Your journey on the water starts here
Discover the comprehensive marine services offered by Squires Marine Services. From seamless boat relocation to expert marine engineering and essential inland waterways tuition, we are here to support every aspect of your boating experience.
Our core services
At Squires Marine Services, we offer a range of specialized services designed to meet the diverse needs of boat owners. Our approach focuses on delivering reliable, expert solutions for your vessel.
Boat relocation
Whether you are transitioning to a new home mooring, purchasing a new vessel that needs bringing home, or simply need your boat moved across the water, Squires Marine Services provides reliable, experienced, and hands-on vessel delivery.
Every relocation is handled with the utmost care, treating your boat as if it were my own. Because my background is rooted in deep marine engineering and years of liveaboard experience, I don't just steer boats—I understand how they tick, how to monitor their systems underway, and how to handle unexpected mechanical or navigational hurdles.
What's Included:
Professional Skippering: Safe, competent navigation and helmsman delivery tailored to your vessel's specific handling characteristics.
Route Planning & Execution: Careful management of your journey across complex waterway networks, coastal stretches, or open water, accounting for tides, locks, and transit schedules.
Pre-Voyage System Check: A thorough check of essential onboard systems—including engine vitals, bilge pumps, steering gear, and electrical levels—before casting off.
End-to-End Care: Secure mooring, fender placement, and a handover report detailing how the vessel performed during the transit.
Marine engineering
When something goes wrong on board—or when your vessel simply needs routine maintenance to stay reliable—you need an engineer who understands marine systems inside and out. Drawing on 26 years of hands-on engineering experience, from Royal Navy marine and gas turbine systems to large plant equipment, Squires Marine Services provides expert, diagnostic-led mechanical and electrical support directly to your boat.
Because I live aboard full-time and know the realities of life on the water, I understand how critical it is to get your systems running properly and efficiently. Whether you are facing an urgent breakdown or planning scheduled upgrades, every job is approached with precision, deep technical knowledge, and respect for your floating home.
What's Included:
Fault Finding & Diagnostics: Systematic troubleshooting of stubborn mechanical, electrical, and fuel system issues to find the root cause quickly.
Engine Servicing & Repairs: Routine servicing, maintenance, and major mechanical repairs for inboard diesel engines and associated drivetrain components.
Off-Grid Electrical Systems: Expert installation, configuration, and troubleshooting for 12V/24V/230V setups, including battery banks, inverters, solar arrays, DC-DC chargers, and charging hubs.
Plumbing & Onboard Systems: Repairs and upgrades for water pumps, calorifiers, heating systems (such as Webasto/Eberspacher), and sanitation setups.
Bespoke Fabrication & Modifications: Custom brackets, pipework routing, and mechanical fixes tailored to the unique constraints of your vessel's engine room or layout.
Inland waterways tuition
Inland Waterways Skipper Tuition
Gaining confidence on the helm is the key to truly enjoying life on the water. Whether you are completely new to boating, stepping up to a larger vessel, or simply want to sharpen your skills for peace of mind, Squires Marine Services offers practical, hands-on skipper tuition tailored specifically to the canal and river network.
Taught from a lifetime of professional marine experience and years of living aboard on the cuts, this training focuses on real-world handling rather than just textbook theory. We will work at your pace, on your own vessel, ensuring you build the muscle memory, safety habits, and seamanship needed to handle any stretch of the inland waterways independently.
What's Included:
* Lock Etiquette & Operation: Master single-handed and crewed lock transits safely, efficiently, and with confidence.
* Boat Handling & Manoeuvring: Learn how to manage prop walk, wind, currents, and tight turns in narrow channels and marinas.
* Mooring & Anchoring: Perfect your approach, practice secure rope-work, and tie up neatly in any conditions.
* Bridge & Tunnel Transits: Navigate pinch points, low bridges, and dark tunnels smoothly and safely.
* Onboard Systems Awareness: Understand how to monitor and manage your engine, steering gear, and electrical systems while underway so you know your boat inside and out.
Packages tailored to your needs
Stepping aboard as a new boat owner—or taking on a major transition with your vessel—can feel overwhelming. To make the process seamless, Squires Marine Services offers structured packages that combine relocation, marine engineering, and skipper tuition into a single, cohesive service.
Whether you need a complete, end-to-end handover for a new purchase or a custom-built bundle of technical and practical support, everything is designed around you and your boat.
New Owners Package
A turnkey solution for anyone who has just purchased a boat and wants to go from "just bought it" to "fully confident and operational" without the stress.
How the Services Combine:
Relocation: Collect the vessel from its purchase location and safely navigate it directly to their new home mooring.
Engineering: While delivering or upon arrival, you perform a full engine service, check critical safety and fuel systems, and rectify any immediate snags so they start with a clean slate.
Tuition: Wrap up the handover with a dedicated day of hands-on skipper training aboard their boat, teaching them how to handle it solo or with crew, tackle locks, and manage their onboard systems.
Custom Packages
Every boat and owner has different priorities. If our standard packages don't quite fit your exact requirements, we can mix and match any combination of services to build a solution tailored precisely to you. Whether you need a short relocation leg paired with a specific engineering fix, or ongoing tuition alongside phased system upgrades, we will create a bespoke plan that works for your boat and your schedule.
