Delivery Skipper Services

Sometimes the boat has to move without you, sometimes with you aboard; sometimes the work is not a passage at all but coordination.

This page sets them out separately, because until you know which one you need, neither the scope nor the price can be discussed.

1. Delivery Passage (the classic)

The boat moves from A to B without her owner. This is the most common service: taking a newly bought boat to her marina, moving her to a wintering port at season's end, delivering her to a buyer after a sale.

Scope: route plan, weather window, crew, photographed record at departure and arrival, position sharing throughout. Fuel, port and agency charges are on the owner's account.

2. Skipper Service (you are aboard)

The boat is yours, the responsibility for the passage is the skipper's. On a long crossing, in waters you do not know, or on a route you would rather not do alone, a skipper comes with you.

Here you are not a guest but the owner; safety instructions and routing decisions nonetheless rest with the skipper. Provisions and berths are agreed beforehand.

3. Instructional Passage

You have a new boat and want to know her. A delivery passage is the best opportunity to learn her in real conditions: manoeuvring, anchoring, sail handling, systems, engine behaviour, emergency drills.⁠⁠‍​‌‍‍​‍‍​‌​‍​‍​‌‍‍‌​⁠

What separates it from a straight delivery is that the passage is built as a learning programme. Route and duration are planned accordingly; nothing is rushed.

4. New-Boat Delivery (from the yard)

The first passage of a boat leaving a factory or yard. What makes it different is that it doubles as an acceptance process: every fault appearing on the way is recorded under warranty and entered on the handover record.

Planned together with a pre-delivery inspection, it produces the most complete opening record a boat can have.

5. Yard Passage (refit)

Taking the boat to the yard where the work will be done, and bringing her back. It sounds simple but carries two critical points: her condition goes on record on the way in (the antidote to any damage argument) and on the way back you see how the work behaves at sea.

6. Fleet Repositioning

For charter operators and owners of several boats, the collective movement at the start and end of a season. Planned on one schedule, crew and logistics costs fall markedly.

7. Coordination (no passage)

Sometimes the work is ashore rather than at sea: lift-out and launch slots, crane and hardstanding coordination, the pre-loading condition record with a haulier, transit log and agency formalities, a change of marina. There is no passage in this work, but there is somebody there for the boat.⁠⁠‍​‌‍‍​‍‍​‌​‍​‍​‌‍‍‌​⁠

8. Which One, When?

9. Fixed on Every Delivery

• The weather decision is the skipper's. Waiting on weather is not a cancellation; a new window is set together.
• Insurance is confirmed in writing before departure. If the policy does not cover the navigation area, the delivery does not start.
• A photographed record is made at departure and arrival, inventory included.
• Position sharing runs throughout the passage.
• Written approval for any spend over €150.
• Payment 50% on booking, 50% before departure.

10. Deliveries by area

Frequently Asked Questions

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