The YaZu Yachting Crew of Deltaville, Virginia

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Meet Your Crew

Anne Hutchings, Owner & Broker

I grew up in Grahamstown, a small, inland, university town that was known for an abundance of schools and churches! My family was sports crazy, so I played a lot of sports, loved being outdoors, and enjoyed a good physical challenge. After studying Physical Education and History at University I moved to Cape Town to teach at an all-girls high school. During that time I took up hiking, which turned out to be the perfect preparation for boating – you’re out in the elements and deal with whatever Mother Nature throws at you!

I first came to boating in my mid-20’s when I changed jobs and met Jon on the staff of Pinelands High School. We shared a love of the outdoors and travel and he introduced me to sailing. Soon after we married, we took a year off to travel around Europe and my first experience of extended sailing was when we delivered a DuFour 24 along the Turkish coast. On our return to South Africa, we threw ourselves into teaching and helping build, two schools in the old ‘Homelands’ just before, and after, the end of Apartheid. We traveled overland throughout Southern Africa during school vacations, so there was little opportunity to sail. In the late ’90s, we decided it was time to do some extended travel again, this time on a cruising boat. We moved aboard ‘Jacana’ in 1999 and so began my true love of sailing and the lifestyle it affords.

Jonathan Hutchings, Owner & Broker

I grew up in Port Elizabeth, a coastal town on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa. Holidays were always spent near the water and my mother maintains that the first word I ever spoke was “boat”. From an early age, I was obsessed with sailing, probably due to having an uncle who was a well-known ocean racer and voyager. My first sailing lesson was from a man who had represented South Africa in the Finn class at the 1948 Olympic Games. After high school, I was drafted into the South African Navy for national service.

I was fortunate to be on the navy sailing team and ultimately chosen as a crew member of Voortrekker, a 49’ cold-molded Van De Stadt sloop in which seven of us raced across the South Atlantic Ocean in the 1979 Cape to Uruguay Race. This was a formative experience for a young man. National service was followed by a university degree and a fifteen-year teaching career mostly in remote rural schools in South Africa. We’d spend our vacations exploring Africa in a Land Rover, but the call of the sea never left, and when the opportunity presented itself to purchase a small cruising boat we headed for the horizon.

Rachel Dickerson, Office Manager

I started my career in the marine industry in 2001 as office manager-turned-broker for a local brokerage/new boat dealer. This is where my passion for the boating industry was born. After 7 years, I took a hiatus from the marine industry and found work at a local bank where I spearheaded the revamping of their boat loan program and became Assistant Manager and Boat Loan Specialist.

I returned to the boating industry in early 2017 with employment at Annapolis Yacht Sales as office manager where, among other things, I handled new boat and brokerage boat closings at the Deltaville location.
In July 2020, I joined YaZu Yachting as the office manager. I am passionate about the marine industry and keeping our customers happy. I have lived in Deltaville since 1997 and have been married to local resident, Billy Dickerson since 1995. We have 2 children: our elder son is serving in the Navy and my younger son is studying at Virginia Tech. I am an active board member of the Deltaville Community Association and volunteers as the Treasurer. In my free time, I enjoy long Jeep rides with my 2 pups, Zeus and Nukka.

“Rachel’s outgoing personality, helpfulness, and friendly demeanor are the perfect welcome to YaZu Yachting.”

– Anne

Bob Hoefer, Broker

I am a Tennessee native who transplanted to Louisiana and finally settled in Richmond, VA which I called home for 27 years. Soon after High School, I took a job in the equipment rental industry where I made my career in sales. I quickly realized that building relationships was the key element to my success.

In October of ‘89 I married my wife and soulmate Connie. We have a daughter Nicole and a son Robert.

We discovered boating and the Chesapeake Bay in the mid nineties and by ‘99 we would relocate to Mathews County on Gwynn’s island where we still reside. Boating quickly became a huge part of our lives. After twenty or so power boats our latest purchase was a 14 foot wooden “yacht” named Freedom, for our four grandchildren.

Christopher, the oldest at eight years old, has become the youngest captain in the family. There’s nothing we enjoy more than messing about on boats.

On a whim, I recently agreed to help sell a dear friend’s motor yacht. I met Jon Hutchings while showing the boat and shortly after, he approached me about becoming part of the YaZu Yachting team.

I look forward to building new relationships in this new chapter of my life.

Arabella Denvir, Broker

I grew up in a sailing and boat-building family, in Kinsale, a keen sailing town in Ireland. My summers were spent on the water in all weather conditions. After marrying, my husband Philip and I moved to the West Country of England where for nine years we cruised in our 38′ classic boat, Rowena, along the South Coast and raced boats of all sizes in Plymouth. We continued racing actively when we moved to Malta in 1993 and opened a sailing school.

In 1998, we moved to Virginia to set up Premier Sailing, located in Irvington, which ran successful programs for adults and children for 24 years. During that time we were dealers for Sunfish, Lasers, RS boats and more. My sailing activities in the US include many years on the Women’s Match Racing Circuit, racing against the best women sailors in the world, and also coastal cruising in New England on a 46′ catamaran and an ocean passage to the Caribbean on board a Hylas 70. In local waters, I enjoy racing Cape Dory Typhoons and my J24.

I closed the doors of Premier Sailing at the end of 2021 and took a year off. In summer 2022, I travelled to Ireland to re-connect with friends and extended family and to race in Calves Week Regatta, where I steered the Lady Min (a race boat built in 1902 by my great grandfather) to victory, every day of this renowned West Cork event. In the Fall of 2022, I went to Australia for 2 months where I had the opportunity to race on Sydney Harbour and to watch both the start and finish of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. I returned to the US refreshed, re-vitalized and ready to take on a new challenge!

For many years I have enjoyed sharing my love of sailing and enjoyed helping people to find the right boat to fulfil their small boat sailing dreams. In joining YaZu Yachting as a broker, I can now extend this activity to bigger boats and bigger dreams.