For Ordering or Information Call:0345 1300 710

About Us

Established for over 40 years, Force 4 Chandlery continue to hand pick the clothing, electronics, books, charts and chandlery featured throughout the website, so as to offer you the Right Choice at the Right Price, which has been our motto since we started out. Our product selection is chosen by Yachtsmen for Yachtsmen, so you can be sure of finding the sailing equipment you need for your boat. You will also notice that we continue to offer a huge range of chandlery and sailing equipment at incredible value for money, and as always, you will find genuinely discounted products throughout, not to mention the usual array of Special Offers and new products.

Everything on the website can either be found or ordered in our shops in Poole, Cardiff, Plymouth, Chichester, Lymington, Bursledon, Southampton and the Hambles, plus an enormous amount of other chandlery that we all need for our boats!

A Brief History of Force 4 Chandlery

  • 1977 - Force 4 Opens in Bressenden Place, Victoria, London. Started by would be Olympic hopefuls Colin and Raymond Simonds and Chris Osbourne.
  • 1979 - Force 4 exhibits at the Earls Court London Boat Show for the first time.
  • 1980 - Force 4 sells Ski Equipment through the winter months
  • 1984 - Peter McLuskie acquires Force 4 from the Simonds family and is joined by John Caskey, both from Captain O.M Watts.  Force 4 produces it's first catalogue.
  • 1985 - Force 4 exhibits at the Southampton International Boat Show for the first time.
  • 1986 - Force 4 exhibits at the Daily Mail Ski Show at Earls Court.
  • 1987 - The company ceases selling Ski Equipment.
  • 1988 - Expansion of the Victoria shop by 50%
  • 1993 - A major fire in the Victoria shop closes it for 6 months. Temporary premises are found in a vacant bank next door.
  • 1996 - Bristol branch acquired from Bristol Yacht Centre.
  • 1997 - Force 4 acquires Capt. O.M Watts of London.
  • 1998 - Poole (Parkstone) branch is acquired from Pumpkin Marine. 
  • 1999 - Force 4 and Capt. O.M Watts are sold to Action Leisure plc, who also owned Cruisermart, London Yacht Centre, Telesonic, Express Marine Services, Pumpkin Marine and XM Yachting.
  • 2000 - Force 4 exhibits at the last Earls Court Boat Show.
  • 2001 - Peter McLuskie and Stephen Radford leave Action Leisure to setup a new Mail order company, Waypoint Marine, with fulfilment by Gable Marketing in Gloucestershire.  Later that year Action Leisure goes into administration, and the Marine Division is bought and rebranded as MarineForce.
  • 2002 - Waypoint Marine exhibits at the London Boat Show, produces 100-page catalogue and launches a website. The company is subsequently renamed Windward Marine.  Windward Marine buys back Bristol, Poole and Lymington branches from MarineForce along with the Force 4 name. Windward Marine is rebranded as Force 4.  MarineForce goes bust.
  • 2003 - The new Force 4 exhibits at the Southampton Boatshow.
  • 2007 - Force 4 opens their own office and Mail Order Warehouse facility in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Chichester branch is acquired from Aladdin's Cave Chandlery.
  • 2008 - Cardiff branch opens in new Cardiff Marine Village.
  • 2009 - Force 4 acquires the entire Aladdin's Cave business from the Foulkes family.  The five shops in the Hamble area bring the company's total number of shops to 10 and it also now owns a successful Rigging business, Aladdin's Cave Rigging in Bursledon.
  • 2009/2010 - Force 4 wins the Boating Business Marine Retailer of the Year Award.
  • 2011 - Force 4 opens a branch in Swansea Marina.
  • 2012 - Company expands warehouse to include the unit next door.  Force 4 acquires Shamrock Chandlery in Southampton from Yachtkit Ltd. Plymouth branch opens in Queen Anne's Battery Marina in the premises formally occupied by Yacht Parts, giving the company a total of 15 locations.
    Stephen Radford retires from the company due to ill health. 
  • 2013 - Force 4 takes over Swanwick branch of Yachtmail Chandlery and open the Force 4 Dinghy Centre specialising in hardware and clothing for sailing dinghies, sales of second hand dinghies as well as providing workshop facilities for repairs. The company now has 16 locations.  At the Southampton Boat Show the company takes on a third stand.  Force 4 is awarded Scanstrut Best Retailer 2013.
  • 2014 - Force 4 are presented with the Marine Trades Association Best Website 2013/14 award.  The 30th anniversary edition of the Force 4 catalogue is published, having now increased to 196 pages. The 2013 Garmin retailer of the year award is presented to Force 4. At the International Marine Equipment Trade Show in Amsterdam, Force 4 are presented with the 2014 International Retailer of the Year Award by ACR Electronics and the International Marine Excellence 2014 Sales award by Dometic.
  • 2015 - The Force 4 Catalogue is increased to 212 pages. The 2014 Garmin Retailer of the year is presented to Force 4.
  • 2016 - Two new mezzanine are installed at the Nailsworth warehouse to allow increased product ranges, and to cope with increased online demand. Force 4 acquires Piplers of Poole.  The Deacons store suffers a catastrophic fire, forcing it's closure while extensive repairs to the building are carried out.
  • 2017 - The Deacons branch re-opens following a major refurbishment.  The Dinghy centre is incorporated into the Deacons branch.
  • 2018 - The Force 4 Catalogue is increased to 252 pages. In Nailsworth, storage capacity is increased by taking on a third warehouse unit with a secure compound on the same estate.
  • 2019 - Following early retirement of the main rigger, Aladdin's Cave Rigging is closed. Force 4 trial a retail display with Click and Collect facility at Chichester Marina. Hamble Point and Mercury branches are closed.
  • 2020 - The new Force 4 website is launched, offeringa range of improved services for online customers. In March, due to the rapid spread of the Worldwide COVID-19 panademic, the Government decrees that all non-essential business must close their doors until further notice.  All Force 4 retail stores are consequently closed.  Selected Force 4 stores start to re-open from mid May.  The Bristol, Swanwick & Swansea stores are permanently closed due to restructuring of the business to deal with the trading effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 2022 - The company purchases a 40,560 sq.ft warehouse in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.  Extensive remidial work is carried out in the new warehouse to increase overall efficiency.  1km of linear racking is installed, and over the course of the winter (Nov - Jan) the company moves from their 5 units in Nailsworth into the one new warehouse.
  • 2023 -  A new computer system is installed into all branches of Force 4 to increase transparancy of stock levels and fulfilment around the company.
  • 2026 - The final Collectors Edition of the Force 4 Catalogue is produced.

 

Registered in England No. 1013726.       VAT No. GB9275355 04.

Back to top
force4