Welcome Aboard: The Story Behind 001 Marine Services

This is the very first blog post from 001 Marine Services, so it feels only right to start with a proper introduction.

My name is Dominik, though most people call me Dom. If you’ve been following us over on Instagram (shameless plug: @001_marine_services), then hello again and welcome back. And if this is your first time finding us, it’s lovely to have you here, welcome aboard.

You may have seen a lot more of my partner, Verner, than me on our social media so far. I’ve been lurking a little more in the background, keeping a respectful distance from the spotlight… but more on that another time.

For now, we’re just glad you’ve decided to follow along on this slightly mad journey as we attempt to trade the routine and mundanity of corporate life for something a little more adventurous: repairing boats, solving problems, and spending more time on the water.

But to really tell the story of how this partnership and this company came to life, I need to take you back to a very warm and sunny summer’s day on the Thames in London.

How It All Began

At the time, I had just joined Greenwich Yacht Club more or less by accident.

In fact, if I’m being brutally honest, it wasn’t entirely by free will. I was gently persuaded into joining after a few glasses of wine and some excellent company. Before I knew it, I was signing a mysterious form I understood very little about.

So how did I end up in that situation?

Well, I had gone down to Greenwich to buy some spinnakers for my father, who lives in Croatia. Since I happened to live close enough to London, it seemed like a reasonable enough excuse for an afternoon trip.

What I didn’t know then was that this small errand would lead me to meeting one of my closest friends and eventually my business partner.

That person was Verner.

If you’ve been following our social media, you’ll already know them as the talented sailor you’ve probably seen most often in our posts. From the moment we met, we clicked almost instantly. We shared the same passion for sailing, the same fire for adventure, and, importantly, a mutual appreciation for slightly niche hobbies including flying fighter jets in flight simulators, which for me was an absolute win. It’s not every day you meet someone equally enthusiastic about both sailing boats and pretending to operate military aircraft from a desk.

As luck would have it, Verner also had their own sailing boat, Knud a lovely Aphrodite 101, designed in Denmark. Naturally, I decided I should spend as much time sailing with them as possible, while also helping with repairs, maintenance, and whatever mystery jobs Knud happened to present us with that week.

The Pint That Started It All

And that brings us back to that fateful summer’s day.

We had spent the entire morning working flat out, trying to solve some wonderfully obscure boat problem. There was a lot of tinkering, a fair amount of head scratching, and more than a little “let’s try this and see what happens.” Between the two of us, our brains were running at full steam and slowly beginning to overheat.

So what do two slightly fried young sailors do in the afternoon after a long morning of repairs?

Naturally, we decided the most sensible course of action was to take a short pint break.

Off to the clubhouse we went.

And what a glorious decision that was.

We sat there overlooking the Thames, with the London skyline stretching out in front of us, each holding an ice cold pint of golden salvation. We took a deep breath, a long sip, and let out the sort of satisfied sigh that only comes after hard work and a well earned break.

Life felt very good in that moment.

And then, as so many life changing ideas do, it started as a joke.

“What if this was what we did full-time?” I said.“What if we worked together fixing boats?”

The comment left my mouth lightly enough, but it landed somewhere much deeper in Verner’s mind. At the time, we laughed, finished our pints, and carried on with the day. It was just one of those dreamy conversations that tend to happen in clubhouses, marinas, and cockpits around the world.

Or so I thought.

About a month later, while I was away in Croatia visiting family, Verner called me. They told me that the idea we’d joked about that summer afternoon hadn’t left his head. It kept circling, relentlessly. The thought wouldn’t land, and they had become convinced that maybe, just maybe, we really could do it.

That was the moment the idea stopped being a joke and started becoming a plan.

And so, we decided to pull up the anchor, hoist the sails, and see where this journey might take us.

That, dear reader, is how 001 Marine Services was born.

Why We Started 001 Marine Services

Now that you know how the company came to life, it’s worth talking about why we started it.

Over time, while sailing and speaking with boat owners around the UK, we began to notice the same thing again and again: too many boats are being left neglected, abandoned, or slowly wasting away. Many owners are getting older alongside the boats they love, and often need an extra pair of hands or several.

At the same time, finding the right person or company to trust with your boat can be difficult. Sometimes it’s a question of availability. Sometimes it’s about experience. And sometimes, quite simply, it’s about care.

Because that’s the real issue.

A boat is never just a boat. It’s time, memory, ambition, freedom, frustration, joy, and occasionally a floating puzzle designed to test your patience.

What we want to build at 001 Marine Services is a business with a sailors first attitude. We want to provide the kind of service that we, as boat owners ourselves, would want for our own vessels. That means treating every boat with care, precision, honesty, and respect. It means understanding what an owner is trying to achieve whether that’s getting back on the water faster, tackling a refit, solving a persistent problem, or simply keeping a much loved yacht in good shape.

We know what it feels like to care deeply about a boat, because we do too.

And that’s exactly the standard we want to bring to every client we work with.

What to Expect From This Blog

This blog will be a place where we share more of that journey.

We’ll use it to show some of the work we’re doing, give updates on our progress, and share technical commentary and articles that we think fellow sailors and boat owners might find useful or interesting.

Some posts will be written by me, some by Verner, and all of them will come from a genuine place whether it’s a lesson learned, a project update, or a story from the yard, the marina, or somewhere in between.

We’d be delighted to have you along for the ride.

If you have any questions, ideas, or requests, please do get in touch with us at info@001marineservices.com.

We look forward to having you onboard.

For now, we wish you good wind and calm seas.

Dom signing off.