The First
Owner’s
Reference
Photograph: Zoe Jackson. Port Hercule, Monaco.
Photograph: Zoe Jackson. Port Hercule, Monaco.
An annual editorial publication on the structural, financial, and operational dimensions of first-time superyacht acquisition, or rather, how to buy a boat.
Nine chapters: cost of ownership; market structure; how the industry works; acquisition; new build and brokerage; refit; operations; motor vs. sail; and team to assemble before signing.
Material drawn from named industry data, identified practitioner sources, and an aggregated archive of managed projects. Cited claims. Updated quarterly online, republished annually in print, so figures stay current. To keep in your pocket.
Written and edited by industry experts. Independently funded. Carries no advertising, ever.
What the first three years of yacht ownership actually look like, in time and in money.
Where the order book actually sits, who has capacity, and what that means for a buyer entering this year.
Conflicts, commissions, retrocessions, and the captain's loyalty problem. Said plainly.
From shortlist to closing. Surveys, sea trials, VAT regimes, flag choice, and the five most common pitfalls.
The 24 to 36 month commitment of a new build, against the immediacy of brokerage. Trade-offs and the cases for each.
When to refit and when to sell. Yard selection, scope discipline, and the budget overrun pattern that defines the market.
The captain hire, the crew structure, the compliance reality, the insurance market, and the charter economics that almost never work.
The structural decision few first-time buyers spend enough time on. Operating cost, environmental footprint, racing pedigree, and the case for sail in 2026.
Building your team. The ten questions to ask before signing anything. The independence test, applied transparently.
A reference written from the other side of the table.
The superyacht trade press is funded by the yards and brokers whose interests it covers. That structure is not a moral failing; it is simply how the publications fund themselves. The First Owner’s Reference is funded differently and written differently. The independence is structural rather than stylistic.
It is written for the reader who has recently exited a business or come into liquidity, has the means to buy a yacht, and would like to do so with full visibility of cost, time, and the structure of the conversations ahead. It is published once a year, in print and online, by an independent consultancy that holds no yard affiliations and takes no broker commissions.
The publication is structured in numbered chapters. Each carries a lead essay, a data spread, a guest opinion from a named contributor, an anonymised case, and a one-page checklist. The aim is a calm, evidence-led reference a first-time owner can hold alongside the conversations that matter.
Read in any order. Run your own numbers through the calculator. The independence test, in the closing chapter, is offered for application to any adviser under consideration, including the publisher.
The running cost calculator estimates annual operating costs for a yacht of your size, type, region, and use intensity. Sources named on every assumption. Built on Foreland’s own operational data alongside MYBA, Pantaenius, and Quay Crew.
Open the calculator →The print edition is casebound, sewn, set on Munken Pure eggshell stock, foil stamped on Colorplan boards. Each copy is hand numbered and signed on the final page. Distribution is curated rather than commercial. We do not sell copies.
If you would like one, write to us. Tell us briefly who you are and why The First Owner’s Reference is useful to you. We read every request.
