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Andy Topham owns and operates Boatshed North Wales with Caroline, his wife, and is based in the Boatshed North Wales office in Pwllheli Marine Centre.

Andy has had 30 years of working, playing and tinkering with boats and yachts of all shapes and sizes, including sailing yachts, catamarans and power boats. His early years consisted of dinghy sailing at various clubs and completing as many RYA courses as he could. He then progressed to successfully racing keel boats over a 12 year period. For six of those later years he ran a 40ft racing yacht which was campaigned at most major offshore race and regatta weeks in the UK and Ireland.

Towards the end of this time he went to study Yacht Design and Engineering at Falmouth Marine College. This also enabled him to build up his many RYA certificates and qualifications for the next adventure which was the ARC race on a stripped out racer. Once safely in St.Lucia, with a refreshing glass of Bounty in-hand, Andy met a guy from Conwy, of all places, and ended up running his cruising yacht in the Caribbean for over two years.

Whilst in St Lucia he met Caroline who decided to not take her new job back in the London, as was the plan, and instead she stayed in St Lucia and soon learnt the way of life onboard a boat.

After this superb time cruising the Islands they where offered a job running a 45ft Cat for the Moorings Crewed Yacht Division in the British Virgin Islands. This was a great experience for them both as a Skipper and Chef team. From there they went to run a 70ft Powerboat, again in the BVI, with a busy charter and maintenance schedule.

Andy and Caroline returned to Wales in 2003 and set up Topline Yacht Charters offering crewed yacht charters across the world but specialising in the Caribbean. Andy has also spent time as Chief Instructor at Abersoch Sailing School teaching sailing and power boating.

Andy was a yacht broker at Boatshed North Wales for two years prior to taking over the business in March 2011. He thoroughly enjoys talking boats and boating and meeting all of our owners and customers, many of whom travel from all over the UK and Europe. He also enjoys personally visiting and photographing every boat he lists and has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of customers' requirements that only comes with a real passion for your job and years of experience.