The Dream Come True.
At Severn Valley, the dream of owning your own narrowboat starts long before the final handover of a completed craft.

The process of building a boat starts with your first tour of our yard. You will see our wet dock where we fit out new boats, and have chance to see boats in various stages of build from bare shells to almost complete new boats. We usually have fully completed new boats available for viewing by kind permission of new owners.

What next?
Once you have decided upon Severn Valley for your new boat, we will spend time sitting down with you to discuss your exact requirements. We have much experience of what works well and can advise you based on our experience and explain all the options with both pros and cons, however you will almost certainly have some good ideas that we will help develop into a working design.

Our philosophy is to be honest and up front – we will tell you if we think something is a "waste of money"! If you have chance to draw any rough sketches, this can be very useful in starting the ball rolling. We have a number of example layouts and designs that may also help you to formulate the final "dream boat".

Having decided upon a working layout and equipment list, we will get back to you with a detailed specification and scale plan drawing of your new boat.

The Build
Having placed your order, the next exciting stage is the build of the hull, you are more than welcome to see your hull in production, or wait and visit to see the completed hull. Don't forget your new boat comes fully kitted out ready to cruise so at around this time we like to get back together to go through all the colours, materials and fabrics for curtains, seats and trim to go with your new boat. This also gives us chance to cover any design concerns before the fit out starts.






Internal Design
During the fit out you are more than welcome to visit as often as you like to see how things are progressing, if you are a long distance away and visiting is not possible, then we can arrange to have photographs taken at each stage of the fit out.

The Hand Over
Once your new boat is completed, we will agree on a convenient hand over day. We spend a whole day with you explaining how all of the equipment and electrics work and then take you out for a run on the Staffs and Worcester canal with one of our qualified instructors. Once your handover is complete, there is no rush to head off to your final mooring, you are welcome to stay with us for a while to enable you to get used to your new boat.

All in all, having a boat built by Severn Valley is both an enjoyable and rewarding experience which ends in your dream boat coming true – we all at Severn Valley look forward to working with you at some point in the future!