Homes Afloat was launched after company director Peter Firth, now retired, fulfilled his ambition to design and build a new style of Canal Cruiser offering the maximum in comfort and practicality for people choosing a lifestyle of relaxation, pleasure and adventure on the waterways of Europe.
	Peter's vision was inspired by a lifelong love of boats and sailing, and initially accomplished through the resources of long established parent company Railtec Engineering with its enviable reputation for quality, producing specialist rail equipment, construction plant equipment and metal sculptures, as well as boat building. Now, with his dream achieved, Peter has retired and is living with wife Anne aboard the prototype "Anna Palmer", currently moored in the South of France and Homes Afloat is run by John Firth, Peter's son, and business partner, Andrew Kitchen. John and Andrew, both with many years' marine engineering experience, believe that Homes Afloat's European Canal Cruiser will meet a very real demand for a boat that combines quality, comfort and individuality. They are committed to giving each customer the boat they really want, and from the outset will gladly spend as much time as is necessary to ensure that individual solutions are catered for before the first piece of steel is cut.