Legal
Deliveries and sales come apart in the office, not at sea
A boat can be perfectly fit to sail and have a problem in her paperwork. What gets checked before moving a boat or signing a sale.
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Deliveries blog
Protocols, safety and craft in moving boats between ports. Written for owners, brokers and anyone who needs a yacht delivered properly.
Maintenance
Boat maintenance: what to check, how often, and why the history is worth money
A boat is not maintained by one service a year. Every system ages at its own rate, and the point is to catch things early, prioritise well and leave a record.
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Basics
What we need to know to quote a delivery
Four blocks of information and a quote stops being a number in the air. This is what we ask, and why each answer moves the price.
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Safety
Schedule pressure sinks boats: why a departure date is never forced
The most repeated cause of loss on a delivery is not an unforecast gale. It is a date in a calendar and somebody who sailed anyway.
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Protocols
Knowing how to sail is not enough: delivery crews are picked for how they fix things
On a long passage things break. What separates a scare from a total loss is whether the people aboard have practised what they are about to have to do.
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Logistics
How a boat travels aboard a ship: lift-on, float-on and what will be asked of you
Craned aboard or floated in. The two systems, what decides whether your boat fits, and how a vessel is prepared to travel as cargo.
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Sailing her or shipping her: how the choice is made
There are two ways of moving a boat between distant ports, and the same one does not always win. What really changes between sailing her and shipping her as cargo.
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Basics
What a delivery is and when you need one
Professional transfer of a boat between two ports, by sea and with crew. When it makes sense, when it does not, and what to expect from the service.
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Protocols
The pre-departure inspection: twelve areas checked before casting off
The longer the route, the less sense it makes to leave a known problem for later. What gets checked, why, and what happens when something is not right.
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Protocols
The handover and acceptance record
The most important document in the whole process, and the one most people skip. What it should contain and why it protects both sides.
Read article Navigation
Passage planning and weather windows
The most important decision of a delivery is made ashore: when to leave. How forecasts get read and why sometimes the professional answer is to wait.
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Safety equipment for an offshore passage
What we carry once the boat leaves coastal waters: liferaft, harnesses, jackstays, EPIRB and the gear we hope never to touch.
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Protocols
Crew, watches and rest
The biggest risk on a passage is not the gale: it is fatigue. How watches are organised so nobody makes decisions exhausted.
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Insurance and liability: cover is verified, never assumed
A boat having insurance does not mean the delivery is covered. The most expensive mistake an owner can make fits inside a five-minute phone call.
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The paperwork that travels with the boat
The folder to have ready before departure, on paper and digitally. What the authorities ask for and what you will be glad to have if things go wrong.
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Navigation
Fuel, range and stopovers
What the boat actually burns, how much margin to leave, and why the tank gauge is not a reliable source of information.
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Protocols
Communications and position reports
How we keep the owner informed during the passage and what protocol kicks in if communication is lost.
Read articleShall we plan your day?
Tell us what you feel like and we build the route around it, with skipper and crew included.
Image credits
The photographs on this page come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under their respective free licences.
- Blogtrepreneur · CC BY 2.0
- Jean-Pierre Bazard Jpbazard · CC BY-SA 3.0
- J. S. Bond · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Angell Bob, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domain
- Seaman Molly Evans · Public domain
- Trip2zh · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Joselodos · CC0
- Joe Mabel · CC BY-SA 3.0
- ILA-boy · GNU GPL 2.0+
- DetFerMai · CC BY-SA 4.0
- GR8DAN · CC BY-SA 3.0
- S.J. de Waard · CC BY 3.0