Tips for canal boat holiday beginners

19 December 2023

We’ve gathered some helpful tips for those embarking on their first canal boating break

You don’t need to be an expert to hire a canal boat and each year around one fifth of narrowboat hirers are new to the waterways.

To help make your first canal boat holiday smoother, we’ve put together the following basic guide.

12 tips for canal boat holiday beginners:

Keep to the right. Unlike cars on our roads, canal boats travel on the right side of our canals and rivers, so when you meet another boat, keep to the right.
You don’t need a licence to steer a canal boat. And boat steering tuition is provided as part of our holiday packages. But if you’d like to get ahead of the game, take a look at our Boat Handover video showing you what’s on board a narrowboat and how to operate it
Steering basics. Push the tiller right to go left, and left to go right and put the engine in reverse to stop.
Use your horn. To warn canal boats coming towards you when approaching sharp bends and as you enter a tunnel.
Lock logistics. Always have a steerer on the boat when in a lock and make sure the boat is kept forward of the cill (step). There’s more advice about going through locks below.
Close the gates behind you. Check all paddles and gates are shut after you’ve used a lock, unless you see another boat approaching.
Sharing is caring. Always share a lock with other boats if possible to save water and it means you can share the lock operating load too.
Tunnel tricks. Switch on your headlight before entering a tunnel, and if it’s a one-way tunnel, first make sure there’s no boat inside.
Slow down to walking pace. There’s a 4mph speed limit on the inland waterways, but basically you’re going too fast if you’re creating too much wash which disturbs wildlife and erodes the banks.
Reduce your speed even further. When you are approaching bridges, locks, bends or junctions, and when passing other canal boats or anglers.
Mooring musts. When mooring up at busy spots, make sure you don’t leave a big gap and never moor opposite winding holes, on bends, near to bridges, on lock landings (unless waiting to lock through) or at water points (unless filling up).
Tying up. To keep your boat secure, you need to tie it to the bank with a rope from both the front and the back, and on rivers you should fix your upstream rope first.

Going through locks

A lock is a chamber with gates at either end. By emptying or filling the chamber with water, boats can move up or down a canal. With the lock gates closed, open the sluices (paddles) to let the water in or out. When the water level under your boat is the same as the level it’s moving to, you can move your boat in or out of the lock. It takes around 15-20 minutes to go through a lock.

Advice on using locks safely

Take your time
Wear suitable footwear like deck shoes or trainers – avoid high heels, open toed shoes and flip flops
Always keep one person on the boat when it’s in the lock and keep the boat away from the cill (step)
Keep children away from the lock edge and watch out for slippery surfaces
We recommend children and non-swimmers wear life jackets
Keep pets under control in and around locks
Secure hair, glasses, scarves, etc and don’t wear shoulder bags, long necklaces or cameras that can catch on the windlass or lock mechanism

Lock etiquette

Some locks have lock keepers, but most of the locks on canals are self-operated. As you approach the lock, if the water is in your favour (at the right level for you to enter the lock straight away), you have right of way. If the water is against you, the boat coming towards you has right of way. If a boat is coming towards you as you exit the lock, leave the gates open. Otherwise make sure you close the gates behind you.

If you are on a broad canal, share the lock with another boat to save water. You’ll get help with the gates too!

Our boat handling tuition includes guidance on how to work a lock and the Canal & River Trust has advice on Youtube Boater’s Handbook Video Part 3 – Locks (youtube.com)

Narrowboat holiday terms

There are lots of words and terms used to describe parts of the boat and equipment needed to navigate the canals. Many of them derive from the old working boatmen’s terms and are quite idiosyncratic.

Here’s a list of the most commonly used narrowboat terms:

The tiller – is used to steer the boat (steer left to go right, and right to go left).
Throttle – push forward to go forward and brake by putting the boat into reverse.
Bow – the front of the boat.
Stern – the back of the boat.
Port – the left of the boat.
Starboard – the right of the boat.
Weed hatch – a watertight compartment with a removable lid in the stern of the boat providing access to remove weeds or other items wound around the propeller – only after you’ve switched the engine off.
Galley – the boat’s kitchen area.
Saloon – the living area on the boat.
Bilge pump – pump for removing water that has collected in the bilges (space inside a boat’s hull beneath the cabin floor).
Winding hole – is a widened section of canal where you can turn your boat around.
Paddle – the door in a lock gate which can be opened or closed to allow water in or out of a lock.
Windlass – L-shaped handle used to operate the paddle gear to open and close lock paddles.
Cill – bar of masonry against which the bottom of the lock gates rest when closed. Cills stick out by about 1.5m and you can only see them as the lock empties. Most locks have markers to show you the approximate position of the cill. Be careful to stay back from the cill to avoid getting ‘hung up’ on it.
Balance beam – Wooden or metal beam projecting from a lock gate (or lift bridge), to counterbalance the weight of the gate (or bridge) and allow leverage for opening and closing it.
Mooring – a place to park your boat. Always moor to the towpath if you can and use signposted visitor moorings where possible. Don’t moor on lock, bridge or tunnel approaches, near weirs, sharp bends, blind spots, opposite turning points, at junctions or near angling spots.