Check out this video made by the owner while on an assisted passage delivery from Les Sables to Lisbon. Having Reliance’s Captain Lionel Le Brenn onboard ensured the owner could ensure a safe and efficient sail while still having the space to take the wheel himself. Check out the client’s testimony to Lionel’s skill and brilliance here.
To find out more about our Assisted Passages service, check out our blog post here.
After working with Sea Way on a recent delivery to Lisbon, we received a glowing testimony from Commercial Director Hugo Rodrigues on Captain Lionel Le Brenn. He said that,
‘the comments of [the customer] regarding your skipper were very positive and he was very happy with his performance.’
Regarding our operational team, Hugo also praised our ‘excellent’ service and spoke of plans for future collaborations.
We look forward to working more with Sea Way in the near future.
Sea Way is the official distributor of Lagoon, Jeanneau and Prestige yachts in Portugal. They also provide specialized and bespoke yacht services, including engine service, carpentry and electrical installation, amongst others, from their base in Lisbon. Check out more of their work by clicking here.
The client was very positive and he was very happy with the skipper’s performance.
Not your usual wake up call! Reliance Captain, Cive Lonsdale received a call from the Coast Guard in the Solent in the small hours of the morning. They asked him to help rescue a yacht drifting into the shipping lanes. The yacht’s motor had failed and it was was unable to get itself back on course.
The Captain reported:
0240 this morning requested by Solent coast guard to alter course and assists a 35ft yacht Caprice with engine trouble drifting into the separation zone SW of Dungeness. Have Caprice in tow eta Eastbourne 0700. All ok sea state good. Might be able to leave him at anchor off Eastbourne as marina mot open till 0900. If not I have offered to tow him to Brighton. Will update shortly.
The recuse went smoothly with a calm sea and an easy tow to Eastbourne.
Captain Clive Lonsdale was in the middle of delivering a Nauticat 35 from Chatham, Kent to Noss-on-Dart before he was called to act by the Coast Guard at 3am this morning. He updated us again as the morning progressed:
Just been updated. Eastbourne closed to Covid. We’ve been asked to tow her to Newhaven 11nm approx 2.5 hrs around Beachy Head
Due to Covid-19, and the new impending lockdown in England, the situation proved uncertain as Captain Clive and all in tow (if you pardon the pun) have had to continue onto Newhaven. The final update from the Captain came in the later half of the morning as Clive confirmed,
Have handed over the tow to Newhaven lifeboat. All very grateful and were back on course.
Eta pm tomorrow
With the adrift boat safely in good hands at Newhaven, Clive and his crew have continued on their journey across the UK South Coast. With an estimated arrival time of tomorrow, they acted professionally, heroically, and took everything in their stride.
Just a normal day in the life of Reliance Yacht Management and its crew. We wish Clive, his crew, and the unfortunate boat, a safe onward journey.
Reliance Yacht Management had the privilege of sailing the brand new Lagoon catamaran, the ‘Lagoon Sixty 5’. Transferring the yacht straight from the factories in Bordeaux, Reliance crew brought the boat to its public debut in Barcelona this month.
Check out this beautiful video made by one of our very own crew members, Andrew Barnes, showcasing the new boat in all its glory.
Andrew is planning on making another video for the boat’s second delivery to its final destination in Split, Croatia. Stay tuned for further details.
One of our very own skippers, Robin Kenny, has published a book! A collection of short travelogues, the book is inspired by Kenny’s career working in yacht delivery, and all the people and places encountered along the way. We follow Kenny from his sailing debut on a square-rigged, ‘adventure of a lifetime’ transatlantic trip, through to the experienced, if slightly weathered, yacht captain he is today.
Kenny follows in the great tradition of travel writers, approaching the new and unknown with a dry humour and genial outlook. He attempts to occupy the role of bemused writer, watching wryly from a distance, but is repeatedly dragged back into the salty fray. However, this is also what sets Kenny’s work apart. Underscored by necessity, he balances the wonders of sailing with the banality of cleaning, faulty engines and difficult co-workers. But it works in tandem, throwing each into relief to highlight how incredible the life of a delivery skipper is, as much it is dangerous and sometimes boring.
Amongst the ever-changing world of yacht delivery stands the constant of Jimmy Beerkeg. Kenny’s mate and a slightly mythic figure, Jimmy provides commentary without giving any, raising his eyebrows where appropriate, drily informing ‘skip’ of engine failures and phantom torpedoes. He is stoic figure with an indefatigable approach towards culinary experimentation and one of the highlights of the book. In the eye of the storm stands Jimmy, confirming its madness as much as he is essential to its internal logic.
We are given an inside glance into the unique world of those working behind the scenes of paradise, and the places holidaymakers and yacht owners rarely visit. Kenny’s description of the Azores, at once the Atlantic’s best kept secret, as it is a necessary layover for travellers, encompasses the book’s overall tone. A brief trip into Namibia for an injured crew member after sailing out of Cape Town; and the infamous Pusser’s bar in Tortola mark some of the greatest hijinks, but without romanticism. Kenny’s travels are largely dictated by necessity, the places visited are a sign of engine failure more so than a completed delivery. The amount of towns he recommends off the coast of northern Spain and Portugal, perhaps a testament to the unforgiving nature of the Bay of Biscay.
Kenny meets people from all walks of life, their connection to sailing as varied as they are questionable. From cowboy owners who consider transatlantic journeys dignified fishing trips, to crew members traumatised by their time working on superyachts, Kenny meets all with an openness that characterises those who regularly grace marinas and ports across the globe. Even ‘the office’ is enigmatically, if not briefly, mentioned a couple of times – we can only hope Kenny is referring to us here at Reliance!
Whether you have logged a respectable number of nautical miles yourself or are toying with a distant dream on the horizon, this book will thoroughly entertain and inspire all who are interested in sailing. Tales of the high seas from a true industry professional, The Sea, Jimmy Beerkeg, and Me is worthwhile read.
The Sea, Jimmy Beerkeg and Me by Robin Sheldon Kenny is now available at Amazon UK.
Captain Mike Stewart completed a delivery of a Jeanneau 44i “Pingouin” from Lefkas, Greece to Gocek, Turkey. The client was so happy with his work and the service provided, they gave us this glowing testimonial:
We would like to thank you and your team for the excellent service. You have been very proactive and the captain Mike has done a great job. He even went an extra mile to explain the things to us, and patiently answered all our questions. We would like to definitely have him on our future needs.
Once again, we would like to sincerely thank you and the entire team. We will continue to be a loyal clients and will recommend you our friends.
Reliance could not have dreamed of receiving such high praises. We hope to make every client we work with feel as satisfied and well taken care of.
The delivery of one Balance 526 catamaran is drawing to a close, as a Captain Dylan La Roux and his crew safely make their way to Caribbean shores. The boat began its journey in Cape Town, travelling over 5600nm to Grenada and its owner.
Despite the threat of hurricane season, Captain Dylan and his crew completed the transatlantic delivery in under 28 days. Their stats continue to impress as they averaged 201nm per day and just over 8 knots. The furthest they managed in one day was 239nm, often reaching 220nm; even on their slowest day they logged an impressive 169nm. Their top speed was a whopping 21 knots, all while under sail.
The delivery was not only speedy, however, but efficient too. Due to excellent wind conditions, the delivery only logged 40 hours on the motor. While the yacht’s solar panels charged the batteries so well, they only logged 70 hours on the generator as well.
Our captain and his crew could not have done a better job, delivering this state of the art catamaran safely and efficiently. We wish them all a safe trip home to Cape Town.
Many thanks to Balance Catamarans, we look forward to working with them more in the future. Check out our past deliveries of their boats here, and check out their own website here.
Yesterday one of our captains, Karl Reed, picked up a Neel 47 trimaran from Baltimore. We shipped the boat across the Atlantic from Les Sables d’Olonne, France. Karl will continue its journey, delivering the boat to Maine. The boat arrived safe and sound and we wish Karl a safe journey up the east coast.
Check out this video of the offloading process!
The Observer Magazine published an article on Sunday concerning the sudden rise in orca activity in the Gibraltar Straits. Orca over the past year have been interacting with sailing yachts on increasingly fraught and sometimes violent terms, attacking rudders, keels and spinning boats in circles with crew unable to pacify or stop them.
Journalist Susan Smillie contacted Reliance Yacht Management after we post videos on social media of some of these orca encounters. She interviewed crew members Victoria Morris and Alfonso Gomez-Jordana Martin and managing director Nick Irving about their experiences.
Morris and Martin both give accounts of completely losing control of their delivery charges, spinning in the water and hearing the orca, deafening against the side of the hull. Interestingly, the orca seemed to only attack monohulls, leaving the catamarans we delivered through the Strait largely untouched.
Smillie brought sailors’ firsthand experiences into conversation with researchers, activists and scientists in an effort to try understand the orca behavior. But she found, ‘[t]here is one very unscientific phrase I hear repeatedly from several researchers: “Pissed off”. Researchers suggest to Smillie that while the Gibraltar Strait has for a long time now been busy with shipping traffic and fishing, the quietening effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and then the sudden reintroduction of noise and pollution triggered anger and perhaps even trauma in the orca, who in this generation are likely to have never experienced such silence.
The article ends with Nick expressing concerns to Smillie about whether he should be sending boats through the Strait, considering his responsibility and duty of care for crew and cargo alike. But the article implicitly demands what our duty of care is to the marine life in the Strait. Care for the environment has traditionally been seen as incompatible with modern life and free market capitalism. But as I read about the crowded and noisy Strait, where nets seem more common than the fish they’re trying to catch, I cannot help but be reminded of the orange, ashen skies that lie heavy on the American west coast right now. The erosion and historical oppression of indigenous peoples in the Americas in pursuit of capital gain and conquest has never felt so glaringly obvious as wildfires rage along the coast. Local american governments now look to indigenous land practices in order to combat the fires, only pointing to the failure in abandoning them in the first place.
Smillie mentions the use of less intrusive traditional fishing practices in the Strait and Spanish conservation plan to reduce noise polluting activity to a minimum. This feels like the minimum that can be done for the orca right now. The need for marine life to thrive and flourish, does not stand in the way of successful business but is essential for it. Reckless free market capitalism no longer feels sustainable as a model for progress as burns in its name.
Go check out the article on the Guardian website here.
One of our delivery captains, Hanna Golebiewska, reached the not insignificant milestone of 100,000 logged nautical miles this week. Well done Hanna!
Captain Golebiewska has been working with Reliance for over 5 years now, and within that time has worked across the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbean seas. She has approximately 20 Atlantic crossings under her belt, according to our records!
To read more about Hanna and all her ventures (sailing and otherwise), check out her Reliance skipper profile here.
