Chef and former restaurant owner Riccardo Codacci-Pisanelli explains how — along with architect Leo Sixsmith — he repurposed a widebeam canal boat into the floating spa, SOAK.
The idea originally came during a difficult period in my life, which led to me going to the Community Sauna Baths in Hackney Wick and then travelling around the UK trying different saunas.
I fell in love with all of it, but mainly the social element. Some of the saunas we loved most were beside the sea, lakes or rivers, and — whilst having dinner on Leo's canal boat — we started wondering whether London's waterways could give us that same feeling right in the middle of the city.
"You stay connected to the canal outside"
We wanted to avoid simply recreating the Scandinavian aesthetic people might expect from a sauna, and instead make something that felt more connected to London's waterways and the industrial character of the boat itself.
Leo and his architectural firm badweather brought their approach of taking quite ordinary, robust materials — aluminium, exposed pipework, threaded rod and marine ply — using them very precisely, while the warmer timber and huge porthole windows soften everything and keep you connected to the canal outside.
Pretty much everything becomes harder on a boat. On land you take electricity, water, drainage and waste systems for granted, whereas we had to fit all of that into a 56-foot boat and make it work completely off-grid, alongside a very hot sauna, cold plunges and showers — all without compromising the design or experience.
Also nothing is square or equal, so every millimetre had to be reckoned with. There were plenty of moments when we wondered whether we'd taken on too many constraints at once. One of our biggest challenges was (and is) our energy supply. We're still tweaking our setup, balancing cold plunge temperatures Vs daylight hours, sun Vs solar panel angles, etc. We're taking the graphs from our battery software and the plunge chillers and asking AI to help us configure things as efficiently as possible. We've had lots of sun lately, but it has also been seriously warm, so our plunge chillers have been drawing a crazy amount of energy. That said, it's satisfying to plunge in water that has been cooled by the sun…
"People are really responding to having an alternative to the pub"
The response has been amazing, particularly given how new we are, and how hot it has been this summer. What's been fun is seeing how differently people use it: some come alone, but we’ve also had groups of friends, birthdays, dates, hens/stags, families and teams from work.
People are really responding to having an alternative way to spend time together that doesn’t revolve around a pub. The best part has been the feedback and reviews; it really does seem like people leave the boat with an extra special feeling.
The plan is to be open year-round. In some ways we're most excited about autumn and winter — the cosiness will ramp up, and people will be seeking out some warmth (they've been running from it during these heatwaves!).
We've only experienced it once or twice, but being on board whilst it's raining is so nice. The sounds and sights of the droplets landing on the water are quite enchanting. It'll bring some other issues though. In winter, we'll get less energy from our solar panels, but the canal water itself will get very cold and even freeze. This means we'll get colder water coming into the boat (we filter and purify canal water), which could help the efficiency of our cold plunge chillers. We just don't know yet which will have the greater effect.
For now, SOAK is very much a London project. We're travelling along the canal network and have already moved through different parts of east and north London, with each mooring giving the boat a completely different character; rather than publishing a rigid route, we announce each new location as we go and stay for two weeks before moving on. Longer term, we'd love to take the idea further afield. The boat itself will mainly remain tied to London’s waterways, but we're interested in what SOAK could become in other cities and landscapes too.
Find out more about SOAK — and book a slot — on the website.
