Ancasta was the first brokerage to sign up to the trial: Nick Ryley, head of brokerage at Ancasta and president of ABYA’s parent body -the Yacht Brokers, Designers & Surveyors Assoication (YBDSA) - says Ancasta saw the scheme as benefiting both the company and its customers.

“Ancasta jumped into the trial as quickly as possible. We’ve had the Swan 57 Deep Blue ashore at Hamble, which is part of the scheme and so far it’s worked well," says Mr Ryley. 

"It’s much easier for sellers as they don’t need to pay VAT on their boat when bringing it into the UK and then reclaim it if the boat is then sold back outside the EU. It’s vital that the scheme works and ABYA needed help to make sure this happened, both for Customs and Excise and also for the individual sellers. With the systems now in place, there shouldn’t be any hiccups when the trial ends.”

Mr Ryley went on to explain that, since HMRC has authorised ABYA as a warehouse keeper, other brokerage companies can also apply to operate the customs warehousing scheme.