After thirty years of chartering, admiring yachts in marinas, analysing boat reviews and scrutinizing the back pages of Yachting Monthly, we were close to realizing our dream of buying a yacht.  We knew that purchasing a yacht, particularly as a first time buyer, could be a daunting prospect. Get it wrong and we risked many thousands of pounds, months of delay and potentially losing our whole purchase which would represent many years of savings.

Of course, we would conduct a survey and use a solicitor. However, we soon realised that there was much more to consider. We needed a seasoned professional to guide us through the process and offer advice on: managing the offer, the survey scope, drawing up a purchase contract, managing the deposit and final settlement, arranging the survey and sea trial, considering the implications of survey findings and cost of repairs, registration, insurance, berthing, and delivery.

Mark Ellyatt from Williams and Smithells gave us exactly the support we needed. Always helpful, he built good relationships, offering a pragmatic plan and explained the risks and implications of what we were doing. I lost a few days sleep through the process – but it was 100% excitement and 0% worry!