Sustainability goals have reignited interest in more fuel efficient modalities for urban freight transportation. The autonomous inland vessel has the potential to enable a modality shift to the waterway, however economically-conscious solutions to the technological challenges are lacking. This paper explores the potential role of stereovision technology as a primary sensor set within the application of autonomous inland vessels. The design of a multi-camera navigation system for mid-range perception and localisation tasks is presented with a view to providing sufficient data for collision avoidance tasks. The performance of these sensors in the application is evaluated with experimental testing using small-scale vessels in an indoor tank, demonstrating their capabilities and limitations for consideration in ongoing research.