"After a long and sometimes disappointing and frustrating search, we found Beacon Boats purely by accident, having seen a review of Golcar Lily in Canal Boat magazine, and chose them to build our future home. We are immensely glad that we did!
Gary at XR & D did a superb job building the shell almost single-handedly after Lee had an accident and couldn’t work for several months.
Ali and Neil at Beacon have been wonderful, spending a great deal of time and effort to make sure we got exactly what we wanted, and steering us gently away from ideas that wouldn’t work. The quality of their work and attention to detail is second-to-none. They took our frequent changes of mind with good humour, and rose to the many challenges we set them.
Illness and injury made their job much harder this time (Andy came back having recovered from a serious operation to paint the boat), but they ploughed on regardless, working 15 hour days to get the job done. Such is their dedication that Neil even walked 5 miles to work in the snow, because the roads were too bad for him to get to work on his motorbike!
Ali, Neil and Andy, we can’t thank you all enough for producing the boat of our dreams, and for the many kilos of Jaffa Cakes we consumed during our numerous visits! You will always be welcome aboard, and we will return the favour when you visit!"
Pip & Roger Haynes
Gary at XR & D did a superb job building the shell almost single-handedly after Lee had an accident and couldn’t work for several months.
Ali and Neil at Beacon have been wonderful, spending a great deal of time and effort to make sure we got exactly what we wanted, and steering us gently away from ideas that wouldn’t work. The quality of their work and attention to detail is second-to-none. They took our frequent changes of mind with good humour, and rose to the many challenges we set them.
Illness and injury made their job much harder this time (Andy came back having recovered from a serious operation to paint the boat), but they ploughed on regardless, working 15 hour days to get the job done. Such is their dedication that Neil even walked 5 miles to work in the snow, because the roads were too bad for him to get to work on his motorbike!
Ali, Neil and Andy, we can’t thank you all enough for producing the boat of our dreams, and for the many kilos of Jaffa Cakes we consumed during our numerous visits! You will always be welcome aboard, and we will return the favour when you visit!"
Pip & Roger Haynes
Windsong is a 58’ Semi-trad narrowboat. Once again, another bespoke live aboard boat, launched June 2009.
This lovely boat returned to the popular red, black and cream colours that many of our customers favour. That however is where the similarities finish, as again, the customers had specific requests for us to work with.
The internal fit is in Maple and Oak, a lovely light combination. She is built in ‘reverse’ layout, so galley at the stern, then dinette, saloon, bathroom and bedroom at the bow.
A beautiful granite was chosen in the galley, with under mounted sink. The galley had LOADS of storage; we made a total of 23 doors for the galley alone! Again, the customers went for the under floor cool storage as well as kick board drawers, and all utilities were neatly hidden away…. the washer, drier and fridge.
The dinette choice was an ‘L’ shaped one, at 6’6” long, it makes a comfy extra bed. It also houses the freezer, and has split tables for flexibility; one table will also double for a table in the bow area.
The saloon also had storage wherever we could put it, including a lovely full height corner cupboard, glazed, a bookcase, and entertainment cupboard with TV, satellite, freeview, dvd…….you name it!
The stove choice in this case is a Bubble diesel stove. Central heating is provided by a separate Webasto system, with it’s own diesel tank.
The Bathroom houses a Vacu-flush toilet, with remote tank, and shower and vanity unit. The bedroom choice was for a cross bed, built with 3 sliding sections for easy single-handed operation, and again, storage abounds. Each bedside table has a stack of solid wood drawers behind its door. A corner cupboard was made for laundry, and doubles as a dressing table.
The bow area, as mentioned, has facility to put a table on a desmo leg, and is covered with a cratch. A courtesy light is also fitted. The engine is a 42hp Isuzu, with 3.5kw travel pack, AGM battery bank and Smartguage fitted. There is also a 3kw pure sine inverter charger onboard, and a ‘Sidepower’ Bow thrusters for windy days.
Our customers ran a blog throughout the build, which can be seen at: www.nb-windsong.blogspot.com
We wish them every happiness on Windsong.
This lovely boat returned to the popular red, black and cream colours that many of our customers favour. That however is where the similarities finish, as again, the customers had specific requests for us to work with.
The internal fit is in Maple and Oak, a lovely light combination. She is built in ‘reverse’ layout, so galley at the stern, then dinette, saloon, bathroom and bedroom at the bow.
A beautiful granite was chosen in the galley, with under mounted sink. The galley had LOADS of storage; we made a total of 23 doors for the galley alone! Again, the customers went for the under floor cool storage as well as kick board drawers, and all utilities were neatly hidden away…. the washer, drier and fridge.
The dinette choice was an ‘L’ shaped one, at 6’6” long, it makes a comfy extra bed. It also houses the freezer, and has split tables for flexibility; one table will also double for a table in the bow area.
The saloon also had storage wherever we could put it, including a lovely full height corner cupboard, glazed, a bookcase, and entertainment cupboard with TV, satellite, freeview, dvd…….you name it!
The stove choice in this case is a Bubble diesel stove. Central heating is provided by a separate Webasto system, with it’s own diesel tank.
The Bathroom houses a Vacu-flush toilet, with remote tank, and shower and vanity unit. The bedroom choice was for a cross bed, built with 3 sliding sections for easy single-handed operation, and again, storage abounds. Each bedside table has a stack of solid wood drawers behind its door. A corner cupboard was made for laundry, and doubles as a dressing table.
The bow area, as mentioned, has facility to put a table on a desmo leg, and is covered with a cratch. A courtesy light is also fitted. The engine is a 42hp Isuzu, with 3.5kw travel pack, AGM battery bank and Smartguage fitted. There is also a 3kw pure sine inverter charger onboard, and a ‘Sidepower’ Bow thrusters for windy days.
Our customers ran a blog throughout the build, which can be seen at: www.nb-windsong.blogspot.com
We wish them every happiness on Windsong.
