. And and this boat must have been on and off the back of a lorry like nobody's business. Yeah, there was 6, I think different locations. First one was Ellesmere Port at the museum. Then we went back-to-back to the Black Country, Wimmerland and the Black Country Museum that was another location, and then Gas St Basin and then up to Google Docs for the the scene which involves the explosion.

Yeah, so Sandbach actually gets blown up. Well, a boat that looked a bit like Sandbach. And the Ponty Aqueduct as well. That was an extra scene that was slotted in at the last minute and right up to the wire we were filming at Wimmerland. They, they hadn't decided they'd they'd sort of costed it and looked at the logistics, but they didn't actually make the decision till that afternoon, the last day of filming. And it was just that that in itself is quite stressful because it was about the time that the Wallace and Gromit film came out, which involves a scene on of what looks like a very famous acroduct in Buster scene.

And we think that the Netflix people looked at this train and I thought that looks quite good. I'm sure we could do something like. That so I'm in the, I think it's actually the food and craft tent, but I'm on the stand for Forces Veterans Afloat and I'm with Lizzie who's the chair of the trustee. So just tell me a bit about the charity and what it does. Well, we're a very young charity, We're only 18 months old. We came about when a group of us thought it would be a good idea to get an abandoned boat, do it up and give it to a homeless person and then someone said why don't you give it to a homeless veteran?

At which point my ears pricked up. I thought that's a good idea, I want a piece of that. We were very naive in those days, didn't really know what we were doing and we found out really that what we needed to do was become a charity. It took us almost a year to become a charity. We've been a charity for 18 months now and we have 9 boats, 6 deployed with veterans on them. They're all given to us and most of them are restored by us as well. So that's really what we do in a nutshell. So it's quite a big job to restore a boat, isn't it?

So there must be a lot of volunteers involved all. Of our work is done by volunteers, we have no paid staff, none of the trustees are paid and pretty much everything that is done from getting the rusting paint work off to ripping out the the rotten boards inside is all done by volunteers. We're very fortunate we've got a couple of boat yards, one of which it's owned by a veteran who do our welding for us. That's the one thing we can't do. But we also have an organisation that's donates the steel so that doesn't cost us quite so much.

And we're quite good at getting people to give us bits and pieces to do the boats up because it's not cheap doing these things up, but it's worth it in the end. And what difference does it make to the veterans that you give a boat to? I think the best example is the veteran who is our actually our very first beneficiary and he's been 18 months on his boat. When he first went onto the boats, he has CPTSD and he will tell you he wouldn't engage with people, he wouldn't look you in the eye, he wouldn't have a conversation, he would have panic attacks and he had an appalling stutter.

He went on the boats. It'll be two years ago in November. Last August he did a month long residency at Edinburgh Fringe as a stand up comedian and for someone who could barely speak, that's incredible. He puts it down to the boat because he says it gives him two things. It gives him the freedom to live where he wants to live. If he's not happy somewhere, he just pulls up his bins and he goes a couple of miles down the cut to where he feels a bit more comfortable. He's got the boating community around him as well, and he misses the community he had in the Navy.

So that's brilliant. And also it gives him discipline. Every 14 days he has to move. So he's got to look, where am I going to move to? Have I had a pump out? Have I got enough diesel? Have I filled the water? Where am I going to get my shopping from? And those two things, The combination of the freedom and the discipline and the camaraderie that he's got with the boating community, he says, is what's turned him round. And that's really why we do it. I mean, it's a living embodiment of the phrase.

Making life better by water isn't. It exactly that, that is exactly where where we're going with it. We're very lucky Canal and River Trust are fully behind us and are are helping us. We're working towards having our own Wharf in Ilkeston. We should have that by the end of the year. The moment we're beholden on some lovely yard. Swallow Cruises at Ladworth and Paul Barber at sheet stores in Long Eaton who repair boats for us, don't charge us very much for it, but when we've got our own Wharf it'll be, it'll be an awful lot easier.

So yeah, CRT being behind us has been a great help and the Environment Agency coming on board as well. We have a boat going onto their water and they've given us their charity rate so it's not costing us quite so much to licence it, which is good because we pay all that sort of thing. The veterans, if they're in a Marina, only pay the morning fees and what they would spend on gas and electricity. We pay everything else. We maintain the boats, we insure the boats, we get their boats safety certificates so it's a much cheaper way of of them living.

It's quite costly for us and at the moment we're solely reliant on public donations and volunteers and just seeing the effect on the veterans lives, that's the biggest reward you could possibly have. Well, I'm in the Canal River Trust, Marquis and Mac, our little border terrier, has just had his photo taken for the photo competition. So, and with Dick and Emily, tell me what the photo competition's all about. Raising awareness of what we do at the Canal and River Trust and getting the dogs their celebrity status.

And how does this help raise the profile then? It's just another way to kind of meet our customers, talk to our customers. You know, of all the uses that we have for our 2000 miles of towpaths, actually dog walking is the #2 use #1 being just going for a walk. And it just, that is the reason. But I think the main reason is because we've been coming here for, well, forever for the quick show and we've always just had loads of lovely dogs come in and it's just been a really nice thing for us. So we thought, let's celebrate them.

And here they are, glorious. So tell me about some of the dogs you've had over the past few days. Well, we've had about over 100 entries so far. They've all been fantastic. We've had little bitty teeny dogs that you would fit in, you know, in almost in your hand. And then we had some really big, I don't know, all the breeds. We had some massive dogs come in. Everybody's been nice, friendly. We've had no dog fights. No dog. And we have had kind of the winner yesterday, although we had to have a create a separate category was well, a cat, yeah.

A cat A cat. A cat named Miss Evie won Well, she was the most voted for her. She. Was the most voted for, but because she was a cat, we had to have a cat of the day. So Tilly, who was a Rottweiler, was the actual winner of dog of the day. And we did also have a lamb enter, although the lamb wasn't really here. So it was an AIAI sort of picture of a lamb. So we had a lamb of the day as well. So it's maybe next year it'll be pets of Crick, who knows? Well, I can. That's a good. Idea. Oh yeah. I can imagine that a cat could live on a boat.

In fact, I did an episode of the podcast a little while back about pets on board and we had dogs, cats and a tortoise. But a lamb? I don't think that would live on a boat, would it? I don't know. I don't know. I know, I know lots of people have got chickens on boats. That's quite. Yeah, yeah. Little runs on top of the thing of plenty of rabbits I'm aware of, so I don't see why not. Although I I kind of, I like to think of a lamb as having a bit more kind of freedom and space, so who knows? And just escaping onto the towpath.

Yes, exactly. But again, there's no there's no intrinsic problem with that. As long as it's a nice friendly lamb and it follows the towpath code, I'll be happy. So there's an old joke that if you get 2 or more boaters together they always end up talking about toilets. So I've come to the compost toilet stand and Nigel and Lorraine are with me. So just tell me about your type of toilet. We have a compost toilet, we have got it on the boat and we've got one in the motorhome as well and it's just the way to go.

So how does it work then? We use coconut coya, it's the byproduct of the coconut. They're conveniently pressed into blocks and they make a nine litre block and we add 1 1/2 litres of water to that block which will make that 9 litres of compost. And you can store the box ever so easily in any in any sort of cupboard. And at that 9 litres, we only put two litres into the toilet and that two litres is good for seven to 10 days for a couple. And yeah, it's just all nice and green. So they're basically a separating toilet then, aren't they?

That's the. That's the basic principle. It is, yes. So you've got your solids and your liquids, and they go into a bucket and into a bottle. Then it separates and then you get no smell at all. And then what do you do with the compost once you've taken it out the. Toilet. Well, we're lucky, we're on a 70 foot linear mooring with a garden, so we've got a compost bin there and we're able to put all of our toilet waste into the composting bin. And if you're a liverboard boater, what would you do with it then?

If you're a liver board, then obviously you're a little bit stumped with the CIT regulations of not putting it in the bins down the canal network. But we do have customers that are still able to sort of get to somebody's house that has got another bin or somebody that has got composting facilities and we've. Got a lot of voters who give it to family and friends but on their garden and they're quite happy to take it from them. And it makes good compost. Is it? Very good. Yes, Yeah. We had one guy who put it into some plant pots, put a a plant seed in it, started to grow the plant and once the the plant had established put them out on the the towpath and just said free to free.

Everybody walked up with the plant. Basically just walked away with these plants, obviously really happy and didn't realise that the compost was was human made. And. The winner? Crit boat show favourite boating show 20. 26 Dexter *. From Elton Moscow.

Well, it's on with arty at roof with Elton Moss and you've you've just been given the trophy. Here we go. Yes, it's a. It's a very. Welcome win. What do you think has contributed to that win? It is teamwork. All round, Paul and. Anthony were very clear in terms. Of what they wanted. We were very clear what we had to deliver. And we worked in. Partnership with Autumn Marine so that the propulsion system was. Fit for purpose, which unfortunately the previous. Narrowboat wasn't originally. And having a sort of collaboration like that is quite unusual, isn't it?

I believe so, yes. I think normally builders choose choose parts from wherever in in conjunction with their customers, but I think I think the the collaboration. Between us has sort of. Worked very well in in far as we've got we've produced them a boat that is fit. For purpose and. A very, yeah, very nice boat. And not just fit for purpose, but a winner. Yes, exactly. Yes, yeah. The other half of the collaboration is Rob and Caroline from Automarine. So how does it feel to be winners then? It's wonderful.

It's been a journey. A challenge at times with timings, obviously Crick is always a severe deadline that. People have to try and meet. It's also nice to see an electric boat winning and the amount of solar that we've generated here. So, so it was quite a fast cruise here. So the motor got a testing, the batteries got a testing. They were down at 28% when we arrived. We got 12 kilowatt hours the first day for 15 kilowatt hours the second day and the batteries were full. I mean, it's been a real good test of all the tech on board and we are really happy.

And for Paul and Anthony, they've never been happy with their solar setup on their current boat. So for them to see those sorts of figures being possible, it's excellent for them. I think they're quite geeky about it as well. Yeah, they will be. Well, they were top of our solar data Table, 3 days, two days in a row and they were like. As you say, it's so short in the arm for electric boating isn't. It exactly that's I mean, you know, we just want to promote it because it it has to be the future.

It's the idea. There's been hype for for several years about it and there's been naysayers, but it's hopefully we're we're able. To prove. That it is viable, it is achievable and people can now actually continuously cruise all year. Round on an electricity. Driven narrow boat.

Congratulations to Elta, Moss, Otomarine and Paul and Anthony, and that's all from the CRIC Boat Show 2026, except to say that Mack, our border terrier, was also a winner. He was voted Dog of the Day on Bank Holiday Monday and won a nice goodie bag. And I also recorded an interview with the new chief executive of the Canal and River Trust, Campbell Rob, which will be an extra episode next time I'm trying to do. It's quite an atmosphere. Where we can all. Understand the long. Term future of the. Canal network.

That we all. Have a. Place to play? In it. But they all, we all have to. Contribute to. That and if we all work. Together, I think we can reach a point. Where we can increase the investment in the network for boaters and for many other people as well. The Water Rd is produced and presented by me. Adam Porter. If you like what you're hearing, please give us a nice review or star rating to help other people find us. And don't forget that all previous episodes are always available to listen to. Thank you for listening to the Water Rd.

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