How The First Owner’s Reference is made.
Editorial principles
No advertising, ever. The First Owner’s Reference is funded by the publisher and by no other commercial party. No advertorial, no sponsored content, no paid placement. This is the editorial wedge on which every other decision rests.
Pricing appears only where backed by published market data (Quay Crew, IYBA, SuperYacht Times, MYBA) or by aggregated practitioner data anonymised across at least five projects. Single-source anecdotal numbers do not appear.
Every guest contributor is paid a flat editorial fee, named transparently. Every commercial relationship is disclosed alongside the piece. Where there is none, that is stated.
Type
Body and display type set in Newsreader by Production Type. Sans and metadata in Geist and Geist Mono by Vercel. Both families are open source and self-hosted.
Paper and binding
The print edition is set on Munken Pure 120gsm uncoated text stock, with cover boards in GF Smith Colorplan. Smyth-sewn, casebound, head and tail bands in marine, single ribbon marker. Foil-stamped wordmark and blind-debossed lighthouse mark. Trim 230 by 300 mm. Five hundred copies, hand numbered and signed by the editor in chief on page 128.
Photography
Photography for 1st Edition is drawn from a curated stock pool plus selected commissioned work. Full image credits appear on the print edition’s back matter.
Web
Built with Next.js, deployed on Vercel. Privacy-respecting analytics. No cookies beyond session essentials. No tracking scripts. The web edition is permanently archived at firstownersreference.com.
Editorial board
Co-editors in Chief: Jack MacNally and Daniel Marks.
Editor: To be appointed.
Art director: To be appointed.
Picture editor: To be appointed.
Researcher and fact checker: To be appointed.
Editorial correspondence: editor@firstownersreference.com.
Publisher
Published by Foreland Marine Consultancy Limited. 7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR. Companies House registered. SYBAss accredited. YORR registered.
Publisher disclosure: the independence test, applied
The publisher of The First Owner’s Reference is also a yacht consultancy and has a commercial interest in being engaged by readers. This is disclosed openly. The six-element independence test that runs through The First Owner’s Reference applies to the publisher as it does to every other adviser. Its answers are set out below.
1. Earnings contingent on closing. Foreland Marine charges fixed and time-based fees. Income does not vary with whether a transaction closes. The firm has walked away from engagements where the right advice was for the client not to proceed.
2. Equity, employment, or referral relationships. Foreland holds no equity in any yard, broker, supplier, management company, or charter operation. It accepts no referral fees from any of those parties. The director of Foreland holds no shareholdings in any commercial counterparty in the yacht industry.
3. Counterparty list. Foreland publishes a complete list of yards, brokers, lawyers, surveyors, and management companies engaged by clients of the firm in the past three years, available on request. The list is provided to readers under standard confidentiality terms.
4. Fee transparency. Fees are quoted in writing before any engagement. Hourly rates, fixed project fees, and retainer rates are published on engagement. No success fees. No commissions.
5. Professional indemnity insurance.Foreland holds professional indemnity at GBP 5 million per claim, written through a Lloyd’s syndicate.
6. Named principals.The director of Foreland is Jack MacNally. Listed at Companies House. Registered with the Yacht Owners’ Representative Register (YORR). Resident in London.
Citation
The First Owner’s Reference, 1st Edition, 2026. Published by Foreland Marine, London. ISSN pending. Citation suggested as author Foreland Marine, year 2026, title of essay or chapter, published in The First Owner’s Reference 1st Edition, URL.