February 2024 issue
![WW Magazine front cover February 2024](/reader/2024-02/images/cover.jpg)
On the cover of the February issue… Tackling the ‘Heartbreak Hill’ set of locks on the northern Trent & Mersey Canal.
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Luxury River Cruiser
Boat Review
Unusually, the new Delphia range of boats are designed specifically for river cruising, while also offering seagoing capabilities. Mark Langley tests a 35ftby- 13ft version on the waterways of Lincolnshire
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Long Way Round
Cruising The Midlands Waterways
A short distance as the crow flies, Worcester to Lechlade is a long, heavily locked journey by water. Richard Fairhurst takes the scenic route…
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Horse-boating on the Grand Junction
Looking Back
Chris M. Jones explores images of horse-drawn boats at work between Braunston and London
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Northern Trent and Mersey Canal
Cruising Guide
It’s not all ‘Heartbreak Hill’. Brindley’s Grand Trunk Canal mixes rural Cheshire with the urban Potteries – and you can even rest your windlass for a while. Steve Elliott explores…
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Sticking with Tradition on the K and A
Looking Back
A recent cruise on the Kennet & Avon brought back memories of our long association with this canal, says Graham Hubbard, captain of the Thames Traditional Boat Society
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Understanding Boat Surveys
Boat-Ownership
A survey is the only way of assessing the true health of a steel narrowboat. Marine surveyor and chartered engineer Tom Keeling explains the processes and offers advice
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Holiday Hire in Europe
Overseas Cruising
Looking for a true get-away-from-it-all boating break this year? WW explores some of Europe’s best hire cruising grounds
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Cruising into Retirement
Reader's Boat
Kent couple Liz and Paul Lucraft spent seven months renovating an empty shell so that they could take early retirement. Amelia Hamson shares their story
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Living History
Liveaboard Life
Linocut artist Charlotte Ashman describes what it’s like being the latest custodian of a motor-and-butty pair of historic working boats
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Characters of the Cut
Liveaboard Lives
Photographer Gill Shaw’s new book, Canal Boat Lives, celebrates the variety of people living aboard boats. We look at some of the featured boaters
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Leaving the Lanky
Boat-Ownership
Following a series of misadventures on the Lancaster Canal, it was time for Emma Culshaw-Bell’s next challenge: a trip across the tidal Ribble Link
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The Waterways and AI
Last Word
What does artificial intelligence know about inland boating? Rupert Smedley finds out…
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