About Us
We are a family-owned business with a pure passion for the water!
The skipper of Divinity (Benjamin Oliver) is the son of a world-class professional windsurfer (Malcolm Oliver) who has been surrounded by water since birth!
As a family, we all grew up on Hayling Island in the UK, where Windsurfing was invented!
12-year-old Peter Chilvers built and sailed the world’s first sailboard off Hayling Island, on the south coast of England, in April 1958.
Even at the age of 12, Peter was a keen sailor and had made his own small dinghies but wanted something that he could stand on rather than getting wet sitting down in a sailboat. So he designed a wooden board with a mast attached to the back, with a hook and ring allowing the sail to swivel sideways, steered with a boom across the sail.
Peter eventually became a racing car engineer for Lotus but returned to windsurfing and built an improved sailboard made of fiberglass.
But in 1968, Americans Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer built and patented their sailboard and sold windsurfing to a broader market. When they learned about Peter Chilvers’s board, they took him to court for infringing on their patent.
During a lengthy and farcical litigation, Drake and Schweitzer’s star witness, an old lady who lived her whole life overlooking the water in Hayling Island, was brought to the courts to say she’d never seen a windsurfer. When shown pictures of Peter Chilvers’s sailboard, she instantly tells the story of a young boy using the craft in the 50s. The three judges at the London appeal court ruled that Peter Chilver’s design was the forerunner of the modern sailboard.
Malcolm became a world-class professional windsurfer with big sponsors such as BIC, Smirnoff, Hyundai, and Gul. Malcolm was the UK National Champion for two years running and represented the UK at the European and World championships for several years.
Peter Chilvers became Malcolm’s full-time manager, running his event and marketing. Over several years, BIC became his first professional and full-time sponsor.
Malcolm would take his son (Benjamin) everywhere he competed internationally. Before the competition series started, Malcolm would often have Benjamin (as young as a toddler) sat on his windsurfing board while he was sailing recreationally.
Malcolm taught Benjamin to windsurf recreationally at a young age, as well as water sports such as wakeboarding, dual and mono water skiing, and laser sailing.
Benjamin has three children, a daughter and two sons and they too have been surrounded by the water!
Benjamin worked in the corporate life as the founder of a successful business for over 15 years before deciding to venture into the marine industry with his brother, Adam Oliver, for over seven years.
Benjamin and Adam decided to leave the Marine Engineering sector and venture into the yacht charter industry. Collectively, with their Dad (Malcolm Oliver), they set up a charter business in the UK and then ventured into the European market. The European charter business is currently based in Malta, called Divinity Sailing Limited.
Skipper Benjamin has spent many years sailing and decided to obtain his Yacht Master Offshore certification (Commercially Endorsed by the RYA/MCA) with the world-renowned United Kingdom Sailing Academy (UKSA), which is based on the Isle of Wight.
Benjamin spent 5 – 6 months at the sailing academy (UKSA) before venturing into long-distance sailing across the Atlantic on an 82-foot Super Maxi IOR Beneteau aluminium-hull racing-spec yacht (1988) from Spain, Santa Pola, to the Caribbean, Martinique, via the Grand Canaries, and Cape Verde.
Benjamin continued to sail in the Caribbean and the Bahamas on a different yacht and eventually arrived in West Palm Beach, USA, on a 2002 43ft Jeanneau as First Mate with the Skipper owner (a total of 2 crew). They then sailed from West Palm Beach to Bermuda with an “intended” destination to the Azores, with a final destination to Portugal.
Unfortunately, they suffered a major failure! They lost the rudder 500 miles from the US East coast. The US Coast Guard confirmed (via Satellite Phone) that they could not rescue them due to their distance from the US East coastline. Their only other option was to call a May Day and be rescued by the nearest container/commercial shipping vessel, which would mean deserting the Jeanneau in the Northern Atlantic.
Fortunately they weren’t taking on any water via the rudder shaft. After an in-depth discussion, they decided to convert the wind vane into a tiller (using a disc cutter) and sailed downwind towards Bermuda. They had plenty of food and bottled water to last at least two weeks, and fortunately, the waves were setting in the same wind direction (downwind).
They would have the occasional 360-degree spin down the 20 – 30ft hills (the waves weren’t breaking, fortunately) as the (small) wind vane rudder was steering the entire weight of the yacht mounted on the starboard aft. Whilst attempting to surf down the hills, the steering pressure would get too much for the wind vane rudder to cope with and result in the complete loss of steerage…. so they had lots of spinouts down the hills!
They decided to work 2.5-hour shifts for five days straight before they finally made it to Bermuda. Between the two of them they both took turns (literally) hanging off the stern outside the safety lines, clipping onto the backstay wires to operate the converted wind vane tiller!
After that eventful and fulfilling experience, Benjamin travelled to the Mediterranean to continue sailing around the Balearic Islands (Ibiza and Formentera) and the Greek Islands.
After nearly two years in search of the perfect sailing yacht for the European charter business, the 2024 Hanse 510 (51ft) was located in Croatia. After some upgrades Benjamin (with two crew) sailed from Croatia, Split to Malta via Italy to reflag Divinity with the Maltese flag with the status of commercial operation.
We look forward to welcoming you aboard Divinity 1.
