Cruising log: what CRT accepts as evidence

A plain guide for continuous cruisers · Last checked October 2026 · Sources: the Canal & River Trust’s boat-movement guidance (canalrivertrust.org.uk)

If your boat has no home mooring, her licence rests on bona fide navigation — the journey requirement in the British Waterways Act 1995, section 17. In practice the Trust checks it one way: by looking at where she has been. This guide is about the record that shows it — and about what the Trust’s own guidance says counts.

What the guidance actually asks for

The Trust’s page on how it monitors boat movement says it plainly: it recommends keeping a cruising log, supported by photographs with a date and a location. That is the shape of a good entry — not just a name of a bridge, but proof she was there:

• the place — a named spot, bridge number or mile post;
• the date — when she arrived (and, honestly kept, when she left);
• a photograph with a date and a location — the phone already puts both in the file; the log keeps them with the entry.

What else counts: receipts

Photographs are the spine; the Trust names further supporting evidence it accepts:

• mooring invoices;
• boatyard receipts;
• larger fuel purchases.

A receipt is a timestamp with a place attached. A pump-out at Aynho Wharf or a diesel stop at a canalside filling station says where she was on that day as surely as a photograph — which is why a log that keeps the two together is worth more than either alone.

How far back a renewal looks

At renewal the Trust reviews roughly the last ten months of the licence, plus up to two months of the previous one — about a year of movement in total. Trust staff record boat positions as they work the waterway, but your own log is the version of the year you control. Reconstructing twelve months from memory and a camera roll in renewal week is nobody’s idea of boating.

The pattern, not just the days

The fourteen-day rule is the headline; the substance is the pattern. The requirement is a progressive journey — place to place around the network, not cycling between the same two spots in one neighbourhood. A log that shows places spread along the cut, with dates in order, tells that story by itself. A spreadsheet of bridge numbers with no photographs tells it weakly.

A habit that survives winter

• Log the mooring when you tie up — one tap, the photo comes from the phone you are already holding.
• Let the receipts land in the same book: the pump-out, the diesel with its propulsion–heating split, the coal bag.
• Keep an eye on the count — the point of the fourteen-day rule is that it never becomes a conversation.

Questions people ask

Do I need a cruising log if I have a home mooring?

No — the movement rules are for boats without one. Moored boaters keep the log for her costs, her maintenance history and the story of her year, which the paid tiers turn into reports and a handover record.

Is a paper logbook enough?

Better than nothing, but the guidance asks for photographs with a date and a location alongside the log. Handwritten notes alone do not carry the same weight.

What does “moving place to place” mean?

A progressive journey around the network, not shuttling within one neighbourhood. The fourteen-day rule is the headline; the pattern of movement is the substance.

How far back does the Trust look at renewal?

Around the last ten months, plus up to two months of the previous licence — call it a year. A log that covers the whole year spares the reconstruction.

Which receipts count?

Mooring invoices, boatyard receipts, larger fuel purchases — the Trust names them as supporting evidence. Kept with the log, they speak together.

This guide is a plain summary for boaters, not legal advice. The Trust’s own pages — “How we monitor boat movement” on canalrivertrust.org.uk — are the source of truth, and they change; check them before you rely on anything here. We are boaters’ software, and we take no side in the arguments around licensing: she just keeps the book.