First Peninsula Marine announces sale of FlexiSail
First Peninsula Marine is pleased to announce the acquisition of FlexiSail by Walker Maritime Holdings, the owner of British Boat Club and Walker Marine Design.
FlexiSail is the UK’s leading boat share membership company, providing members with the ‘ownership’ experience without the full expense of buying and maintaining a boat. Members have personal and exclusive use of high-quality yachts and catamarans that is shared by just a very few others, whilst simply paying an annual membership fee.
FlexiSail currently operates from three profile locations – Swanwick Marina on the River Hamble, Yacht Haven Marina in Lymington and Woolverstone Marina on the River Orwell.
FlexiSail was founded in 2005 by Richard and Sue Pierpoint, with the objective of making yachting affordable and more accessible.
Richard commented:
“We wanted a product that gave people something close to private ownership but without the costs, the depth of knowledge required, worry and hassle of private ownership.
“This has allowed many more people to access the world of yachting, obtain their qualifications, experience and knowledge through our fully supportive environment.
“Having developed the model to what it is today, we are ready to move to ‘phase 3’ of our lives with skiing, sailing, tennis and travel very much on the agenda. We will not be putting our feet up just yet!
“We were very keen to find buyers that would continue and evolve the successful business model that we have developed and believe Nikki and James are exactly the right people to take the business forward.”
Walker Maritime Holdings is owned by James and Nikki Walker, and incorporates the British Boat Club, which is a subscription-based boat share club offering a fleet of boats to club members. Started in 2017 by James and Nikki, it is a family-run business operating out of offices in Hamble Point Marina into six marinas across the south coast.
James said:
“We see the two companies complimenting each other in the marine sector, and we want to thank Richard and Sue for their efforts through the sale process.
“We will be exhibiting at the Southampton Boat Show when we will be making a more in-depth announcement outlining our plans for the future.”
First Peninsula Marine acted as advisors and agents to FlexiSail Group.
Richard concluded:
“The service from First Peninsula Marine was excellent!
“From our first conversation we always felt confident that we would find the right buyer for FlexiSail. We felt that it was important that we used a specialist Marine Broker as a good knowledge of sailing and yachts was going to be fundamental to being able to make this a successful sale.”
About FlexiSail
FlexiSail provides the ‘ownership’ experience without buying. Members have personal and exclusive use of a highly specced yacht or catamaran that is shared by just a very few other members whilst simply paying an annual membership fee. Members use iCalendar, the world’s leading and most sophisticated ‘boat share’ booking system, and iBosun, an electronic embark and disembark system.
About First Peninsula Marine
First Peninsula Marine is a specialist business sales and acquisitions agency focused exclusively on the marine and maritime sectors. Operating nationally to provide a range of strategic advisory services to business owners, trade buyers, financial institutions and private investors. First Peninsula Marine advises on a wide range of instructions from £multimillion corporate finance backed transactions and strategic plc acquisitions to local owner-managed business sales.