Our Fleet: Built By Us

You’ll never have experienced boats quite like a Beacon Park Boat because they're bespoke. We are particularly proud that we design and build all our boats, adding a new one (or two) to the fleet each year. The process starts by spending time with our customers, finding out what their ideal boat would be. Then we try to design and build it, with the premise that it must be the sort of high quality boat on which we would want to spend a holiday.

The initial sketched layout sits on the drawing board in the office for several months allowing time for it to mature as different customers and colleagues comment on every aspect of the plan. For each boat we focus on at least one unique element, for example an inspection launch style, wider beds, bigger bathrooms, hot tub, wet room and so on. Once we’re content with the design, we discuss it with our fabricator.

The entire process, from initial sketch to launching the boat on to the canal, takes about 12 months.

Our new boat starts life as a sketch, albeit with fairly accurate measurements to ensure there's enough space for everything required inside. The new 'shell' arrives with plenty of time for painting before the internal fit out starts. This sketch is our only working plan - the rest is in our heads!

The steel shell, built to our detailed specification, is then delivered to our boat yard - with lots of work to do here over the next 6 months!

We start by loading ballast and timber-framing the sides and roof. Then we spray Cosy Homes insulation foam throughout the entire boat. Every bare piece of steel is covered to prevent condensation forming. As a result, our boats are as warm as toast in the chillier months.

Inside we route the water and electrics before lining the steel boat with wood. And we really do mean ‘wood’; there’s no mdf here! We choose oak, ash, walnut and sapele to ensure the interior has a classic look.

Each boat is hand-painted and receives three undercoats and two topcoats. Then we touch it up each week throughout the boating season to ensure it looks pristine for every single customer.

Next the Shire 40 engine gets carefully lowered into position. This leaves one last step; to officially 'launch' the boat with a bottle of champagne!

Although each boat goes through a variant of this process, each of our boats are also truly unique - this means we know through our tried and tested boat building techniques we will have created a five star craft but always with an added special something for its guests to enjoy.