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About Live The Dream Narrowboats & Fradley Marina.

Over the ten years we’ve spent creating dream luxury narrowboats we often thought about building a marina to match the ethos of our amazing boats. We wanted to create something that was contemporary & easy going but underpinned with a reassuringly practical level of knowledge, attention to quality & detail.

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What our customers think

A few kind words from some of our recent customers who we have worked with to create their dream narrowboats.

Hear what others had to say

We absolutely loved working with the Live the Dream team from the day we decided to build our boat with them.

Nick, Sophie & Kingfisher

Building our own Narrowboat was a fantastic experience. We had a few ideas and the team at Live the Dream helped us to create our perfect floating holiday home.

Richard, Andrea & Blossom

Frequently asked questions

  • How much does a luxury narrowboat cost?

    The factors that determine the cost of a new narrowboat are many and varied. What never varies is the core quality of our builds because we base all our narrowboats on the very highest quality Tyler Wilson shells.

    We’ll either work with you to design the shell and complete the fit out to your exact specification with our ‘Bespoke Narrowboat Building’ service. Prices range between £105-£165k

    Alternatively, if we have one in stock, you can invest in one of our very popular, and extremely good value, ‘Personalised Narrowboats’. Prices range from £99K-£130k

    The ‘Bespoke’ option gives you maximum control over the costs. ‘Personalised’ boats offer extremely good value for money as with this type of boat we generate some attractive economies of scale.

    See our currently available boats

  • How long will my boat take to build?

    From the faint spark of an idea to launch, one of our 100% bespoke hand-built narrowboats can be completed in around 20 weeks. However, many clients prefer to take a little more time over the whole process.

    If you take the Bespoke Narrowboats route then we’ll choose the layout together before designing the fit, fixtures and fittings. With this route we build and fit from scratch to your exact specifications.

    If you take the Personalised Narrowboat route then, you’ll take one of three options of shell and depending on the stage at which you catch the build, you can choose fixtures, fittings and colourways.

    If you’d like to see what Live the Dream Narrowboats currently has on offer drop us a line and we can talk through the option that would work best for you.

    Contact Us

  • When will Fradley Marina open?

    Our marina project ‘broke ground’ in late 2018 and we completed the main structures and connected to the Trent and Mersey Canal in October 2021. We have 60 berths suitable for leisure boaters and a full range of workshop services using our slipway and purpose built boat house.

    If you’re interested in finding out more, please do drop us a line. We are always happy to talk to people who are looking for something that’s a little more personal, homely and attractive than the standard ‘Parking Lot’ you’ll find at many of the commercial marinas. Nothing wrong with those, but that’s not what you’ll find at Fradley.

    Contact Us

  • Can we design my boat together?

    Absolutely! Every boat we create has a lot of each customer built into it. And the options for both the layout and the fit of your home from home are practically limitless.

    Front cabin, mid or rear cabin? No problem. Granite worksurfaces? We offer a choice. Proper bath? Why wouldn’t you? Like chrome? Traditional or contemporary? The choice is yours.

    We’ve been helping people design and then create their dream for over 10 years so if you’d like to know more about how we did that then enjoy learning more about us on this website.

    Read about our boat building

  • Why should I choose Fradley Marina?

    That’s a great question, especially with so much choice available on the network. Understanding the difference in what we will offer will be important to making a decision about where you will moor your boat.

    Fradley Marina has been conceived and built to follow the ethos of our boat building business ‘Live the Dream Narrowboats’ and the clue is right there in the name. We are a small family run boat building company and Fradley Marina will be a small family run marina.

    We’ll offer moorings in three secluded lagoons, rather than one mahoosive narrowboat car park. We’ll offer personal service to like-minded people, who don’t need too many rules because common sense will be the main rule. We’ll offer all the facilities you’ll need for a weekend away or an extended stay.

    Fradley Marina is on a quiet (and we mean really quiet) stretch of the Trent & Mersey. So, whilst you can be on the A38 (just north of Lichfield) within 5 minutes and the M6 in 10… you can’t hear either of them from our quiet corner.

    We won’t be cheap but neither will we be the most expensive, we’ll offer great value and a lovely environment for what we fully intend will be the midland’s happiest community of long term leisure & weekend cruising narrowboat owners.

    Make a mooring enquiry