CRT winter moorings 2026/27: a guide for continuous cruisers

For a continuous cruiser, a winter mooring is the one legitimate way to stop moving for a few months on the Trust's own water. It is also a contract with its own rules, and the end date is enforced more strictly than the 14-day rule you are used to. This guide covers the 2026/27 season using the Trust's own FAQs, terms and conditions and price list.

The dates

The winter mooring period for 2026/27 runs from 1 November 2026 to 28 February 2027. You can buy one, two, three or four months. Permits went on sale at 8am on 1 October 2026 and stay on sale until February 2027 while spaces last, so it is still worth looking if you missed the first morning — but the popular sites go first.

You cannot reserve a site in advance, and you cannot buy a permit for somebody else: the boat licence has to be in your name, and only your boat may use the space.

What it costs

Every site is charged per metre of boat length, per month, in one of seven bands. Wide beams pay the same per-metre rate as narrowboats. The 2026/27 bands are:

• —Band 1: £9.40
• —Band 2: £11.40
• —Band 3: £14.00
• —Band 4: £17.30
• —Band 5: £21.00
• —Band 6: £24.60
• —Band 7: £28.70

As a worked example, a 55ft narrowboat is about 16.76m long. At those rates that comes to roughly £158 a month at Band 1, £235 at Band 3 and £481 at Band 7. The Trust's booking system shows the exact price for your boat and site, so treat these as orientation, not a quote.

Card payment is available for any length of permit, and a 2% prompt payment discount applies if you book and pay in full before the permit starts. Direct debit is only offered on three- and four-month permits, split into monthly instalments. If you need a quote to apply for housing benefit towards the cost, the Trust's FAQs say to email its winter moorings team — and to start early, because a quote does not hold a space.

Who can buy one

Boaters with a home mooring and continuous cruisers can both buy winter moorings. The catch is compliance. The Trust says that if you are meeting the terms of your licence and are not in its restricted licence process, you are eligible. If it has already been in touch about your movement and you are on a 6-month restricted licence, you are generally not eligible — the only stated exception is if you are near the end of the restriction and the Trust is satisfied your range of movement has improved enough to return you to a 12-month licence.

In other words, your cruising pattern over the summer decides whether a winter mooring is open to you at all. That is worth knowing in March, not October.

What you get, and what you don't

• —A space at a fixed towpath site or on part of a visitor mooring — on shared visitor moorings, roughly half the site is set aside for winter moorings, at the end furthest from the facilities
• —No services: the terms say winter moorings are not managed sites and the Trust provides no services there
• —No car parking at any site
• —Single-line mooring only — nobody may breast up alongside you
• —The boat must be self-sufficient, with water storage and toilet facilities on board
• —Your boat licence, a valid Boat Safety Scheme certificate and insurance still have to be in place — the permit does not replace your licence
• —If anglers use the site for matches, you may be asked to move temporarily, usually with around two weeks' notice

If you want electricity, water on the pontoon and somewhere to park, a marina or boat club winter berth is the alternative. Those are private arrangements at the operator's own prices, and the Trust's own advice for first-winter boaters notes that facilities, security and comfort scale with what you pay.

Check the stoppages before you pay

Winter is when the Trust closes locks and lengths for repairs. Its FAQs are blunt: it is your responsibility to check that you can reach the site, and refunds are not given if a planned stoppage stops you getting there. Look at the winter works programme for the route in, and for the route out at the end of February.

Changing your mind

• —You can cancel for any reason within 14 days of buying, with a full refund — but you may not move onto the site during that 14-day period
• —After that, with one calendar month's notice you can apply for a refund of full unused months, less a £30 admin charge
• —Swapping to a different site needs the Trust's permission; if it agrees, you pay or are refunded the difference
• —You can combine sites — say one month in one place and two somewhere else — as long as you can actually move the boat between them

The end date is the one that catches people

You cannot arrive before your permit starts, and you must leave when it ends. The Trust's FAQs say that if your permit expires at the end of February you must move immediately, not 14 days later, and that a boat on the site without permission — before the start or after the end — may be charged £25 a day.

On 1 March you are back to ordinary continuous cruising. The Trust says most visitor moorings revert to 14-day stays between 1 November and 31 March unless signed otherwise, and shorter limits return after that. Plan the first few moves before the permit runs out.

How to record a winter mooring in your log

The Trust knows from your index number that you bought a permit, so you do not need to display one. Your own record should still show it, because a four-month stay at one place looks like a very long overstay to anybody reading a list of sightings without context. Keep:

• —The booking confirmation email, saved somewhere other than your phone
• —The site name, the permit dates, and the date you actually arrived and left
• —A dated position for the mooring, and for the moves either side of it
• —Any agreement to relocate, and anything from the Trust about angling matches or works at the site

The Trust's published guidance for boaters without a home mooring does not explain how a winter mooring period is treated when your range of movement is assessed at renewal, so we will not guess. What you can control is that the months either side of it show genuine movement, and that the winter itself is explained by a document rather than by your memory.

Figures and rules here are from the Trust's winter moorings page, its 2026/27 winter moorings FAQs, terms and conditions and price band list, checked in October 2026. They change each season. Check the Trust's current documents before you book.