My Top 5 Narrow boat Youtube VLOGs…

As someone that is a bit camera shy, I prefer to blog rather than Vlog! However, there are an increasing number of people that are not and are putting up an ever growing number of narrow boat based vlogs! Today I want to let you in on a little secret and tell you my favourite narrow boat Youtubers! Buckle up!

The crazy rise in YouTube narrow boat Vloggers has shown me how big this current trend is for the narrow boat life! As I keep saying, it reminds me of the explosion in van life vloggers in America a few years back. A day doesn’t go past without me discovering a new and interesting narrow boat based Youtube channel.

And what I love about the Narrowboat Vloggers in this list is that they haven’t turned into aggressive E-Beggers, something that was a bit of an issue with some van lifers in America. Most simply put a Patreon or Buy me a Coffee link in the video description and occasionally mention supporting the channel. This is the way to do it in my opinion.

If you are more interested in my favourite narrow boat blogs, I have another article on that too!!

Anyway, lets cut the chit-shat! Here are my favourite…

1. Ben + Emily

With so many well-known narrowboat vloggers either hanging up their Youtube boots or going onto other subject matters, this new channel Ben and Emily have come along to save the day!

Ben is a musician, so their vlogs feature a lot of his music. Couple this with some brilliant editing and these Ben and Emily boating vlogs have become some of my favourite. Ben and Emily engage in some very natural and unforced banter that just adds to the whole experience. And Ben is a Jeremy Irons lookalike, which doesn’t exactly hurt 🙂

And it seems that I am not the only one liking their narrowboat vlogs. Even after the channel was only four months old they were already up to over 7000 subscribers and getting 15000 views or more per video. This is good going for such a new Youtube channel on narrowboating.

I just hope all this early success doesn’t go to their head and they keep doing what they are doing! Because this really is turning into a great narrowboat vlog!

2. Robbie Cumming

Robbie Cumming has been a major member of the ‘famous’ narrow boat celebrity scene for quite a while, thanks to him being behind the Canal boat Diaries series on the BBC. So far it has run for two series on BBC4, impressive stuff for anything narrow boat related.

I can see why Robbie was selected for such a series, as he really does come across as a likeable and fun kinda guy! Somehow he makes the most mundane tasks on a boat seem fun and interesting. I always find myself engrossed in all of his videos and never find myself counting down the minutes until the end!

Some recent highlights from Robbie were when he had an epic search to get coal and cooked up some of the weirdest looking chicken ever in the history of man 🙂

Robbie seems to have taken some of that BBC level production value and rubbed it into his YouTube offering, as his videos are usually well put together and presented.

His channel growth hasn’t been as explosive as Boating Beyond’s, but that’s because he has been around way longer and is already sitting on around 24000 subscribers at the time of writing.

3. Chugging Along

Yet another narrow boat vlog that has burst onto the scene is Chugging Along. This is a channel run by Tim and Sam, a couple that have travelled the world as teachers but now want to resettle in the UK. At first, they were thinking of buying a small house or flat until the narrow boat bug bit.

This has been a great channel to follow the journey of a couple new to the world of narrow boating. This is useful, as the hundreds of other people contemplating this lifestyle change can see what it entails!

Tim and Sam are an entertaining duo who have provided me with hours of viewing fun. As well as discussing the usual narrow boat issues, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the canal race trials (with Tim’s brother) and the stove cook off episodes (Tim’s food was definitely best!).

Chugging along are also very open and honest with how they earn money whilst continuously cruising on their narrow boat, so this is very helpful if you are wondering how you might support yourself in boat life too!

As you can see from their chart, Chugging Along had a massive growth spurt in views followed by a bit of a decline. They are still new on YouTube, and I am sure they will see big success in the long run. What’s not to like?

4. The Narrowboat that James built

This channel is good for a totally different reason. Not because of James’ personality or fun factor, we have enough narrow boat vlogs that give us that! This channel is more for the DIY or boat builder enthusiast.

James has basically shown us the total and detailed process he has gone through so far as he does a complete rebuilt of his narrow boat. This is the most complete narrow boat project building vlog I have ever seen. Right from exactly how he put the flooring down to how he made his bulkheads.

If you are even vaguely thinking of doing a project narrow boat of your own, this channel is a must. I myself have learned endless amounts watching all of James’ videos. Good stuff!

I think that the other thing that drew me to this channel is the fact that James is really trying to speed build his boat in an effort to get out of expensive rent in London. You can really feel the highs and the lows as he battles through the build process. This was especially the case early on in the rebuild. I can remember one video spent in his car whilst contractors spray foamed his new floating home!

The only downside of this channel is that when the boat build is over, I am not sure that James will carry on the channel. I sincerely hope he does, though!

5. Boat Time

Another new addition to my list (due to the unfortunate career change with Johnny London and Project Narrowboat!) is Boat Time. This channel is a great choice for those of you that were fans of Boating Beyond (another defunct narrowboat YouTube channel). The premise of both these channels is watching a young couple who are new to narrowboating take us on their journey of discovery.

Boat Time does a great job of making fun but often informative videos about life on the British canals. Amy and Wes have a great rapport together on the channel and certainly know how to edit together a good video, which certainly helps.

I like how Boat Time shows everything that narrowboating entails, both the good and the bad. This really helps their viewers have a realistic view of what life on the water is like. As we know, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows!

Boat Time hasn’t grown as fast as the other new channel on this list (Ben + Emily) but has certainly become a well known and respected narrowboat vlog in a short period of time.

But Where’s Cruising the Cut? (Sob!!)

I know that some of you will read this and then start asking in the comments where Welldeck Diaries, Cruising the Cut or Foxes Afloat are on my list. This is just my list of top narrow boat vloggers. Of course you will have your own reasons for your choices. I think I have watched most canal boat related YouTube channels at one time or another, but these are the ones that stuck for me long term 🙂 Let us know your favourites in the comments section below 🙂