Canal Boating- Books, Route Planners, Paper Maps, and Videos

Books

Just touches the surface. Many more canal-related books are available, including many guides to individual canals. Many titles are available from the Inland Waterways Association On-Line shop.

Hind and Hart has provided a page of bookshops, covering both bookshops convenient to canals and waterways, as well as canal and waterway related bookshops, wherever they may be located.

Also have a look at Mailing List Members' Recommended Books, and Bill Davies' article on canal books.

Canal Guides- U.K. - Series

First Mate Guides - website includes updates

Nicholson's Guides to the Waterways

Pearson's Canal Companions
[No relation to the author of these web pages.]

Richlow Guides - website includes updates

Waterways World Canal Guides

General Information

Inland Waterways of Great Britain
by Jane Cumberlidge; 9th edition (2009) Publisher: Imray. ISBN 978-1846230103
Britain's Waterways - a Unique Insight
by Brian Roberts; 2nd edition (2006)
Britain's Waterways - Cruising rings and other things
by Brian Roberts; 2nd edition (2008)
Coolcanals guidebooks
Cruising French Waterways
by Hugh McKnight; 4th edition (2005)
Inland Waterways of France
by David Edwards-May; 8th edition (to be published Jul 2010); UK ISBN 0 85288 472 9; Pub.: Imray
Through the French Canals
by David Jefferson; 12th edition (Mar 2009); Pub.: Adlard Coles Nautical
Reviewed by Waterways World June 2009: "excellent overall introduction"
Waterway Routes Through France Map
compiled by Jane Cumberlidge
Inland Waterways of Ireland
by Jane Cumberlidge; 1st edition (2002) UK ISBN 0 85288 424 9; Pub.: Imray
Inland Waterways of The Netherlands
by Louise Busby and David Broad; Pub.: Imray
Reviewed by Waterways World Jan 2008
A Boaters Guide to Boating
by Chris Deuchar; a mixture of old and new waterway techniques. Published Oct 97. Reviewed in Waterways World Feb. 98. ISBN 0-9531512-0-4. (Chris is a participant in the canals mailing list/uk.rec.waterways newsgroup.) Contact Chris, for costs and other details via his publication page at Chris Deuchar's Books ...
Illustrated History of Canal and River Navigations
by Edward W.Paget-Tomlinson; Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press; Date Published: Mar 1993 [Dr. Sean Neill says "covers canals, structures, boats, carrying companies etc etc. - obviously with limited detail but enough for most people".]
Publications from the Dutch Barge Association
Follow link for list. Some in english, some in french.

Route Planning Websites and Software

Canalplan AC - planning online via the web; free service; UK and expanding onto the continent

narrowboats.org Canal Route Planner - on-line planner

FluviaCap - "Outil de calcul d'itinéraires fluviaux" (fr only) (on-line route planning)

Canal Planner for Windows - Now closed to new sales; program on CD or download; UK canals and waterways

Paper Maps

"Paper" as distinct from "on-line".

In planning a cruise, most people use one of the options above. While cruising, most people use one of the canals guides listed above (all which contain detailed maps). However, if you insist on having a map, there is an excellent selection available from the Inland Waterways Association On-Line shop.

However if you are driving in your car, and hope to drive to a particular point on a canal, then you have a different problem. The best choice of altas for this at the time of this writing (Sept 2009) is Philip's Navigator Britain 2010.

For European waters, Waterways World magazine suggests (4/09) that the definitive map is the European Waterways Map and Directory from Euromapping.

Videos

Please note that there are three video standards in which waterways videos may be found: PAL, SECAM, and NTSC; they are incompatible. Be sure you know which standard is in use in your country, and be sure the DVD or cassette you are getting is in the correct format. (An alternative is to get a cassette in the "wrong" format, and pay a service to convert it, which can be costly.) Note also that DVDs can have "region codes" which prohibit playing the DVD on players that are not from the allowed region.
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Last Modified: Monday, 26-Sep-11 4:10 pm EDT

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