What Happened to Cruising The Cut [Narrowboat Youtuber]

Canal Boat UK is supported by its readers. If you buy something with our links, we may earn a commission.

If you are like me and enjoy watching a range of narrowboat or canal boat based Youtubers, you may have been an avid watcher of a channel called ‘Cruising the Cut’. I know I have really enjoyed this channel since its creation, offering some of the most informative and well-presented narrowboat based content around! However, things changed with recently, which avid fans will have seen. What happened to Cruising the Cut? Let’s find out together….

What Happened to Cruising the Cut?

Since July 2015, the Cruising the Cut YouTube channel has become one of the most successful narrowboat and canal boat based channels on the platform. At the time of writing, it has well over 200,000 subscribers and some of the highest viewed videos among narrowboat vloggers. In my opinion, this status was well deserved as the channel provided some really top-notch content. There were narrated cruising videos, informational videos about buying and maintaining a narrowboat and even some documentary style videos (Coal Finger is a great example, watch it below if you haven’t already!). All of these videos were very well presented and enjoyed by many!

However, this all changed on March 2022 when Cruising the Cut (AKA David) announced that he was selling up his narrowboat and moving onto dry land again. Alongside this David announced that there would be no more cruising videos (as he will no longer be on a boat) and he would focus more on the documentary style videos such as the very successful Coal Finger video above, essentially reporting on stories he sees along the canals. David sighted that he had fallen out of love with cruising his narrowboat and was moving onto land to secure a land-based home for his future retirement (or this is the impression I got from watching his announcement anyway!!)

Many people were shocked and some hardcore fans were dissapointed at David for ‘abandoning’ the narrowboating community that they knew and loved. A lot of people also got great joy from the cruising videos and joked the channel should be renamed to “Not Cruising the Cut”.

What do I think about Cruising the Cut moving back to land and selling his narrowboat? I say he should do whatever makes him happy and if he wasn’t ‘feeling it’ with living on a narrowboat, then he should make whatever change is needed to help him feel better. Mental health is more important to David than pleasing his fans! And, to be honest, there are so many other channels offering the ‘living on the canal’ experience with cruising videos and all, that I think the Cruising the Cut fan base can easily find a new home for this type of content.

Add to this that I think the documentary style videos that Cruising the cut has done have been excellent and often amazing, then why not focus more on this type of content? Makes sense to me! David at Cruising the Cut still has a lot to offer the narrowboat community even if he isn’t living and breathing the live day to day 🙂

If you are an avid fan of David and his Cruising the Cut channel, I would love to know what you think in the comments section below 🙂

Who is Cruising the Cut?

Cruising the Cut is a YouTube channel started by David Johns in July 2015. David was once a local news reporter for a major TV channel in the UK and did this for over a decade, as well as working on local radio. David then decided to sell up his land-based home and a lot of his possessions and live a more nomadic lifestyle cruising the canals of the UK.

David’s background in TV and Radio is probably what brings his YouTube channel such a unique feel. He really knows how to present a subject well and can do interviews and report on the ‘goings on’ along the canals in a professional way.

Cruising the Cut TV Show?

You might have heard some fellow boaters talking about a new Cruising the Cut ‘TV Show” and wondered what channel it was on. However, like what some other popular Narrowboat Youtubers have done, this isn’t a traditional TV show but an Amazon Prime series of videos that you can buy and watch.

I have to admit to not watching them myself as I have watched pretty much all of David’s Cruising the Cut videos on YouTube, so don’t really feel the need. This is a re-cut and reimagined version of the YouTube format to give it more of a TV feel for the Amazon series. If it is anything like the YouTube content, I am sure it is as well presented and informative as ever!!

How Can I stay in Touch with Cruising the Cut?

This is slightly different from some of my other ‘what happened to…X’ posts, as David is still posting regularly to his Cruising the Cut YouTube channel. It’s just that the focus of the content has changed.

However, he can also be found on Twitter if he ever goes dark on YouTube 🙂 David is very active on there so it is probably a good place to keep up to date with his antics. Although he does also have an Instagram account and Facebook page, which might also come in handy 🙂

7 thoughts on “What Happened to Cruising The Cut [Narrowboat Youtuber]”

  1. I have enjoyed listening to David Johns as he experienced his travels of the a English canals and becoming adept maneuvering his narrow boat. He was very clear in his explanation of the boat’s inner workings and doing a wonderful job upgrading and replacing parts needed to make the boat more manageable. Thoroughly enjoyed his narrative and view of the places he cruised by. I’m glad he experienced life on the canal, but understand his desired to be on dry land. Thank you David for a glimpse of life on the Narrowboat and cursing the canals. You were terrific!

    Reply
  2. I absolutely adored the program. Made me wish I had the nerve to do the same. But I imagine it became quite lonely living on the boat with no companion…. not even a pet. House guests are nice but eventually they go home! That he lasted as long as he did is amazing. His going back to land is not a condemnation of life on a boat. He just grew out of it for his own reasons. I wish him health, wealth and happiness. And I am glad he will keep up posting his travels and observations. I plan to continue following on his posts and observations. Good Job, David!

    Reply
  3. im rewatching the series right now! i wish him the best of luck in life! he always talked about getting a canal side cottage! i hope he got one!

    Reply
  4. I have just recently discovered David and his adventures! I am a total fan and hope he finds happiness in his newest chapter of his life. He presents everything so well and he seemed like he really loved his life on the boat. But things change and I wish him well! Thanks for showing us the realistic side of owning a boat on the canal!

    Reply
  5. David cruising the cut was good when on the canals but now find his new vlogs after the cut he’s took his money from the canals that should be it he bothers other you tubers and think it’s time for him to retire he’s flogging a dead house has no interesting content and one of tge most annoying voices a knob

    Reply
  6. Hi, I’m from NJ, USA. I hope Mr. Johns reads this note for I am truly thankful for his presentation of “Cruising The Cut”. I viewed (and re-viewed) all four seasons on Amazon’s “Prime”. After viewing the first, I wasn’t sure if I’d watch the follow-up episodes. But a couple of days afterward I found myself, to my surprise, watching episode two and began realizing it relaxed me and thoroughly drew my interest. Needless to say, since then, I enjoyed all four seasons immensely and re-watch them whenever I want to chill out and let the world go by. I guess Mr. Johns demeanor (real person-no fanfare) and presentation style is what subtly grabs the viewer’s interest and Mr. John’s keys to his success. My point of this post is my concern Amazon periodically changes their line-up of shows. And before “Cruising The Cut’s” availability is lost, I would like to purchase the CDs of those four seasons”. Can anyone guide me in that direction?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Nancy Ames Cancel reply