Buy a super yacht with the diligence done first

What we help source

• Motor yachts — displacement, semi-displacement, and planing, sized to your cruising plans
• Sailing yachts — performance and classic, where the owner actually sails
• New-build opportunities — yard slots, specification guidance, and build supervision introductions
• Pre-owned yachts — where the first owner has already absorbed the depreciation
• Refit candidates — good bones at the right price, with refit exposure quantified before purchase
• Off-market vessels — owners who would sell quietly at the right number, reached through networks rather than listings

Which yacht builders do you work across?

Pedigree moves price and resale in yachting more than in any category we cover — a hull's builder shapes its value for decades. Our mandates run across the leading motor and sailing yards, from Northern European builders to the Mediterranean and the refit specialists. The names our mandates most often touch:

• Northern European custom — Feadship, Lürssen, Oceanco, Amels, Heesen: the blue-chip tier, where build quality is the asset
• Italian custom & semi-custom — Benetti, Sanlorenzo, Baglietto, Riva: style-led pedigree with deep charter demand
• Production & performance — Azimut, Ferretti, Sunseeker, Princess: the liquid heart of the brokerage market
• Sail — Royal Huisman, Perini Navi, Nautor Swan: for owners who actually sail, pedigree and crew quality decide everything

No yard pays us, and a famous transom does not survive a bad survey: pedigree sets the starting expectation, condition sets the price.

How the yacht brokerage works — commissions explained honestly →

Catamaran vs monohull — how to choose a yacht →

What should a buyer weigh?

A yacht is an operating business with a hull, and the decision is sound only when the whole picture is priced — not just the asking figure. Survey findings, refit exposure, class and flag status, and crew and running costs all feed the number we negotiate against. What a buyer should weigh:

• Size and layout — guest count, owner's deck, crew ratio, and how you actually entertain
• Range — Mediterranean season, transatlantic capability, or world cruising
• Charter potential — whether offsetting cost is realistic for this vessel, and what it does to wear and scheduling
• Crew — how many, at what annual cost, and how hard they are to retain on this layout
• Flag and classification — registration, compliance, and where the vessel can operate commercially
• Management — who runs the operation and what oversight you want
• Maintenance and refit history — what has been done, what is due, and what is deferred

Diligence before commitment

• Ownership verification, lien search, and clean title transfer
• Condition survey and sea trial with surveyors acting for your side
• Classification status and outstanding recommendations
• Charter history — revenue claims tested against records, not marketing
• Operating model: realistic annual running costs for crew, berthing, insurance, maintenance

Risks we help you avoid

• Buying the wrong yacht for actual usage — the world-cruiser that never leaves the Riviera, the day boat asked to cross oceans
• Overpaying for refit risk — "recently refitted" claims that survey contradicts, or deferred work priced as if done
• Weak operating assumptions — charter income projections and running-cost estimates that collapse in year one
• Public-market-only search — missing the well-kept vessel whose owner never listed it