For boaters without a home mooring
Prove your cruising.
Keep a dated record of every mooring, know how your movement looks against the Trust's guidance, and have the evidence ready before you are asked for it.
No card needed. Download your moorings as a spreadsheet file at any time, on any plan.
In the report of the independent Commission on Boat Licensing, published by the Canal & River Trust, 826 continuous cruiser licence renewals had been refused for failing the bona fide navigation requirement, and a further 429 boats had been sent early warning letters because of inadequate evidence of compliance.
These were open cases at the time the Commission wrote its report. The Trust counted 8,825 boats without a home mooring in March 2026.
How it works
Log where you are
One tap records your position, the date and the time. Takes a couple of seconds when you moor up. You can add past moorings by hand too.
See where you stand
CruiseProof counts the days from when you arrived — not from your last log entry — and warns you before you reach fourteen. Your range of movement — how far apart your moorings are — is tracked as you go.
Produce the evidence
Export a dated cruising log with coordinates, place names and a map of your movements. The document you attach to a licence renewal, or send back when a letter arrives.
What you see when you open it
These are the real components with a sample boat's data — not a mock-up.
Current mooring
13 days
Due to move
1 of your 14 days left here. Counted from when you arrived, not from your last entry.
Range of movement
33.6miles
Furthest apart your moorings are, across 9 places — not distance travelled, which is what the Trust actually assesses.
Will the Trust accept it?
Nobody can promise that, and you should be wary of anyone who does. No document obliges the Trust to reach a particular decision.
What can be said is narrower and more useful. The Trust says a boater's own log should be backed up by photographs with date and location data, and that receipts and invoices can help. Its own assessment is built from sightings recorded by licensing rangers. You can see those sightings in your online licence account, but not the most recent 28 days, and they are snapshots: a boat that moved twice between sightings looks the same as one that never moved.
A dated record of your own fills the gaps between those snapshots, and covers the latest month you cannot yet see. It is worth most when it was kept as you went, which is the whole argument for starting one before you need it.
Your log is yours
Take your data with you
Every plan can download its moorings as a CSV file that opens in any spreadsheet. The Pro cruising log document is a page you can print or save as PDF.
Your positions are not shared
We do not sell, publish or pass your moorings to anyone, and nothing on the site is public unless you share it yourself.
Independent of the Trust
CruiseProof has no relationship with the Canal & River Trust. We report how your log looks against published guidance, and never claim to speak for them.
Cancel in two clicks
Billing is handled by Stripe. Cancel from your account and access runs to the end of the period you have paid for.
Free to log. Pay when you need the proof.
Logging your moorings and the on-screen overstay warnings cost nothing, for as long as you want. The cruising log document and email reminders are £6.99 a month, or £69 a year.
Free tools and guides
- Can you live on a narrowboat without a home mooring?
- Hull blacking: how often, and what it costs
- How far does a continuous cruiser actually have to move?
- The 14-day rule: what counts as staying in one place?
- You've had a letter from CRT about your cruising. What happens next?
- Narrowboat licence cost in 2026/27: what you'll actually pay
Questions
How far do I actually have to move?
The Trust publishes no fixed minimum distance. Its guidance gives an example instead: a boat that spends eleven months of its licence within a ten-mile stretch is unlikely to count as bona fide navigation. A figure of twenty miles is often quoted, but it is not a Trust rule. The firm limit is time — no more than fourteen days in one place, or less where a sign says so. CruiseProof shows your range and your days in place continuously so nothing is a surprise at renewal.
Does a cruising log actually help?
The Trust says a boater's own cruising log should be backed up by photographs with date and location data, and that invoices or receipts placing the boat somewhere at a time can help. Its own picture is built from sightings recorded by licensing rangers — snapshots, not a continuous track — and boaters' groups have documented cases where those sightings were incomplete. A dated record of your own fills the gaps between them.
Is this legal advice?
No. CruiseProof records where your boat has been and shows how that looks against published guidance. It cannot promise the Trust will accept anything, and it is not a substitute for advice if you are already facing enforcement.
What if I forget to log for a while?
You can add moorings retrospectively, and the export shows which entries were recorded at the time and which were added later. A contemporaneous record carries more weight, so the log is honest about the difference rather than hiding it.