Starting tomorrow and until Sunday 26 April, Saint-Jean-de-Losne will host the 11th edition of the Fluvial Show. The Weenav team will travel to the capital of the European inland navigation to take the pulse of a sector in full transformation.
A must-attend event for the inland navigation sector
Located in the heart of the waterway station of Saint-Jean-de-Losne, the first inland port in France, at the crossroads of the Saône, the Burgundy Canal and the Rhône to Rhine Canal, the Fluvial Show is much more than a traditional boat show. It is a unique convergence point for all stakeholders in the sector: shipowners, rental companies, shipyards, project holders, institutions and leisure boaters.
This 2026 edition shows impressive figures: 600 boats at the dock, 50 professional exhibitors, 5,000 expected visitors and a programme structured around 10 thematic workshops-debates. The awarding of the Grand Prizes of the Fluvial Show, which reward initiatives in innovation, sustainable development and equipment, illustrates the maturation of a sector that no longer just navigates: it reinvents itself.
The energy transition, a central theme of this edition
While previous editions addressed decarbonisation as a perspective, the 2026 edition treats it as a concrete necessity. The announced workshops on electric propulsion, hybrid engines and energy autonomy addresses a diverse audience: professionals in riverboat rental, fleet managers, owners of houseboats, but also cruise companies in search of operational solutions.
The underlying question of this edition is precisely the one that Weenav deals with on a daily basis: how to adapt the propulsion of a riverboat to today's environmental and economic constraints, without compromising on reliability or performance?
Several trends should structure the discussions, which we are already observing in our own retrofit projects:
- The electric option is gradually becoming established in urban and semi-urban uses, where reducing noise and emissions represents a decisive advantage for the social acceptability of navigation.
- The deployment of charging infrastructure on the canals remains a real barrier, particularly on some less frequented sections of the navigable network.
- The professional operators — renters, cruise companies, hotel boat managers — are increasingly engaging in feasibility studies to electrify all or part of their fleets.
What we expect from this edition
The presence at the River Show is, for the Weenav team, a valuable opportunity to confront our technical approaches with the realities on the ground. Interactions with professionals of very varied profiles — from small artisanal shipyards to national scale river tourism operators — directly enrich our understanding of the needs and constraints specific to inland navigation.
Several topics will particularly catch our attention this year:
The river retrofit and its specificities. A riverboat does not navigate like a maritime pleasure boat. The navigation regimes are different, the charging constraints at stops are particular, and the hulls — often made of steel — raise specific galvanic questions that our teams systematically integrate into the design of the systems.
The system approach, beyond just the engine. The energy transition in the river sector simultaneously involves propulsion, energy storage, onboard consumption management, and port infrastructure. It is precisely this integrated approach that Weenav advocates in each of its projects, from feasibility studies to propeller selection.
The pedagogy around retrofitting. Many owners of riverboats are considering electric conversion without having a clear vision of the technical steps, actual costs, and expected performance. Discussions at the show are always an opportunity to advance this collective understanding.
Will you be in Saint-Jean-de-Losne this weekend?
If you are attending the River Show and wish to discuss your electric propulsion project (retrofit of a barge, electrification of a rental fleet, conversion of an inland pleasure boat) please do not hesitate to contact us to arrange a meeting on site.
Published: 23/04/2026
Editor: Sophie Castelain