What do you look for when a yacht’s description says ‘work required’? Will Bruton is considering buying a boat to upgrade
Among brokerage listings it’s rare to see a yacht openly advertised as ‘work needed’. A potential buyer who doesn’t know how much it will cost to get the yacht in service can easily be turned off after an initial discussion.
Alex Grabau is an experienced broker who believes that this leads to many missed opportunities. “It’s common for a solid yacht to get to the 12-15 year mark and need things doing that any surveyor would expect at that point in the yacht’s life.
“They’re things that a seller might not want to spend the money on for themselves, but often are not huge sums of money in proportion to the yacht’s value. Perhaps a new rigging or a repower. With a little work, you can estimate accurately with a boatyard, and fix things relatively quickly.
“The trouble is that many buyers don’t get this far as they’re put off by the unknown cost of the work, despite it being something easy to find out.
“In other cases, particularly where the yacht is rare – perhaps something built for high latitudes – the market can be…
