Fabulous New Facilities now available at Whilton Marina!

We are very excited to announce that Whilton Marinas new workshop and boat lifting facilities are now complete. We now have a fantastic new working environment for our engineering and welding teams. Construction of the purpose built 9,000 square ft Narrowboat Maintenance and Repair Workshop, wharf and boat lift was started at the end of summer 2017 and was finally completed in July this year when the boat lifting hoist arrived. The project was the vision of one of our company owners; Director Richard Steele who oversaw the project from beginning to end. He would often look at coastal marinas while he was away on holiday, and often dreamed of installing at boat hoist at Whilton Marina.

This significant investment is designed to strengthen our position and commitment as market leader in used narrowboat sales. We have invested £900,000 in the new facilities, wharf and boat lift. We have also recruited several new staff members to our engineering and works team, showing that we are confident about our future in narrowboat sales and the future of our marina. 

The new workshop is capable of holding three 70ft narrowboats simultaneously for maintenance and repair purposes. It is fully equipped for the undertaking of works to new and used steel narrowboats or widebeams; to include stern tube renewal, new window installations, renewal of gas lockers, wiring, painting, engine installations, hull replating and refurbishment works. Where previously our welding team worked under a canopy outside, this superb new workshop will enable our welding teams and engineers to work on boats out of the water and under cover in a purpose built working environment.

The new facilities will compliment our other on site facilities of floating covered workshop, covered dock and two slipways and put the ‘icing on the cake’ for narrowboat repair facilities at our marina!  Our brand new Wise 40 tonne motorised Hoist has four wheel steering, which was named Hercules, by our Crick Boat Show ‘name the crane competition’ winner Mrs Holvey, will be used to lift and transport the widebeam or narrowboat into the new refurbishment workshop.

The hoist is capable of lifting 40 tonnes and up to 72ft long x 12 ft wide boats. This will speed up the process of taking boats in and out of the water allowing for a ‘one in, one out’ approach for works purposes. A new wharf has also been constructed to allow the Wise Hoist to manoeuvre over the water and lift out narrowboats when surveys are required. This will enable us to react a lot more quickly to our demands on site, which will speed up the boat sales process.  

Our new workshop is now available for customers to book for the following works on their narrowboats or widebeamed boats; pressure washing, blacking and anodes, replating and stern gear work. Customers can contact Whilton Marina by telephoning 01327 842577 to book (the work will be undertaken by Whilton Marina, (no 'do it yourself' work is permitted on site)

The boat lifting crane is probably the first purpose built facility of this kind on the UK inland waterways system. It will reduce our carbon footprint as a company because there will no longer be a necessity to have cranes travelling to and from our site for the purpose of lifting boats out of the water.

The new workshop, wharf and boat lifting facility is designed to hugely assist our customers through the narrowboat buying and selling process, and make us one of the most successful ‘one-stop shops’ on the canal network; where you can buy a narrow boat, moor it, maintain and repair it, and if you need to sell your narrow boat on, we can sell it for you on brokerage, offer you cash for your boat or part exchange with another boat from either of our marinas; Whilton Marina in Northamptonshire or Venetian Marina in Cheshire. About Whilton Marina Whilton Marina has been buying, selling and caring for narrow boats since 1971 and we are located at Whilton Locks near Daventry on the Grand Union Canal.