Confirmed contributors. Each transparent on commercial relationships.
The First Owner’s Reference is collaborative by design. Each chapter is anchored by a named external contributor with deep first-hand knowledge of the topic, with additional voices on the record where their experience adds material the anchor cannot. Outreach is ongoing for the remaining slots; this page is updated as contributors confirm.
Disclosure: every contribution is given voluntarily. No contributor is paid by The First Owner’s Reference, and none holds a commercial relationship with Foreland Marine. Where any past relationship exists, it is disclosed alongside the piece itself.
Andrew Roch
LinkedInFounder and CEO, Yacht Crew Recruitment and Training
Founder and CEO of Yacht Crew Recruitment and Training, which pairs IAMI/GUEST-accredited leadership and purser training under The Crew Academy with senior-crew placement under The Crew Hunter. He sits on the IAMI board and co-architected the Yacht Owner's Representative Program with SYBAss.
Capt. Pavlos Filippakis
LinkedInMaster Mariner (Class 1 Unlimited, Ice Class)
A Master Mariner (Class 1 Unlimited) and ice-class captain who came to large-yacht command from a career in LNG. He has led a complex refit and a subsequent pole-to-pole voyage on the owner-operated yacht he now commands.
Hein Velema
LinkedInSecretary General, Superyacht Alliance for Professional Standards; first president of SYBAss; former Feadship and Fraser
Secretary General of the Superyacht Alliance for Professional Standards, which administers the Yacht Owner's Representative Register and the YORP programme, and a partner at the consultancy Marstrat. The first president of SYBAss, he has held senior roles at Feadship and Fraser.
Jack Inglis
LinkedInFounder, ULTIMAR
Founder of the owner's-representative practice ULTIMAR, and a captain who came to yachting from the Merchant Navy, working commercial vessels from the Antarctic to the Norwegian Sea. He entered the industry in 2012 as bosun on a 60 metre support vessel, commanded North Sea offshore and private yachts through new builds and refits, and founded ULTIMAR in 2023. He is certified under the SYBAss and IAMI Yacht Owner's Representative Program; the 1,200-item delivery snag list cited in the new-build chapter is his.
Erica Lay
LinkedInCrew recruitment specialist, EL Crew Co
Crew recruitment specialist and founder of EL Crew Co, placing senior and junior crew across the over-24-metre fleet from Mallorca.
Ollie Davis
LinkedInPIB Marine (formerly Zorab Insurance Services)
A yacht insurance specialist at PIB Marine (formerly Zorab Insurance Services), the established UK specialist alternative to the multi-line yacht insurance brokers.
Ella Johnson
LinkedInCaptain, 34m Baltic Yachts performance sloop
Captain of a 34-metre Baltic Yachts performance sloop, with seven years' operational experience at the top of the sailing market.
Simon Roberts
LinkedInCorporate services provider, Quadrant Group
A corporate services provider at Quadrant Group, which has advised marine clients on yacht ownership structures from the Isle of Man for forty years.
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