This year we’ve really got into blogging and have welcomed friends, boaters and brokers from all over the world to write articles on the Boatshed blog. It’s made interesting and varied reading; there should be something that appeals to everyone. Here are a few highlights from 2013.

In January we announced the release of a new ‘Easy Start’ scheme for 2013 designed to enable people with a passion for boats the opportunity to own a Boatshed business territory for a low initial start-up fee.

In February we registered our 500,000th customer on Boatshed.com! Boatshed founders Neil and Mandy Chapman met customer Christoph Liedtke in London to present him with a bottle of champagne at St Katherine Docks. We’re now looking at over 558,000 customers.

A regular feature on the blog this year has been the articles ‘From the Galley’. There are now at least 30 easy to follow recipes on the blog that can be made whilst cruising on-board your boat. These have been tried, tested and tasted by real boaters and sailors.

In May on the blog we introduced our boat buyers legal service in association with expert marine solicitors – Yachting Lawyers. This tailor-made one-stop legal service for boat buyers provides another layer of quality above our already high standards. The service takes care of all the legal help required when purchasing a boat.

We also launched our new responsive web design for mobile devices and tablets. In simple terms, a responsive website figures out what resolution of device you are using and the flexible images and grids re-size correctly to fit the screen. The benefits are obvious: Boatshed now works seamlessly across thousands of different screens.

In August Crewbay.com and Boatshed.com announced a strategic alliance. In partnership with Crewbay, Boatshed began looking to recruit a selection of boat savvy individuals who could assist with the inspection, photography and viewing of vessels across a variety of locations.

We’ve also been following boaters as they blog their real life cruises this year: Capibara set off from Lanzarote to cross the Atlantic to Martinique and Henrik and Signe spent 32 days at sea.

SV Traversay is a 43 steel sloop sailed by Mary Anne and Larry. This year they sailed through the North West passage from east to west, around the Alaska coastline and blogged the highs and lows of their adventure as they went.

Did you also read…? Cruising abroad with your dog, Bargain gift ideas for canal boaters, Make boating your business on the inland waterways, our gadget tests of boating gadgets, Which of these is a genuine nautical term? cruising tips, broker interviews and Jeanne Socrates unassisted solo non stop circumnavigation?

Our latest news is that we’ve launched a new boat search facility. Watch the video.

So, don’t miss any of our blog updates in 2014. Follow us on Facebook to keep up with boating, sailing and brokerage news.

From all the crew at Boatshed, we’d like to wish you a very happy new year!

You may also like:
How to buy a boat – the process / Thinking of selling your boat? / Boatshed registers 500,000th customer! / New Boatshed brokerage opens in Cyprus / Get started with your own Boatshed business / More news articles and stories.

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