Preparing the brochure proved to be a lot more difficult than expected, although we realised from the start it would not be a walk in the park. Why, or rather why not? Because we need to be a hundred percent sure of what we are stating, before we can give the printing company the green light to print a couple of hundred copies. In order to know all details surroundig the project, we decide to start drafting the most in depth piece of promotion material we will have: the investment memorandum. Once we get its text right, we can take the general details and copy them into the promotional brochure. And once those two are completed, we will have to take a very good look at the website in order to make sure all three are compatable in format, style and content.

Our final draft version has been circulated around all parties involved: the yard, the designers, the yachtbroker, de lawyers, the taxadvisors and even the taxinspector. Their remarks, without exception containing positive feedback, led to a constant stream of alterations, changes to details and fine tuning. Choices to amend or change one detail, resulted in changes to the legal and tax structure discussed earlier. Nothing could be altered just like that.

Ultimately the proces we are going through resembles that of designing the ship. We started out with a rich diversity of options. But as requirements got more focussed and practical use dictated a lot of details, choices were made naturally and options narrowed down to a managable few. Long Tall Sally wasn’t designed in a few weeks, it took us many months. The same goes for the development structure and for the way we intend to run the ship. If we do not succeed in getting the details right, the yacht will never be launched.