MCP Server
Canal Nav
com.canalnav/canal-nav
What this MCP does
Plans lock-aware canal routes and round trips in Great Britain, checks boat fit and closures, and searches waterside businesses.
Capabilities
Tools
6
tools
find_place
Find a place on the waterways
Look up a place name on the British inland waterway network and return matching locations with coordinates (marinas, moorings, water points and other waterside facilities). Use it to disambiguate a place before calling plan_route or plan_round_trip, or to get coordinates for a known spot. Results are waterway locations only; it is not a general geocoder.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'required': ['name'], 'properties': {'name': {'type': 'string', 'minLength': 2, 'description': 'Place or facility name to search for, e.g. "Braunston" or "Aston Marina".'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
get_closures
Get closures and stoppages
Live closure, stoppage and restriction notices for the inland waterways of Great Britain, covering every GB navigation authority: Canal & River Trust, Environment Agency, Scottish Canals, Broads Authority, Bridgewater, Middle Level, River Wey, Basingstoke and more, not just CRT. Search near a place (name or "lat,lon", with an optional radius) or by waterway name (e.g. "Oxford Canal"). Returns active and upcoming notices with dates, the responsible authority, whether each one blocks navigation, and links for detail. Data refreshes from the authorities' published notices, so reopen dates reflect the latest updates.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'properties': {'place': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'A place name or "lat,lon" coordinates to search around. Give this or waterway.'}, 'waterway': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'A waterway name to match notices against (e.g. "Grand Union Canal"). Give this or place.'}, 'radius_km': {'type': 'number', 'maximum': 150, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Search radius around the place in km. Default 25.'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
plan_round_trip
Plan a round trip
Plan return-to-start cruises from a point on the inland waterways of Great Britain, sized to fit a number of days. Returns several options: circular loops where the canal network offers one (canal "rings"), plus out-and-back and fewest-locks alternatives, each with distance, lock count, day-by-day plan and suggested overnight moorings. Timing is lock-aware and closures from every GB navigation authority are flagged on each option. Give boat dimensions to get fit warnings, and routes touching tidal water carry a tidal safety warning. The start can be a place name or "lat,lon" coordinates.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'required': ['start', 'days'], 'properties': {'date': {'type': 'string', 'pattern': '^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$', 'description': 'Start date (YYYY-MM-DD) for closure checking. Defaults to today.'}, 'days': {'type': 'integer', 'maximum': 28, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Number of days the round trip should fit in.'}, 'start': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'Start (and finish) point: a place name on the waterways or "lat,lon" coordinates.'}, 'boat_beam': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat beam (width). Metres by default (e.g. 2.08), or feet/inches (e.g. "6\'10\\"").'}, 'boat_length': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat length. Metres by default (e.g. 17.4), or a feet/inches string (e.g. "57ft").'}, 'boat_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat draught (depth below the waterline). Metres or feet/inches.'}, 'lock_minutes': {'type': 'number', 'maximum': 90, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Minutes to work through one lock. Default 15.'}, 'boat_air_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat air draught (height above the waterline, for bridges and tunnels). Metres or feet/inches.'}, 'cruising_hours_per_day': {'type': 'number', 'maximum': 16, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Cruising hours per day. Default 6.'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
plan_route
Plan a canal route
Plan a boat journey between two points on the inland waterways of Great Britain (canals and navigable rivers). The route follows the water itself, not roads. It counts every lock and estimates cruising time from realistic boat speed plus time per lock. Live closures and stoppages from every GB navigation authority (Canal & River Trust, Environment Agency, Scottish Canals, Broads Authority and others) are routed around automatically, and when a dated closure blocks the natural line the result compares waiting for it to reopen against taking the detour. Give boat dimensions to get per-waterway fit warnings (too long, too wide, too deep, too tall for a waterway on the route). Routes that cross tidal water carry a tidal safety warning. Places can be names (resolved on the waterway network) or "lat,lon" coordinates. If a name matches several distinct locations the tool returns the candidates instead of guessing; call again with the chosen one.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'required': ['from', 'to'], 'properties': {'to': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'Destination: a place name or "lat,lon" coordinates.'}, 'date': {'type': 'string', 'pattern': '^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}$', 'description': 'Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD) for closure checking. Defaults to today.'}, 'from': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'Start point: a place name on the waterways (e.g. "Braunston Marina") or "lat,lon" coordinates.'}, 'boat_beam': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat beam (width). Metres by default (e.g. 2.08), or feet/inches (e.g. "6\'10\\"").'}, 'boat_length': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat length. Metres by default (e.g. 17.4), or a feet/inches string (e.g. "57ft").'}, 'boat_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat draught (depth below the waterline). Metres or feet/inches.'}, 'lock_minutes': {'type': 'number', 'maximum': 90, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Minutes to work through one lock. Default 15. Experienced crews may use 10, single-handers 20 or more.'}, 'boat_air_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat air draught (height above the waterline, for bridges and tunnels). Metres or feet/inches.'}, 'cruising_hours_per_day': {'type': 'number', 'maximum': 16, 'minimum': 1, 'description': 'Cruising hours per day, used to split the journey into days with suggested overnight moorings. Default 6.'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
search_directory
Search the waterways business directory
Search Canal Nav's directory of waterside businesses on the British inland waterways: marinas, chandleries, boat hire, boatyards, pump-out and services, fuel, moorings, surveyors, brokerage, and canalside food and pubs. Filter by free text, category, or proximity to a place. Listings marked unclaimed can be claimed for free by the business owner at https://canalnav.com/.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'properties': {'near': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'A place name or "lat,lon" to search around (approx. 15 km).'}, 'query': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'Free-text search over business names and descriptions.'}, 'category': {'enum': ['marina', 'chandlery', 'hire', 'boatyard', 'services', 'fuel', 'moorings', 'surveyor', 'brokerage', 'food', 'trade', 'other'], 'type': 'string', 'description': 'Directory category to filter by.'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
will_my_boat_fit
Will my boat fit a waterway
Check boat dimensions against the published maximum craft dimensions for a named British waterway (length, beam, draught and air draught, from Canal & River Trust published figures covering the full CRT network). Returns a per-dimension verdict quoting the limit. Draught and headroom vary with water level and silting, so treat the answer as advisory. For a whole journey, use plan_route with boat dimensions instead: it checks every waterway along the route.
Input schema
{'type': 'object', '$schema': 'http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#', 'required': ['waterway'], 'properties': {'waterway': {'type': 'string', 'description': 'Waterway name, e.g. "Ashby Canal" or "Llangollen Canal".'}, 'boat_beam': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat beam (width). Metres by default (e.g. 2.08), or feet/inches (e.g. "6\'10\\"").'}, 'boat_length': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat length. Metres by default (e.g. 17.4), or a feet/inches string (e.g. "57ft").'}, 'boat_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat draught (depth below the waterline). Metres or feet/inches.'}, 'boat_air_draught': {'type': ['number', 'string'], 'description': 'Boat air draught (height above the waterline, for bridges and tunnels). Metres or feet/inches.'}}, 'additionalProperties': False}
History
Recent tool changes
Added
search_directory
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Added
find_place
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Added
will_my_boat_fit
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Added
get_closures
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Added
plan_round_trip
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Added
plan_route
Sept. 17, 2026, 12:34 p.m.
Discover
Similar MCP servers
MolTravel
com.moltravel/travel
Searches and provides details for flights, hotels, rental cars, ferries, airports, travel experiences, destinations, country info…
Wmata
io.github.pipeworx-io/wmata
Provides Washington Metro rail and bus routes, stops, stations, service incidents, route details, and real-time arrival predictio…
Openrouteservice
io.github.pipeworx-io/openrouteservice
Provides geocoding, routing, travel-time matrices, isochrones, snapping, and elevation data using OpenStreetMap-based services.
Google_maps
io.github.pipeworx-io/google_maps
Provides Google Maps geocoding, place search and details, directions, distance matrices, and elevation data.
SeaWeb
tech.seaweb/seaweb
Searches and extracts web information about entities and travel locations, including restaurants, salons, tourist conditions, dis…
Aviationstack
io.github.pipeworx-io/aviationstack
Provides airline, airport, city, country, and flight directory data, including real-time and scheduled flight details.
Nps
io.github.pipeworx-io/nps
Searches National Park Service data for parks, campgrounds, activities, alerts, visitor statistics, locations, fees, and operatin…
Tfl
io.github.pipeworx-io/tfl
Provides London transport journey planning, line status, disruptions, stop arrivals, and Santander Cycle availability.