Terms of use

Last updated: 3 October 2026.

Article 1 - Purpose

These terms of use (the “Terms”) set out the conditions under which the fairwinds.network website (the “Platform”), published by NextFabrique, may be accessed and used, together with the rights and obligations of its users.

The Platform brings together four distinct services:

• a directory of yachting professionals (the “Professionals”), in the following categories: shipyard, mechanics and propulsion, paint and hull, rigging and sails, naval architecture, interior design, crew, concierge, Ashore & Experiences, brokerage, yacht management, insurance, finance and lawyers;
• an introduction service between, on the one hand, vessel owners, captains, personal assistants and concierge companies (the “Requesters”) and, on the other hand, those Professionals;
• editorial content: port pages, yacht clubs, a show calendar, port guides, news and in-depth reports;
• listings of yachts offered for sale or charter by brokers, reproduced for information and to direct the reader to the broker concerned.

Using the Platform implies full acceptance of these Terms. The paid services reserved for Professionals and Advertisers are also governed by the terms of sale.

Article 2 - Definitions

• “Platform” means the fairwinds.network website and all of its features.
• “Requester” means any individual or legal entity posting a request for an introduction: owner, captain, personal assistant or concierge acting on behalf of a third party.
• “Professional” means any company or sole trader listed on the Platform in one of the directory categories.
• “Listing page” means the page devoted to a Professional, a port, a yacht club, an event or an experience.
• “Request” means the form completed by a Requester describing a need.
• “Lead” means access to the contact details and full content of a Request, unlocked by a Professional under the conditions set out in the terms of sale.
• “Yacht listing” means the reproduction, on the Platform, of an offer to sell or charter a yacht published by a broker.
• “Advertiser” means any person booking advertising space on the Platform.
• “Verified Badge” means the mention granted to a Professional who has passed the verification described in article 8.

Article 3 - Publisher

The fairwinds.network website is published by NextFabrique, trading name of Benjamin Roland Maxant, sole trader (micro-enterprise), registered under number 790 312 003 R.C.S. Manosque, with its place of business at 3 rue du Gypse, 04000 Digne-les-Bains, France. Full details of the publisher and of the host are set out in the legal notice.

Article 4 - Status of the Platform

The Platform is an introduction and visibility service between Requesters and Professionals. It is never an agent, a broker, a commercial representative, an insurer, an escrow holder, nor a party to any contract entered into between a Requester and a Professional.

The Platform negotiates no work, guarantees no outcome, no price and no lead time, and never receives funds relating to work performed between a Professional and a Requester. The only payments that pass through the Platform are those described in the terms of sale (Lead unlocking, visibility subscription, advertising space), never the price of the work itself. No fee charged by the Platform is calculated as a percentage of the price of any work.

The Platform carries out no insurance distribution activity within the meaning of article L511-1 of the French Insurance Code, no banking or payment services intermediation within the meaning of article L519-1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code, and no legal advice. It neither presents, proposes nor assists in concluding any insurance, credit or legal services contract: it merely lists professionals and forwards a Request to those matching the criteria given by the Requester.

The Platform neither organises, sells nor assembles any package travel or linked travel arrangement within the meaning of articles L211-1 et seq. of the French Tourism Code and of Directive (EU) 2015/2302, and is not registered as a travel operator.

Where a Request concerns a programme combining, for the same trip, several types of travel service (carriage of passengers, accommodation, vehicle rental, other tourist services), it is sent only to Professionals holding the travel agency registration or licence required in their country of establishment, together with the corresponding financial guarantee, checked as set out in article 8. Other Professionals receive only Requests for a single, stand-alone service. In every case the programme is designed, sold and invoiced by the Professional, under its sole responsibility.

The Platform provides no contract template (charter, sale, yacht management or other) and drafts, receives, accepts, signs or chases no quotation: quotations and contracts are drawn up and exchanged directly between the Requester and the Professional.

The formation and performance of any contract between a Requester and a Professional are their sole responsibility.

Article 5 - Access and accounts

Access to the Platform and posting a Request are free for Requesters. Basic listing of a Professional in the directory is also free. Certain features (posting a Request, unlocking a Lead, Assistant/Concierge area) require an account.

Three types of account coexist: Requester account (owner or captain), Assistant/Concierge account (managing several vessels and posting Requests on behalf of third parties), and Professional account. A Professional account is opened by the publisher, or claimed by the Professional from its listing page once its connection to the business has been verified.

The Platform is intended for professional or asset-management use and is not open to minors. Each user warrants the accuracy of the information provided on registration, undertakes to keep it up to date, and is responsible for the use made of their credentials.

Article 6 - How introductions work

A Requester posts a Request using a form adapted to the category of Professional sought. The Request is sent, as an anonymised extract, to the Professionals matching the stated criteria (area, category, urgency).

The Requester’s name and the vessel’s name remain hidden until the Professional has unlocked the Lead under the conditions set out in the terms of sale. A Professional who unlocks a Lead receives the full contact details and may contact the Requester directly.

The same Request may be offered to several Professionals in the same category and unlocked by several of them. No exclusivity is granted, either to the Requester or to the Professional. Unlocking is paid for by the Professional: that payment buys access to the information, never the outcome of the introduction, and has no effect on the ranking described in article 9.

The Platform does not guarantee that a given Professional will unlock a given Request, that a Professional will reply within any particular time, or what that reply will contain. The Requester remains free not to follow up on any approach and may, at any time and by email to contact@fairwinds.network, ask for their Request to be withdrawn, after which it is no longer offered.

Article 7 - Origin and accuracy of published information

Directory listing pages are compiled by the publisher from publicly available information (the Professional’s website, public registers, trade sources), then supplemented, where applicable, by information the Professional sends in. A Professional may therefore be listed without having created an account, basic listing being free and never conditional on any payment.

Any Professional may, at any time and without having to give reasons, obtain the correction, the update or the complete removal of its listing page, by email to contact@fairwinds.network. The publisher acts on such a request within a reasonable time, and at the latest within fifteen working days.

Yacht listings are reproduced from material published by brokers. They are provided for information and referral only. They are not an offer within the meaning of article 1114 of the French Civil Code and bind neither the publisher nor the broker concerned. The price, availability, specification, flag and condition of a vessel must be checked with the broker before any decision. Any broker may ask for its listings to be removed under the preceding paragraph.

Editorial content (ports, yacht clubs, calendar, port guides, news, reports) is compiled with care but provided without any warranty of accuracy or currency. Harbour office contact details, depths, berth dimensions, rates, opening hours and event dates are indicative and must be checked against the official source, in particular before any manoeuvre, call or journey.

Article 8 - Verification of Professionals and Verified Badge

Before a listing page is published, the Platform checks the legal existence of the Professional (registration number or local equivalent). That check concerns the existence of the business, and nothing else.

The Verified Badge is granted after a further documentary check covering registration and, depending on the category, certifications and the professional liability insurance certificate. The listing page states the date of the last check. Updated documents are requested each time the Verified subscription is renewed, and the Badge is withdrawn if they are not produced or if a serious breach is found.

For Professionals receiving the programme Requests referred to in article 4, the check also covers the travel agency registration or licence required in their country of establishment and the existence of the corresponding financial guarantee. Where those items cannot be verified, the Professional receives only Requests for a stand-alone service.

These checks are documentary and dated. They are in no way a guarantee of the quality, the compliance or the proper performance of the Professional’s future work, nor of its solvency, nor that its certifications and insurance remain in force between two checks. Choosing a Professional and satisfying oneself that it is fit to carry out the work requested are for the Requester alone.

Article 9 - Ranking criteria

Pursuant to article L111-7 of the French Consumer Code and article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, here is how listing pages and yacht listings are ordered on the Platform.

General criteria.

• Directory of Professionals: within a category and an area, Professionals are shown in alphabetical order, subject to the paid parameters described below. The visitor’s filters (category, area, Verified Badge) narrow the list, they do not reorder it.
• Ports, yacht clubs and experiences: ordered by area, then alphabetically. Calendar: by event date.
• Yacht listings: ordered by the criterion chosen by the visitor (price, length, year), failing which by the default order described below, then by date added.

Parameters linked to a payment. Some placements depend on a payment by the Professional or the Advertiser. They are limited to the following:

• Area partner (area exclusivity): a single Professional per category and per area is shown at the top of its category in that area, with the mention “Partner”.
• Verified subscription: within the same category and area, Professionals holding a current Verified subscription are shown before the others, alphabetically among themselves, and carry the Verified Badge. For brokers, the yacht listings they handle are shown first in the default order of the listings page. A sort chosen by the visitor (price, length, year) always prevails.
• Sponsored card: in the itinerary planner and the port guides, one fixed slot per area, assigned to a single Advertiser for a set period at a flat price, carries the mention “Sponsored”. An itinerary day shows one at most. It is never inserted into the itinerary built by the user, nor substituted for a result.

These placements reflect a payment, never an assessment of the quality of the services nor a recommendation by the Platform. Apart from them, no payment alters the order of results: in particular, unlocking Leads has no effect on the ranking.

These parameters apply from 12 October 2026, and each of them from the date it actually goes live: for as long as a placement is not live, the general criteria alone apply. Any later change to these parameters is notified with the notice period set out in article 20, before it goes live.

Any paid prominence outside lists of results (box, banner, advertising slot) carries the mention “Advertisement” and is identifiable as such, in accordance with article 20 of the French law of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy.

The publisher holds no interest in the Professionals, brokers or providers listed and has no capital link with them. Outbound links to their websites are not affiliate links and generate no commission.

Article 10 - User obligations

Each user undertakes to use the Platform in good faith, not to impersonate a third party, not to publish unlawful, misleading or infringing content, and not to circumvent the introduction system, in particular by seeking the contact details of a Requester or a Professional outside the Platform before a Lead has been properly unlocked.

Also prohibited are: automated extraction of the Platform’s content (scraping, harvesting, unauthorised crawlers), posting fictitious or test Requests, using the Platform to canvass the Professionals listed on it, and any attempt to circumvent security measures.

It is prohibited to post on the Platform, as a Request or otherwise, any offer of shared sailing, cost sharing or outing at sea made by a private individual. Only services at sea offered by Professionals holding the vessel, qualifications and insurance required for the commercial carriage of passengers may be listed.

A Professional who obtains a Requester’s contact details by improper means, without unlocking the corresponding Lead, may have its account suspended under article 18, without prejudice to any claim for the loss suffered by the Platform.

Article 11 - Reporting illegal content and moderation

In accordance with articles 11, 12 and 16 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 on digital services, the publisher designates a single point of contact, reachable by electronic means by authorities and users alike, in French or in English: contact@fairwinds.network.

Anyone may report content published on the Platform that they consider illegal to that address. To be acted upon, a notice must include: the exact address (URL) of the content, a sufficiently substantiated explanation of why it is considered illegal, the name and email address of the person submitting it, and a statement of good faith as to the accuracy of the information given.

The publisher acknowledges receipt without delay and issues a reasoned decision as soon as possible, and at the latest within fifteen working days. The possible measures are removal of the content, restriction of its visibility, suspension of the account concerned, or suspension of the processing of its Requests. The decision, its reasons and the available redress (a written complaint to the same address, then legal proceedings) are communicated to the author of the content and to the person who submitted the notice, in accordance with article 17 of the same regulation.

No automated moderation is in place: every decision is taken by a natural person. Manifestly unfounded and repeated notices may, after a warning, lead to the suspension of the processing of notices from the person concerned.

Article 12 - Content and intellectual property

The elements of the Platform (structure, design, editorial content, descriptions, database) are protected by intellectual property law and remain the property of NextFabrique or its licensors. The photographs published are either produced by the publisher, or used under licence, or supplied by the Professional concerned.

The corporate names, trade marks, logos and model names of the Professionals, brokers and builders mentioned are used as a necessary reference for identification purposes, with no partnership, affiliation or endorsement implied. Their proprietor may ask for their removal under article 7.

A Professional who sends in content (text, photographs, certifications) warrants that it holds the rights required to publish it and grants the Platform a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence limited to displaying that content on the Platform and on its editorial promotional material, for the duration of the listing.

Any reproduction or substantial extraction of the directory database is prohibited, including by automated harvesting, on the basis of articles L342-1 et seq. of the French Intellectual Property Code.

Article 13 - Ashore & Experiences and itinerary planner

The Ashore & Experiences section presents editorial port guides and experience listings (private guides, diving, chef on board, ground transport, events and other services ashore or at sea). No availability, no price and no booking are shown on those listings. The only action offered to a Requester is a request for a tailored programme, sent to the Professional as described in article 6. Each service is then contracted directly between the Requester and the provider, the Platform assembling no combination of services within the meaning of article 4.

The itinerary planner is a free planning aid. FairWinds suggests ideas for outings and ports of call, not a navigation plan. Distances shown are calculated as the crow flies, for guidance only, and road times are mere estimates: they are neither a route, nor a sailing time, nor an anchorage recommendation. The decision to sail, the choice of route and anchorages and the assessment of sea and weather conditions rest solely with the captain or skipper, as do the fitting out of the vessel and compliance with applicable regulations.

The planner does not guarantee that the itinerary is feasible and replaces neither charts, nor sailing directions, nor notices to mariners, nor official sources (national weather service, harbour master’s office), which should be consulted before any trip.

Article 14 - Regulated categories

The insurance, finance, brokerage and lawyer categories of the directory are information sections. In accordance with article 4, the Platform carries out no regulated activity in those fields, recommends no particular Professional and receives no commission on any contract that may be concluded.

It is for the Requester to check, before any commitment, that the Professional is registered with the competent body (ORIAS for insurance, banking and payment services intermediaries, the relevant bar for lawyers) and the extent of its authorisation.

The crew category lists recruitment and placement agencies. The Platform carries out no seafarer placement activity within the meaning of article L5546-1-1 of the French Transport Code: it publishes no CV, no seafarer profile and no job offer, and introduces no candidate to an employer. It is for the Requester to check that the agency is entered in the national register of seafarer recruitment and placement services, or its equivalent in the agency’s country of establishment.

Article 15 - Discretion and confidentiality

No photograph and no public identification of a vessel or of its owner is published without explicit consent. The Requester’s name and the vessel’s name are hidden until the Lead has been properly unlocked, by a rule enforced at database level rather than by masking on screen.

Some announced features are not yet open: secure messaging, document vault and the “Verified owner” badge. Until they go live, no exchange and no document passes through the Platform once a Lead has been unlocked, the parties dealing directly with each other. These Terms will apply to those features as soon as they open, which will be the subject of the update provided for in article 20.

Article 16 - Personal data

The processing of personal data collected on the Platform is described in the privacy policy, a separate document, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) and French data protection law. Every user has a right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability, which may be exercised in writing at contact@fairwinds.network, as well as the right to lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority.

When a Professional unlocks a Lead, it receives the Requester’s contact details and becomes, in turn, a controller of that data for its own purposes. It may use the data only to answer the Request, may neither pass it on nor reuse it for canvassing unrelated to that Request, and must erase it if no relationship begins. Those obligations are set out in article 3 of the terms of sale and breaching them is a serious breach within the meaning of article 18.

Article 17 - Availability and liability

The Platform uses reasonable means to keep the service available and secure, without guaranteeing uninterrupted continuity. NextFabrique cannot be held liable for temporary interruptions caused by maintenance, force majeure or the act of a third party, in particular the host.

In line with the status set out in article 4, NextFabrique is not liable for direct or indirect damage arising from the contractual relationship between a Requester and a Professional, nor for the quality, compliance, price or lead time of work performed outside the Platform, nor for the information referred to in article 7, the accuracy of which is not warranted.

This limitation does not exclude the liability of NextFabrique for proven fault in the performance of its own introduction service (a malfunctioning form, an error in transmitting a Request attributable to the Platform itself), nor in the event of personal injury, gross negligence or wilful misconduct. Paid services are subject to the monetary cap set out in article 11 of the terms of sale.

Article 18 - Restriction, suspension and termination

In the event of a serious breach of these Terms (fraud, impersonation, circumvention of the Lead system, security breach, publication of illegal content, misuse of Lead data), NextFabrique may suspend the user’s access immediately and without notice. The reasons for the measure are given to them in writing no later than when it takes effect.

Otherwise, where the measure concerns a Professional: the reasons are given in writing before the restriction or suspension takes effect, and complete removal of its listing page is notified with at least thirty days’ notice, in accordance with article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150. That notice period does not apply where the publisher is under a legal or regulatory obligation that exempts it, nor in the event of repeated breaches.

The Professional may challenge the measure in writing at contact@fairwinds.network; a reasoned reply is sent within fifteen working days, and the measure is lifted if the challenge is well founded.

Any user may ask for their account to be deleted at any time, subject to settling outstanding financial commitments (unpaid unlocked Leads, current subscription).

Article 19 - Complaints and mediation

Any complaint about how the Platform works may be sent to contact@fairwinds.network, with a commitment to reply within fifteen working days. Any complaint about the performance of work must be addressed directly to the Professional concerned, the Platform not being a party to that relationship.

A Requester acting as a consumer may, if their complaint to NextFabrique fails, refer the matter free of charge to the consumer mediator appointed by NextFabrique, under the conditions set out in articles L611-1 et seq. of the French Consumer Code:

• CM2C - Centre de la Médiation de la Consommation de Conciliateurs de justice
• 49 rue de Ponthieu, 75008 Paris, France
• Online referral: www.cm2c.net/declarer-un-litige.php

The mediator may only be contacted after a written complaint has been sent to NextFabrique and has not been answered satisfactorily, and within one year of that complaint. The European online dispute resolution platform was permanently closed on 20 July 2025 and can no longer be used.

Article 20 - Changes to these Terms

NextFabrique may amend these Terms. Every amendment is published on this page, with a new update date.

As regards Professionals and Advertisers, any amendment is notified on a durable medium and takes effect only after at least fifteen days’ notice, in accordance with article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150, extended where the amendment requires technical adaptations on their part. During that notice period, the Professional or Advertiser may end its relationship with the Platform free of charge. That notice period does not apply where the amendment is imposed by a legal or regulatory obligation, or where it is needed to address an unforeseen and imminent danger of fraud, malware or a breach of data security.

As regards other users, the applicable version is the one in force when they connect; account holders are informed of any substantial change by email or by notification on the Platform.

Article 21 - Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by French law. In the event of a dispute with a user acting in a professional capacity, exclusive jurisdiction is granted to the courts of the place where NextFabrique has its registered place of business, save mandatory provisions to the contrary. In the event of a dispute with a user acting as a consumer, the ordinary statutory rules of jurisdiction apply.

Article 22 - General provisions

If any provision of these Terms is held void or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force. The fact that NextFabrique does not rely on a breach does not amount to a waiver of its right to do so later.

These Terms are drafted in French. The English version is a translation provided for convenience: in the event of a discrepancy in interpretation, the French version prevails. Each dated version of the Terms is archived and provided on request at contact@fairwinds.network.