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

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And don't forget that all previous episodes are always

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Water Rd.

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