Cox’s Boatyard is proud to announce the opening of its new workshop. This impressive new building represents a key part of the business’s on-going commitment to modernise the boatyard and marina, and demonstrates a significant investment in the future of its boat maintenance and restoration capabilities. The total investment for this project is in the region of £900k, reflecting the substantial commitment the business is making to support the marine industry and traditional boat-building facilities and skills.
The newly opened workshop was completed in July, and has space for twelve boats, greatly increasing the yard’s previous working capacity. It will soon be equipped with a specialist paint bay for boats up to 50 feet (15.2 m) long, and will also support a new engineering area that has substantially more capability than the previous engineering area in the old workshop. In fact, the new workshop has replaced two old buildings, which had come to the end of their lives.
Managing Director Eric Bishop commented: ‘We are very proud of the new workshop. It has taken several years of planning to get to this stage, and we have put a lot of consideration into its design and build. We are delighted with the end result and once the building work was finished, we moved into it the very next day as we had boats waiting for work to be completed. Our ever-growing business had certainly already outgrown the main workshop which was built ten years ago.’
Construction of the workshop took 28 weeks and it is now a fully insulated steel portal building, with a polished concrete floor. The total workshop floor area is 502 m2, and there is also a mezzanine floor for the storage of materials and equipment. The building has a ground foundation of 102 ground piles, all installed to a depth of 16.5 metres. The main contractors PJ Spilling oversaw the build, which was completed on time and on budget thanks to a project team comprising PJ Spilling, Eric Bishop, Bill Glover and Dominic Blake.
Cox’s Boatyard is based in Barton Turf, Norfolk, and offers a wide range of skills including traditional boat restoration, as well as repairs and painting of wood and GRP boats of all sizes and ages. The engineering department’s expertise covers servicing, repairs and the installation of inboard engines, outboards and electric motors. Cox’s Boatyard also has a boat travel hoist which can lift any craft up to 35 tons. The marina has 180 floating moorings and about 100 spaces on the bank for dinghies and out of water storage.
Cox’s Boatyard has customers from all over the UK, including the south coast and the Thames area. The current directors and shareholders have led the development of the boatyard since 1995, and the business’s 15 staff have a collective 170 years of boat-building experience.
