Swan takes shape

May is going to be an exciting month here at Beacon Park Boats as we await the delivery of the steel shell for our new narrowboat, Swan.

The steel shell is being built by Colecraft Engineering in Warwickshire. She’ll arrive on a low loader and be craned off and into the canal. Following this she’ll be towed to our wharf, where she’ll be lifted out of the water on our own specially designed trailer and into our workshop for building and painting.

The boat will be delivered as a bare shell with nothing inside, so our team of in house carpenters, engineers and painters will get to work on it - ready for you by March 2027. Here’s some artist renders of the planned interior:

All our boats are made with 10mm thick bottom steel plate - with the sides folded 40 degrees to form chines to allow you to moor closer to the bank compared to normal boats, which have square edges. The sides are made from 6mm steel and the roof, 4mm steel. The window apertures are pre-cut out by the builder. Each boat has a welded in bow thruster tube and engine frames to take our Shire 40 engines which are now installed across our fleet of twenty narrowboats.

We will keep you updated on Swan's build progress throughout this year, on our Instagram and via our mailing list. If you are visiting us anytime soon please let us know and we’ll be very happy to show you our progress in the workshop.

It would also be remiss of us not to point out that you can book your stay aboard Swan for 2027 right now - be a part of Swan's first season on the canal!