Alex North Rule

I've spent three years living on a 38-foot narrowboat on the Regent's Canal in London. Before that, I worked on a canal tourboat, taking visitors up and down the same stretch of water I'd later call home. At one point, I was spending 90% of my time on the water — working on the boat during the day and sleeping on my own boat at night — all in the middle of one of the world's biggest cities.

Living on the canal teaches you things that guidebooks don't cover. Where to find diesel that's actually accessible by water. Which boatyards will do emergency blacking. Which pubs have moorings you can actually tie up at. The nearest pump-out that isn't three locks and a tunnel away.

That's why I built The Boat Floats. It's a business directory that understands canal geography — not road distance. A boatyard half a mile away by road might be completely unreachable by water if it's on the wrong side of a tunnel or a flight of locks. Our directory uses the actual canal network to help boaters find what they need, where they are.

Whether you're a continuous cruiser, a home moorer, or just out for a weekend, I want this to be the first place you look when you need something on the waterways.