In March of this year and still amidst the very severe winter we experienced, my husband Steve and I had a conversation about whether it would be the right time to sell our beloved boat. She was our first sailing boat, the boat we pretty much learned ‘all the ropes’ so to speak and the boat we'd had since our children were considerably smaller. We are both qualified to Day Skipper standard now, but when we bought her we were considered novices, only having completed a couple of sailing holidays and I think our sailing experience was mostly with dinghies at that time.

Since then we have sailed her on snatched weekends all around the Solent area. We have slowly built up our experience after much fun and debacles and are now ready for the next step; we have decided that it is time to look for something a little bigger, able to accommodate the five of us (including two stroppy teenagers and our Dutch Barge Dog – Henley, truly the most clumsy of beasts!

Boatshed.com were our chosen Yacht Broker, they specialise in selling and helping people to find used sailing boats and power boats and include classic boats, liveaboards, performance boats and even smaller boats if your budget is not so big. We found that there are many advantages to using a Yacht Broker who has a really good website and Boatshed is now the largest online Yacht Brokerage in the world. With 50+ offices worldwide the audience is vast, they also advertise on other online sites: Yachtworld, Boatshop 24, Apolloduck and the Yachtmarket to name a few.

We kept our boat at Fareham Quay right at the end of Portsmouth Harbour UK, and so our local Boatshed broker was Peter Watt from Boatshed Portsmouth. Peter and his team were fantastically supportive during our sale, they handled all of the paperwork, the viewings, attended the survey and handled all of the financials so we didn’t have to worry about a thing. We even left a set of keys with our marina so the broker could do the viewing.

We could sit back and relax knowing that the sale was in good hands. From the moment she went on the market, after confirming that all the boats details were correct as what is included on the listing acts as the inventory, we had regular updates about the people who were interested in her. Alan from Boatshed Portsmouth came along and took a comprehensive set of photographs (up to 80 photos are included in any one listing) he put together an informative boat listing to be included on the Boatshed Portsmouth website, which is also seen across every other Boatshed website.

We had put a lot of effort in to making her look her best, giving her good spring clean topsides and below decks. I even decided to give her a new set of curtains as the old set were looking a little tired. This effort had paid off and looking through the set of pictures once the advert on Boatshed had gone live, we felt a little twinge of uncertainty as to whether we should be selling her or not.

Within a few weeks we had an offer (subject to a survey) which we accepted and then the survey was arranged!! I remember accompanying the surveyor and nervously watching her being craned out of the water, it felt like waiting outside in the corridor for news of a loved one undergoing surgery. But thankfully all was good following some re-negotiations and within a week our old friend was making her way on a lorry to her new home and the next chapter for her and us was beginning. We are now in the process of buying our next boat and made an offer (subject to survey) which was accepted. The survey is arranged and more pacing will be involved! Hopefully we will soon be thinking and planning how to get her home.

A useful tip, during this process I have been researching how to get a boat back to your home port, maybe you don’t have the time or perhaps the experience required, or you are just a bit nervous of sailing a boat home that you are not yet familiar with. It’s worth considering either a Skipper (your Boatshed Broker may be able to recommend a local contact) or checking out the links on the websites of the Boatshed you are buying from or another local Boatshed branch, I found the perfect solution on the links section of the Boatshed site local to where we are buying our next boat - a haulage company that will deliver the boat door to door on a lorry, some even give automatic on line quotes! The link section on each individual website can provide a whole directory of companies offering anything from accommodation if you are looking at boats and want to stay in the area to haulage companies, marine engine specialists, hull specialists, the list goes on.

When the time comes, we will definitely use Boatshed again and would like to thank Peter, Alan and the rest of the Boatshed Team for a speedy and efficient sale!