Armada Boat Hire

Just love being on the canal from start to finish meeting some lovely people along the way , definitely recommend hiring from here , fingers crossed 🤞 we see you next year thanks Hector for a lovey week x

A wonderful experience on the grand union canal aboard the legend that is Hector . A truly amazing experience that has opened our eyes to a leisurely incaptivating holiday. we loved it and looking forward to our next one.

Another stop on our honeymoon and what a fantastic stop this was! After having all the adrenaline adventures, coming here was exactly what we needed!
Such a peaceful, relaxing restful time we had! Rupert and Jane were so helpful, accommodating and informativefor us both, the neighbours on other boats, even walkers all said hello to us.
We sailed… South on the Oxford canal, onwards to the grand union canal and we got to sail through the Braunston tunnel! What an amazing piece of engineering for a 1mile 250yard tunnel.
Our favorite part was sailing through the locks, where there is always

Just had an amazing 3 days, really chilled, if you have never done this before I totally recomend it, staff here where great, helpful with planning a route for us. As first timers you get a great induction on the controls an how the boat works, we where on Jack all what you need, for break Respect the boat and the simple give way rules you will have a fab time. Once again thank you a great trip highly recommended.

We absolutely loved our mid week break away on Hector. The owners were so helpful from the booking all the way until we finished our holiday.
This is the first time we've been on a boat on our own and Hector… was just the right size. The weather wasn't the best but Hector was so warm and cosy inside.
If we get the chance to book with Armada Boat Hire again we'd definitely do it.
I'd highly recommend

Recently had a fantastic week on Hector, owned by Armada Boat Hire.
First class customer service; friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, which made the whole experience trouble free.
Hector is a lovely little boat, very well kitted out, cozy and easy to maneuver. We opted to head to Market Harbourough and back in a week and travelled along some of the most beautiful countryside seeing loads of wildlife on the way (including counting eight Kingfishers).
Would not hesitate to recommend Armada Boat Hire or 'Hector' who everyone we met on our travels, loved.
Thanks for such a great holiday and we

Before owning our own boat, we hired Hector from Armada several times. A great company to deal with. Rue could not be more helpful. Hector is a unique boat. We loved her (him!) and have been tempted to hire for a weekend despite having our own boat now! It’s always a pleasure to see it out when we are cruising. I highly recommend.

Great job from Rue and Jane giving Spark in the Dark her new blacking. from lifting her out, blasting her off and cleaning her steel before two well spaced coats of blacking. Lifting me back to my mooring so I… could commute back and forth and stay on 'Sparky' overnight until she went back in. A great couple, I will certainly use them again.

Ok so we haven’t actually hired a boat from Armada but I would certainly hire from them based on what we experienced today. We hired a day boat from another company further north and had a great trip down to almost Hillmorton where we turned round because of lousy weather (the windiest August day on record). As we approached Falls Bridge, walkers… on the tow path advised us that a tree had come down just north of the wharf blocking the canal. We were getting ready to moor up and wait it out but then we were asked to carry on and pull in to Falls Bridge Wharf where the owner of Armada

Friendly service, felt very welcoming. Hector is a beautiful boat and you'll make friends with all the enthusiasts. We'll be back one day!

We have had another lovely week on Jack, (returning despite constant unprecedented 24/7 rain on our previous holiday last year! )There is nothing more relaxing than chugging along the canals admiring the splendid sights of Autumn. Nik and I have hired narrow boats on other canals in other areas of the country in the past, but nothing compares to Armada Boat Hire in attention to detail, and in terms of the cleanliness and comfort of Jack.

We took Hector out for a long weekend in June - an absolute delight! From the get-go the service was excellent, Rue was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The boat was great, a properly cute traditional tug style narrowboat, short enough to be no real hassle amongst all the other boats and able to nab moorings that others couldn't (handy!). It drew lots of positive comments from other boats and walkers, was warm, well laid out and equipped and the bed was really comfy. Plenty to see in the distance we covered, next time we will go the other way (we will be back!). As a refreshing alternative

Great price for diesel, but as live aboard newbies we really appreciated the time taken to show what we needed to know about our engine and what daily checks we should be carrying out. We offered a payment for the time taken but this was turned down, couldn’t have been happier, Erica and Sam

We hired Jack for the long august BH weekend; Rue really took the time to calm our nerves and took us out for an hour to show us how to drive the boat properly. He gave us advice on our route and off we went. The boat itself was gorgeous; all the mod cons and more. We really enjoyed our trip and Jack was a pleasure to use; we had so many comments and compliments from other boaters!

Hired cute and cosy hector a great learner boat. Roe gave us tuition and even though he was so busy he dropped us at the train station. Lovely 'helpful' hardworking place. Hopefully we will return later on next year family committments aside.thanks.lovely welcome pack.

Absolutely superb service! Knowledgeable, friendly, lovely people. Can't recommend highly enough. Thank you Rupert from Chris, Jinny and Madam Catty Pants on NB Netty (Skyravenwolf leatherwork).

Outstanding people and I wouldn't go any where else for anything for your boat needs.
2 wonderful little boats for couples to hire too, I love Hector, if you like quirky thats the boat to hire.
Rue knows his stuff when it comes to boats. Jane and him work so well together, you will feel like part of the family in no time.

A small and friendly narrowboat hire company on the fringes of Rugby that offer 2 delightful and well equipped hire boats sleeping up to 3 people. The boats themselves are very comfortable and can be booked for short breaks or longer stays subject to availability. There are plenty of different places that can be reached from the base, including very easy cruises with only one lock as well as some significantly more intensive and active cruise routes - the choice is yours.
Armada Boats also offer fuel, pump-out and water facilities as well as facilities for boat repairs.