Canal Nav

Plan a canal route

Plan a boat journey between two points on the inland waterways of Great Britain (canals and navigable rivers). The route follows the water itself, not roads. It counts every lock and estimates cruising time from realistic boat speed plus time per lock. Live closures and stoppages from every GB navigation authority (Canal & River Trust, Environment Agency, Scottish Canals, Broads Authority and others) are routed around automatically, and when a dated closure blocks the natural line the result com

Plan a round trip

Plan return-to-start cruises from a point on the inland waterways of Great Britain, sized to fit a number of days. Returns several options: circular loops where the canal network offers one (canal "rings"), plus out-and-back and fewest-locks alternatives, each with distance, lock count, day-by-day plan and suggested overnight moorings. Timing is lock-aware and closures from every GB navigation authority are flagged on each option. Give boat dimensions to get fit warnings, and routes touching tid

Get closures and stoppages

Live closure, stoppage and restriction notices for the inland waterways of Great Britain, covering every GB navigation authority: Canal & River Trust, Environment Agency, Scottish Canals, Broads Authority, Bridgewater, Middle Level, River Wey, Basingstoke and more, not just CRT. Search near a place (name or "lat,lon", with an optional radius) or by waterway name (e.g. "Oxford Canal"). Returns active and upcoming notices with dates, the responsible authority, whether each one blocks navigation, a

Will my boat fit a waterway

Check boat dimensions against the published maximum craft dimensions for a named British waterway (length, beam, draught and air draught, from Canal & River Trust published figures covering the full CRT network). Returns a per-dimension verdict quoting the limit. Draught and headroom vary with water level and silting, so treat the answer as advisory. For a whole journey, use plan_route with boat dimensions instead: it checks every waterway along the route.

Find a place on the waterways

Look up a place name on the British inland waterway network and return matching locations with coordinates (marinas, moorings, water points and other waterside facilities). Use it to disambiguate a place before calling plan_route or plan_round_trip, or to get coordinates for a known spot. Results are waterway locations only; it is not a general geocoder.

Search the waterways business directory

Search Canal Nav's directory of waterside businesses on the British inland waterways: marinas, chandleries, boat hire, boatyards, pump-out and services, fuel, moorings, surveyors, brokerage, and canalside food and pubs. Filter by free text, category, or proximity to a place. Listings marked unclaimed can be claimed for free by the business owner at https://canalnav.com/.