At the start of May we will be delivering a Beneteau Oceanis 58 back from Antigua to Europe and we are opening up the opportunity for two Ocean Yacht-master students to do their qualifying passage on this delivery please contact us for prices, we will supply the sextant, tables, plotting sheets and food and one to one tuition to help pass the ocean Yacht-Master Oral exam please use the contact page on our website for more details.

A Happy new year to all of our friends and customers and a prosperous 2012. we have had a very busy 2011 and 2012 looks to be no different with many orders for the early part of the year.

The S/Y Bonito a moody 336 arrived safely in Port Edgar Marina on new years eve for her new owners we commenced the delivery on Boxing day and had two days hiding in Blyth Marina from severe storms in the North sea, we would like to thank the members of the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club for making us so welcome over the festive season.

The sailing yacht Narnia arrived in the Caribbean before Christmas ready for charter she will be based in the BVI s for the next couple of months before heading to Antigua later in the spring for information on chartering Narnia see www.narniayachtcharter.com

The 420 Lagoon catamaran "Bobcat" arrived safely in Messolonghi marina in Greece from Alicante in Spain the 1102 Nm delivery took 7 days with one stop in Keffalonia to clear into Greece and acquire the DEKRA cruising permit current cost for this is €30.00 with a one time entry payment that came out at €20.00 Messolonghi marina is an upcoming marina in the centre of greece giving easy access to the corinth canal the marina is still under construction but now has a cafe bar and an office in place with chandlery to follow shortly it is a 3 hour drive to Athens airport. the marina has good haul out facility and is very busy with yachts from all nationalities over wintering here at the moment.

 Maxi 1300 "Another Midnight" arrives safely in the Hamble from Mallorca the 1500 Nm delivery took 11 days 3 days under schedule her average speed was 6.2 knots she is now up for sale with SD marine brokerage at Hamble point this boat is an excellent sea boat well equipped and in superb condition a real joy to sail and fast.

The Lagoon 620 Ludanka arrived in the Hamble Saturday morning 20th August 2011 from Bordeaux the 500 mile delivery took 65 hours the owner joined us for the shakedown cruise from Bordeaux. Ludanka will be in the Southampton Boat show after having the rest of her systems fitted water maker, infra red cameras and a whisper generator along with bow and stern thrusters which will be joystick controlled making so easy to berth that a five year old could do it. After the show she is going straight to Croatia.

The Lagoon 440 "Catnirvana" arrived safely in Sydney on schedule exactly 115 days after leaving Sardinia the total distance logged was 13,160 Nm, we had a rough time in the Tasman sea with some winds up to 45 knots causing large seas Catnirvana was surfing waves and at one point we surfed at 21 knots proving how seaworthy Lagoon catamarans are, we had to heave to for twelve hours to let a front pass through, the lagoon 440 hove to comfortably and we made 1.5 to 2 knots towards our destination whilst hove to, a strong wind then helped us all the way in on the last day and although we were expecting to arrive at noon we were actually six hours ahead of ourselves and arrived just before dawn. We actually used very little fuel on the whole passage and if we had had folding propellors we would have needed to use even less as these boats are so easily driven in light airs, using one engine at 2000 rpm gave us more range combined with the mainsail she would make over 5 knots comfortably, the cruising chute made a big difference too and was used alot in the Pacific, fishing was good and 5 large Tuna and 5 Dorado fed us for a long time. we wish the owners fair winds and good luck with their new business venture down under.

Three months ago when contracts were being sorted for the delivery of the Lagoon 440 "Catnirvana" i engaged an agent in panama to speed up the process of transiting the Panama canal, this we were told at the time would take two days after the ad-measurer had been to measure the boat, we had to forward on copies of passports, crew lists, copies of boat registry bill of sales etc etc and fill out their form we were informed that we need a copy of our clearance from the last port and money sent by wire transfer at least a week before arrival (we sent our money two months prior to save any problems at the last minute) so all was set from St Martin in the caribbean we sent the clearance and departed expecting a quick transit. Not so the day before our arrival we contacted the agent to confirm all was ok to be told that there was a 15 day delay due to it being busy season and there not being enough advisers  to take us through. We duly arrived at Shelter Bay Marina were measured straightaway as this could possibly speed up our transit and all paperwork was in place. Our agent then informed us that if we paid $2500 US we would be able to transit within three days using a pilot, this is the route we took and that saturday we were given our time to be out at anchorage F (the Flats) 17.45 we were boarded by what we thought was our pilot at 18.30 and proceeded to Gatun lock in the dark, we were supplied in shelter bay marina by our agent 14 tyres (which we paid $3 each for covered in bin bags) these are required by the Panama canal authority, and 4 125 foot lines we were to take on 2 Panamanian line handlers but there were so many willing hands with time to kill in the marina that we managed to find two Americans who were heading to Panama city to fly home and wanted the experience of the canal, so this saved us money and we had heard that the supplied line handlers were not that good and did not speak English. The water really rushes in on the up locks and we were glad of the tyres which really squeezed up as we were tied alongside a tour boat and we had a 45 foot Beneteau on the outside of us. The first night is spent tied to a bouy or anchored in Gatun lake. Early the next morning our advisor arrived and we proceeded along the canal utilising Banana cut a small boat passage. (one word of advice DO NOT SWIM IN GATUN LAKE as they have crocodiles which have eaten fishermen before and a worm that can enter your body through various precious places and attack your liver from inside) quite a few did swim another statistic not far away ! it turned out that the money we paid for a Pilot did not secure us any pilots but advisors this we took up with our agent who was surprised and angry that this was happening she tried to contact the head of the Canal authority but was put on hold , anyway we do not expect to get our money back ,but we did transit early with Easter coming up i have since heard that many more back in Shelter Bay were being delayed by more days, if you are prepared to wait do not pay the expensive marina prices, get your paperwork in order especially the cruising permit and leave for the San Blas islands until the day before your transit .

The Lagoon 440 "Catnirvana" transited the Panama canal and is is now anchored in front of Panama city we plan to leave Friday for Sydney hoping to cross the 7700 Nm of the Pacific non stop in under 7 weeks but keeping our options open for a stop in Tahiti en route. The Lagoon 440 catamaran has proved itself a fast and capable passage maker revelling in trade wind conditions giving us a fast comfortable ride. fishing has been good so far catching several Dorado and a tuna keeping the freezer well stocked, we expect that to improve in the Pacific. We have made many friends in Cristobal and Balboa all ocean cruisers with long term plans, it is a shame to come all this way and have to rush across the Pacific but alas that is what deliveries are ! Family and friends are tracking our progress as we send Spot satellite messages daily so everybody knows where we are all the time.

"catnirvana" a Lagoon 440 has arrived in Cristobal Panama after covering 1100 Nm from St Martin in 6 days covering 200 miles a day in perfect sailing conditions staying a 100 miles off of the coast of columbia to stay away from the north equatorial counter current we had 1.5 knots of current with us nearly the whole way flattening out the trade winds seas to a very comfortable level. Lagoon catamarans are made for these conditions proving themselves to be fast capable offshore passage makers, we are now nearly half way through the delivery and we are looking forward to crossing the mighty pacific with maybe one stop in Tahiti before heading onto Sydney.

Atlantic Yacht Deliveries has taken on it first two Students on the corrspondance scheme Zack Young Chapman has signed up for the yachtmaster theory course he will carry on working deliveries with us whilst studying gaining much valued experience and miles and putting the theory into practise, as soon as he completes his studies he will go on and do the practical yachtmaster as a direct entry he plans to become a professional skipper and we hope will do many deliveries for us in the future.

Robert Lloyd has signed up for the Ocean Yachtmaster theory course both students have just completed the delivery of the Bavaria 42 Mojo from the UK to Ibiza and both are joining me on a Trans Atlantic delivery from Portsmouth Virginia to Wicklow in Ireland on the 19th May 2010. On this delivery they will both be gaining experience of Astro Navigation using the sextant giving them both a practical insight of Ocean Navigation and by the time the delivery is over will both be able to astro navigate.

The cost to each student is minimal in contrast to recognised training bases and is a quick way to build miles and experience whilst saving a vast amount of money that can be better spent elsewhere, the gain for Atlantic Yacht Deliveries is that we gain regular crew who are trained in the highly professional way that we require our deliveries to be undertaken.

Both these Students with our guidance now plan to go on in the future to acquire their MCA Master Mariner Yachts 3000 ton licence, opening the opportunity to become superyacht Captains of the future.

Contact us to for more details on how our training scheme works and how we can save you vast amounts of money which you could spend on top of the range safety equipment and tools of the trade, in laymans terms it is a "NO BRAINER"

Having secured a deal with the National Marine correspondence school we can offer crew the chance to complete their RYA shore-based courses at a reduced price through the NMCS see our links page, crew can then put their training into practise on our deliveries before going on to do the practical course with a sea school. This is a very affordable and efficient way to acquire your RYA certificates all the way up to Yachtmaster Ocean and to learn at your own pace.