Starting tomorrow and until Sunday April 26, Saint-Jean-de-Losne is hosting the 11th edition of the Salon Fluvial. The Weenav team will travel to the capital of European inland waterway navigation to take the pulse of a sector in full transformation.
An unmissable event for the river industry
Located in the heart of the Saint-Jean-de-Losne water station — the first river port in France, at the crossroads of the Saône, the Burgundy Canal and the Rhône-Rhine Canal — the Salon Fluvial is much more than a traditional boat show. It is a unique point of convergence for all actors in the sector: shipowners, lessors, shipyards, project developers, institutions and boaters.
This 2026 edition shows eloquent figures: 600 boats docked, 50 professional exhibitors, 5,000 expected visitors and a program structured around 10 thematic workshops-debates. The awarding of the Grand Prix du Salon Fluvial, which reward initiatives in terms of innovation, sustainable development and equipment, illustrates the rise in maturity of a sector that is no longer content with sailing: it is reinventing itself.
The energy transition, the central subject of this edition
While previous editions addressed decarbonization as a perspective, the 2026 edition treats it as a concrete necessity. The workshops announced around the electric propulsion, of hybrid engines and energy autonomy are aimed at a diverse audience: river rental professionals, fleet managers, houseboat owners, but also cruise companies looking for operational solutions.
The underlying question in this edition is precisely the one that Weenav deals with on a daily basis: How to adapt the propulsion of a river boat to today's environmental and economic constraints, without compromising on reliability or performance?
Several trends should structure the exchanges, which we are already seeing in our own retrofit projects:
- THEElectric is gradually becoming necessary on urban and semi-urban uses, where the reduction of noise and emissions represents a decisive advantage for the social acceptability of navigation.
- The deployment of charging infrastructures on canals remains a real obstacle, especially on certain less frequented sections of the navigable network.
- Les professional operators — rental companies, cruise lines, hotel boat managers — are increasingly undertaking feasibility studies to electrify all or part of their fleets.
What we expect from this edition
For the Weenav team, the presence at the Fluvial Show is a valuable opportunity to confront our technical approaches with the realities of the field. Exchanges with professionals with a wide variety of profiles — from small craft projects to national river tourism operators — directly enrich our understanding of the needs and constraints specific to inland navigation.
Several topics will be of particular interest to us this year:
River retrofitting and its specificities. A river boat does not sail like a maritime pleasure boat. The navigation regimes are different, the charging constraints during stopovers are specific, and the hulls — often made of steel — pose specific galvanic questions that our teams systematically integrate into the design of the systems.
The system approach, beyond the engine alone. The energy transition in inland waterways simultaneously involves propulsion, energy storage, on-board consumption management and port infrastructure. It is precisely the integrated approach that Weenav defends in each of its projects, from the feasibility study to the choice of the propeller.
Retrofit pedagogy. Many riverboat owners are considering electrical conversion without a clear vision of the technical steps, real costs, and expected performances. Exchanges 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 participating in the Fluvial Show and wish to discuss with the Weenav team about your electric motorization project — retrofitting a barge, electrifying a rental fleet, converting an indoor pleasure boat — do not hesitate to contact us to arrange an appointment on site.
Published on: 23/04/2026
Editor: Sophie Castelain
