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Whatever the precious cargo you are shipping between regattas or simply around the world, having a single point of contact taking care of every aspect of the delivery makes for a better night’s sleep
Shipping raceboats between events makes a lot of sense, whatever the size of the yacht. In particular, wear and tear is eliminated so you can expect the boat, sails and equipment to arrive in the same condition in which it left. It’s also possible to ship the yacht’s container or a trailer with equipment and spares, either at the same time or ahead of the boat. Dutch company Sevenstar is
arguably the biggest name in the field globally and has more than 120 of its own ships used for both scheduled and one-off sailings. The former includes a monthly schedule from northern Europe to the Baltimore region in the USA, plus three sailings a year from northern Europe to the Caribbean via Southampton, as well as return sailings from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. ‘Having our own vessels means
that we have plenty of regular sailings and reach all the racing destinations,’ says Sander Speet, who is in charge of race yacht logistics and is the central contact point for clients at every stage of the process. ‘If our regular timing or routing doesn’t work for a client we can always make a customised sailing. This might use another vessel from our own fleet or in an extreme example we can charter a ship to create a sailing with
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specific timings, plus loading and discharging ports that all meet the customer’s requirements.’ A racing team comprises many
personnel from skippers to grinders, sail trimmers to shore managers. Speet’s background is as a professional offshore racing helm and trimmer, with three maxi world championship titles to his name. This gives him a solid grounding in the industry from a client’s perspective, when he was involved with loading and unloading race yachts from cargo vessels on a regular basis. This experience allows Sevenstar to become an integrated member of each racing team, from a logistics perspective. Speet still spends 20 per cent of
his time racing boats as diverse as Niklas Zennström’s new TP52 Ran and the J Class yachts Topaz and Svea. So how does this aspect of his work help him in his role at Sevenstar? ‘It's a big benefit because I’m right in the middle of the mix in the racing scene,’ he says. ‘It means you can get involved in the shipping process quite early on, making sure key people have the information they need at the right time and so on. After sailing I can keep tabs on everything back here in the office in Amsterdam, and benefit from direct face-to-face contact with all the other race crews. It's perfect
Above: these days there is almost no size limit to the yachts that can be shipped. Transporting the likes of Rambler is routine for Sevenstar and it makes sense for yacht owners because it eliminates the wear and tear that is inevitable if a boat is sailed to and from regattas
for networking and collaboration.’ This element of Speet’s working
life also enables Sevenstar to develop closer relationships with yacht clubs and race organisers. ‘That’s increasingly important for us,’ he says. ‘Talking to themat an early stage can bring a real benefit to both competitors and organisers – with enough notice we can schedule sailings to perfectlymatch the dates of a regatta. That then helps us to pick yachts up in good time to get themto their next event.We know race teams and owners often operate on tight schedules, without roomfor error, so it’s great if we can coordinate vessel timings efficiently around the dates of each event.’ Today there’s almost no size limit
to the yachts that can be shipped. Transporting the largest racing yachts like Rambler and the Wally 165 Better Place is routine and it’s not unusual to see big motor boats and superyachts loaded on Sevenstar ships. The operations team for these is the same as for raceboats, so much larger sailing yachts than 100ft can be transported, even if they require very delicate handling. Given any yacht – and especially
a raceboat – will require more delicate handling than the cargo ports are accustomed to dealing with, the operation teams have
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