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July 2024 issue

On the cover of the July issue…Boating past the Clock Warehouse at Shardlow on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

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Built for Solo Cruising

Boat Review

Mac is a 45ft bespoke narrowboat designed with single-handed operation in mind. What’s more, it’s from a fairly new builder. Mark Langley finds more….

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Back to Reality

Waterways TV

Narrow Escapes is Channel 4's latest foray into canal-centric television. Amelia Saxena meets some of its liveaboard stars

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Current Event

Event Report

In early May Rupert Smedley attended Electrika, a brand-new show dedicated to electric boating

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Cruising in the Shadow of War

Looking Back

May marked the 50th anniversary of the death of canal campaigner and author Tom Rolt. In this extract from a new biography, The Life of LTC Rolt: Where Engineering Met Literature, we relive his 1939 honeymoon cruise

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Rolt's Ireland Adventure

Looking Back

Andy Tidy looks at the author’s 1946 trip on the waterways of the Emerald Isle

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WW Guide to the Leicester Ring

Cruising Guide

Peaceful and rural in parts, lively and urban in others, this blend of canal and river navigations boasts a full array of Midlands cities, towns and attractions. Steve Elliott takes us on a round trip 

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Fifty at 50

Boat-Builder Profile

After half a century of boat-building, Dave Harris is about to retire having just completed his 50th narrowboat. Andrew Denny tells his story…

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Polishing Paintwork

Boat-Ownership

Shiny new boats are fabulous to behold but what happens when the gloss starts to fade? Here’s how Tony Jones restored a tired paint job to its former glory

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Catching up with Robbie Cumming

Profile

Robbie Cumming is about to return to our TV screens with a much-extended fifth series of Canal Boat Diaries. He’s also been touring a live show, as he discusses with Bobby Cowling

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All Aboard

Accessible Boating

In the final part of our series on accessible boating, Alison Cannon looks at some of the specially designed trip-boats operating around the network

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Stratford-Upon-Avon

Waterways Hotspot

James Francis Fox explains why the Warwickshire town can be considered the cradle of waterways restoration

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Discovering the Newport Pagnell Canal

Looking Back

Roger Butler tells the story of this lost Buckinghamshire canal and explores its remains

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Affordable 'Fat Narrowboats'

Buying Used

James Francis Fox looks at some of the narrowboat-style wide-beams available to secondhand buyers on a budget

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Mum's the Word

Reader's Boat

Photographer and single parent Hannah Bodsworth describes how renovating a 42ft narrowboat to live on with her son has changed her work/life balance for the better

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What would Tom Rolt think?

Last Word

David Cheetham ponders what the celebrated waterways writer and campaigner would make of the contemporary canal and river scene

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