What She Will Be Worth
The curve, the engine hours that are normal for her size, and the six things that decide whether a boat resells above it or below it. Useful whichever side of the deal you are on.
The curve
Where the Value Goes
Broad averages for production yachts, and individual boats deviate a long way in both directions. The useful part is the shape, not the percentages.
| Age | Falling by | Worth about | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year one | 5 to 10% | 90 to 95% | The delivery premium coming off. Steepest on a new production boat, negligible on a brokerage one. |
| Years two to five | 3 to 5% a year | 75 to 85% | The steady part of the curve, and where most owners sell their first boat. |
| Around ten years | Slowing | 50 to 60% | Where a production yacht typically settles. A good hull with a recent refit sits above this; a neglected one well below. |
| Beyond fifteen | Flattens | Condition, not age | The curve stops mattering and the survey takes over. Two boats of the same year can now differ by half. |
And What Counts as High Hours
The figure that most often gets misread. Judge the total against the boat’s age and her cruising history rather than against one threshold.
| Under about 50 ft | 150 to 200 hours a year | Weekends and day running. A 20-year-old boat at 1,500 hours has been used lightly and probably sat. |
|---|---|---|
| 50 ft and up | 200 to 500 hours a year | Coastal runs and Bahamas crossings. High for a weekender, entirely normal here. |
| Any size, diesel | 3,000 to 5,000 hours | Where overhaul questions start being asked. Not a cliff. A well-serviced engine goes well past it, and the oil analysis tells you which one you have. |
Above the curve
Six Things That Protect Value
Records, complete and boring
The single cheapest thing an owner can do. A full service log, dealer invoices and a folder that answers questions before they are asked is worth more at resale than most upgrades, because it removes the buyer's doubt rather than adding to their wish list.
A builder with a name
Viking, Hatteras, Sunseeker, Princess, Riviera and their peers hold value better than lesser-known yards, for the unglamorous reason that buyers can find comparables and lenders can value them. Obscurity costs money at resale even when the boat is good.
Hours that match the age
Low hours for the size and the years signal light use and a healthy engine room. Judge the total against the boat's age and where she has cruised, not against a fixed number.
Systems brought current
Navigation electronics, upholstery, canvas, bottom paint. These do not add their cost to the price, but they remove the first-season list a buyer is mentally deducting, and that deduction is always larger than the real bill.
Sensible specification
Common layouts, conventional colours, the equipment the market expects. Personal choices that delighted the first owner narrow the pool for the second, and a narrow pool is a slow sale at a lower number.
Being used
Counter-intuitive but consistent: boats that run regularly survey better than boats that sit. Sitting is what kills systems, and a surveyor can tell the difference within an hour.
Below it
And Three That Destroy It
Deferred maintenance
The biggest destroyer of value in the market, by a distance. A surveyor spots it in an afternoon and the discount that follows always exceeds what was saved by skipping the service.
Too many of her about
A model built in large numbers eventually saturates its own used market. Good for a buyer, hard on the owner selling into it, and the reason days on market matters more than asking price when you are judging a listing.
Tired soft goods and old screens
Faded gelcoat, worn upholstery, corroded hardware and decade-old electronics all read as neglect whether or not the boat has been neglected. Perception is priced the same as fact.
Straight answers
Both Sides Ask These
A buyer wants to know what a ten-year-old boat should cost. An owner wants to know what the next five years will do. Same page, same numbers.
(954) 560-2811How fast does a yacht lose value?
Five to ten per cent in the first year, then roughly three to five per cent a year after that. By ten years many production yachts have settled around fifty to sixty per cent of what they cost new. Past fifteen the curve flattens and stops being useful: condition takes over completely, and two boats of the same model and year can differ in value by half.
What counts as high engine hours?
It depends entirely on the size. Boats under about 50 feet average 150 to 200 hours a year; anything larger, running the coast or crossing to the Bahamas, averages 200 to 500. So 2,000 hours on a fifteen-year-old 60 footer is light use, and the same figure on a fifteen-year-old 38 footer is heavy. On diesels generally, 3,000 to 5,000 hours is where overhaul questions start, though a well-serviced engine goes well past it, and an oil analysis will tell you which one you are looking at.
Which builders hold value best?
Start from the honest position: every yacht depreciates. The ones that come closest to holding their value are the custom and semi-custom builds from yards with a long order book, Feadship, Heesen, Lurssen, Amels, and the reason is the waiting list. A new one is three or four years away, so a buyer who wants that yard now has to buy an existing boat, and that scarcity supports the price in a way no production hull can match. Among production builders the question is not which ones appreciate, because none do, but which ones fall more slowly: yards with a long record, a dealer network and consistent model development. Viking, Hatteras, Sunseeker, Princess, Riviera. The reason there is unromantic. Buyers can find comparables, surveyors know the boats, and lenders will value them, so a well-built yacht from a yard nobody has heard of still sells for less than a merely good one from a name.
Do refits pay for themselves?
Rarely dollar for dollar, and that is the wrong test. What a recent refit does is remove the first-season list the buyer is deducting in their head, and that mental deduction is reliably larger than the actual bill. New electronics, fresh canvas and upholstery, tanks and generators done: those change how fast she sells and how firm you can be on price, more than they change the number itself.
When is the best time to sell?
Ahead of the season rather than into it. A boat listed in the autumn is in front of buyers planning a winter in Florida and the Bahamas, and the Fort Lauderdale show sits in the middle of that window. Beyond timing, the bigger lever is being early in your own boat's life relative to her next big expense: sell before the generators, the canvas and the electronics all come due at once, not after a buyer has priced them.
Where Does Your Boat Sit?
A written valuation from comparable closed sales tells you where she actually is on that curve, rather than where the averages say she should be. Back within two working days, with the comparables attached.