TAKING OWNERSHIP

BEN LOWINGS ON HAVING YOUR YACHT DELIVERED

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Imagine you've just bought your dream yacht, but it’s floating thousands of miles away. Getting it delivered to its new berth often involves arranging taxes, registration and insurance, and possibly refitting. Hiring a skipper can help you with all of these things, not just sailing it.

I was recently a delivery skipper for a new owner who needed a VAT-free bargain yacht in Finland sailed over to the Irish Republic, once a Jersey flag registration was obtained. There are well-trodden delivery paths, for example a thriving trade takes new or refitted Hallberg-Rassys from Ellos in Sweden to all points south, and Lagoon catamarans out from their base in Bordeaux, France.

A newly-acquired yacht might not need anything retrofitted, but a delivery skipper will require some necessities for an ocean passage. The capacity of a yacht's watermaker or solar arrays will need to be assessed for ocean deliveries. A time-sensitive voyage may well tip the power equation heavily in favour of engine use, so delivery skippers will route in favour of refuelling stops and budget for both refilling tanks and adding fuel cans lashed on deck.

WHO TO USE?

There are pros and cons to choosing an individual skipper or a yacht delivery company. PYD (Professional Yacht Deliveries), one of the UK's largest firms, has dozens of skippers on its books. Operations director Peter Kloezeman says that for a transatlantic crossing they'd allocate an experienced skipper who “will usually have completed the crossing several times.”