A GUIDE TO HAVING YOUR BOAT DELIVERED (OR HELPING DELIVER ONE)

If you need help getting your boat from A to B after a purchase or for a cruise, a delivery crew might be the solution,

- Ben Lowings

Perhaps your treasured yacht is in the wrong place at the wrong time? Does it need to be somewhere else, soon? Don’t have the time, crew, or experience to remedy this yourself? Well, it might be time to book a delivery. While it sounds simple, handing over your pride and joy to another skipper you’ve never met before can be a daunting prospect, so I’ve collated some advice on what the process would look like. We’re talking about sailing your vessel from one port to another here, as opposed to loading it on a larger vessel, for which a range of choices are available. This article concentrates on hiring a crew to sail your yacht to its destination. While it is possible to hire private individuals (more on that later) we’ve spoken in depth to three popular UK companies you’d be likely to come across in your search. The largest is Wirral-based Professional Yacht Deliveries Ltd. PYD – set up in 1995 – which completes 180 deliveries a year. ‘We deliver most yachts around the UK, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean,’ PYD’s snazzy website declares. Another option – also with slick homepage, social media presence and international reach but with European focus:

Halcyon Yacht Delivery Ltd, established in 2010, based in Falmouth. A smaller outfit is Merseyside-based Wright Marine Ltd. They’re doing good business in the wake of the pandemic. Other operators are out there. Amsterdam-based Sevenstar Yacht Transport’s a popular choice for transporting your yacht by ship.

CHOOSING A COMPANY AND SKIPPER