Yachtskipper Team
Since 1999
What sets us apart
“We work on yachts according to the principles of good seamanship. Our passion for the sea and for ships is what drives us. From customized crew or skipper training to professional yacht deliveries or accompanied trips, to the management of a yacht at one location or on worldwide voyages: We are partners for industry and owners and can look back on many satisfied customers.”
Timeline – Yachtskipper.eu
Yachtskipper.eu originated from practical seafaring – not as an agency at a desk, but from decades of experience at sea. Founder Rainer Holtorff has been working as a professional skipper since the mid-1990s and has covered well over 200,000 nautical miles on a wide variety of yacht types – from classic cruising yachts to high-performance catamarans and large, complex luxury yachts.
What initially began with our own deliveries and skipper assignments developed over the years into a specialized service company for professional yacht deliveries, handovers and crew coordination. The increasing demand from owners, shipyards and charter companies made it clear early on that safe deliveries on long and demanding routes require more than just sailing skills: planning, logistics, knowledge of human nature and a resilient network are crucial.
Yachtskipper.eu therefore grew organically – with a solid core of experienced professional skippers and a pool of qualified crews networked throughout Europe and the world. To this day, around 50 deliveries are organized and carried out every year, from the Baltic and North Seas to the Mediterranean, Atlantic passages and intercontinental routes. The focus here is not on speed, but on reliability, safety and the responsible handling of often very valuable yachts.
Characteristic of Yachtskipper.eu is the combination of personal responsibility and professional structures: Each transfer is individually planned, crews are specifically put together and closely supervised throughout the entire trip. This way of working has earned the company the trust of private owners, shipyards and institutional clients over the years.
Today, Yachtskipper.eu stands for professional yacht transfers “in all situations” – founded on practical experience, grown through trust and supported by a team that understands seafaring not as a job, but as a responsibility.
Passion, seamanship and synergies
We maintain a large network of skippers and crews, but only the best make it on board with us.
Trust, grown over many nautical miles
Smooth processes, precise planning and a promise you can rely on.
Home port Hamburg – deliveries worldwide
We coordinate deliveries worldwide from Hamburg. With several locations.
who are the
experienced skippers
works as a professional skipper for private owners, travel companies, sailing schools and corporations on yachts from 20 to 120 feet. He has now skippered over 90 different yachts, including a number of long-distance voyages in many areas of the world. He is a sports offshore skipper, Yachtmaster Offshore and in 2013 was the first non-Englishman to be awarded Yachtmaster-Of-The-Year by the Royal Yachting Association. Recently, he has mostly been delivering ships in the Atlantic, giving skipper trainings or taking care of the planning and execution of trips in his own company. Here is an article about him from YACHT (8/2024).
started with 8 years in the Opti as a regatta sailor and never recovered from the sailing virus, Thomas is now part of the Yachtskipper team. He advises our customersand is responsible for the weather routing of our offshore teams in the back office. As administrator, he is responsible for the technical implementation of the website of our German and European websites at Yachtskipper. But above all, he is out and about as a skipper and trainer himself. In 2021, it was many thousands of miles, especially with catamarans on the challenging Atlantic route.
Peer is a passionate, experienced sailor who, after various activities in sailing schools, has found his professional home port with us and has been part of the permanent crew since 2020. Peer was able to acquire extensive technical skills in the field of ship electrics and propulsion as an active member of the DGzRS. Privately, Peer lives and travels on his own yacht in various European areas. In addition to the various certificates of competence of the DSV, he is the holder of the RYA Yachtmaster Offshore.
Holger has been infected with the sailing virus since 2003, initially on charter trips in the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea, and since 2010 with his own yacht in the Netherlands and in Western and Northern Europe. He speaks fluent Dutch, was a professional soldier with the German Armed Forces until 2016 and has been sailing for us as a skipper since 2017. The “home route” he describes is between France and the Baltic Sea. In 2023, however, he also skippered a major offshore voyage (Azores-Elbe). His experience and sociability are highly valued among the crews. When he is not at sea, he contributes to data maintenance in the Yachtskipper back office and advises owners on questions relating to trips and technology.
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Video
or read an article about (German only)
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