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.
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And don't forget that all previous episodes are always
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Water Rd.