Each year dozens of yachts become casualties during delivery voyages, either because of overwhelming weather, equipment failure, loss of the rigging or engines (propulsion) flooding, fire, grounding, explosion, sinking, or loss of rudder or injury to the crew. Bermuda Radio keeps a log of hundreds of "incidents" annually on their website which is updated.

Though specific figures are hard to ascertain, probably close to 50 crew drown or die annually in the course of offshore voyages, a number of them single handed sailors who fall overboard, but crew die in the normal course of duties from storms or collision. Because deliveries often happen in the shoulder between seasons – going into or coming out of winter, and since the crew do not generally have much time to know the boat or work together closely, it continues to be a dangerous occupation for some, with three primary occupational hazards, namely becoming dead, drunk, or divorced. Those who work for thoroughly professional companies benefit from an impeccable safety record at sea that reflects the work that goes into preparing for and running their delivery passages. Unfortunately this standard is not regulated or necessarily the industry norm, so crew need to be aware of the potential risks when going to sea on delivery passages with unproven captains.

It is difficult to tabulate exactly how many vessels are delivered annually except by looking at port records of certain yacht Meccas such as Antigua in April/May, Georgetown Exuma, Newport RI, St. George's Bermuda, Gibraltar, Nice, Sardinia, Suez, Cape Town, Panama, Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Hawaii, etc.

Determining the level of crew participation can be done through crew agents, mostly in the Mediterranean, Florida, and UK, or publications such as Dockwalk in Fort Lauderdale that track the industry. Likewise, monetizing the industry is difficult unless one looks at fuel supplied to vessels, and port records, extrapolating from same, as most yacht delivery contracts are private and not published.