Boat Purchasing Options and Broker Challenges

This article by David Levesque was published in the Fall 2025 issue of Latitudes & Attitudes Magazine. Reproduced with permission.

Outside of shows, pretty much anyone can recognize, if you do a Google search for a make and model of boat, perhaps even a model year, rising to the top of search engine results will be Yachtworld or Boat Trader. And, if you're a consumer, unless you fully understand marketing practices, you would instantly think that if it's at the top of the search engine report, it must be the best place to go look for a boat. A significant investment is made to buy placement in a search engine. Much like with consumable goods, shelf space can be purchased. Enter the big corporate muscle.

With the type of marketing leverage big corporate powerhouses possess, trying to maintain viability and compete in the marketplace can become increasingly difficult for the little guy. Marketing budgets are tighter and available funds are often not as deep.

Pay-to-play tactics allow these powerhouses to strong-arm brokers into bowing to their demanding ways.

In this sense, Boats Group, owners of YachtWorld and Boat Trader, has become an increasing challenge to brokers of any size, hoping to maintain bottom lines and profitable growth, creating a detrimental ripple effect on the rest of the marine industry.

For the last 20 years or more, YachtWorld and Boat Trader have dominated the marketplace, with huge numbers of consumers relying on their platforms for their purchasing decisions. Thus forcing brokers to list on their platforms.

And to their credit, initially, they built a very successful platform as a resource, not only for consumers to look for a boat, but also for brokers to get their inventory in front of the most qualified buyers. And to be fair, the cost to list boats on their platforms was, at one time, affordable, feasible, and also manageable. Herein lies the rub.

Steadily, over the last decade or so, the cost to operate on their platforms has been rising beyond the means and affordability for many brokers to remain active, while a host of all-too-consistent issues with the listings have plagued the ability for equal and fair competition.

Exorbitant surcharges, inaccurate data, and multiple listings of the same vessel with different pricing are just some of the challenges brought to light.

If you're a broker, your goal is to put that vessel in front of as many eyeballs as possible. If a broker is limited in scope by the cost associated with being on YachtWorld or Boat Trader, it is next to impossible for them to diversify and afford to operate on any other platform.

Brokers want you to have options! Plain and simple. They want a fair playing field, equal competition, and transparent pricing so you, the consumer, can make an educated and confident decision on your purchase. Some of those options involve taking a portion of their inventory to boat shows. When marketing budgets are being sucked up by listing platforms, everyone loses.

Growth and sustained viability by brokers are handicapped by the skewed variable cost structure of Yachtworld and Boat Trader. The more successful a broker becomes using their platforms, the higher the costs to remain active.

Sell more boats, pay more in fees. It's a vicious win-lose scenario. With costs of doing business online crippling marketing budgets, many of the brokers we have come to know in our almost 30 years have had to either pull out altogether or greatly reduce the inventory they bring to shows. No longer is it easier for consumers to touch, feel, and even sea trial like they used to.

To further exacerbate the issue, and one very crucial glitch in the process, these mega-platforms will not allow brokers to manage their listings once contracted to their sites. Our research has shown that inaccurate data, including pricing, statistics, and even photographs,

have been misrepresented and inconsistent. As a consumer, you need to know what you are getting and what you are expecting every time.

If you've dealt with real estate, you'll recognize the acronym MLS, or Multiple Listing Service. Listings that can be shared across platforms and between brokers, helping them work to find the right purchase for their customer.

Brokers operating on Yachtworld and Boat Trader lost control of their listings, with no ability to maintain them. Imagine losing complete control over how your business inventory is represented.

Back to the Beginning

In researching the genesis of all this and where it started to veer off course, I had the pleasure to speak with lan Atkins, current CEO and co-developer of Rightboat, a UK-based platform for brokering vessels of all shapes and sizes. lan has been in the boating business for just about his entire life, owning and operating a dealership and brokerage in the UK in the 1990s

Somewhere around the year 2000, lan was working with Boats.com, which then purchased Yachtworld.com. In 2003, both these platforms were acquired by Trader Publishing, owners of Boat Trader, and lan managed operations in the UK and the US, quickly turning both, while changing names to the Dominion Group, into the most effective platform around for their purpose, and building trust and viability for brokers. The business was sold to Apax Partners in 2016. In 2021, Permira Group acquired the business, now called Boats Group, and lan chose to retire and sail into the sunset. Or so he thought.

Eventually, lan began to hear rumblings of issues coming from the new guard. Stories of pricing being used as a weapon to control the brokers and their listings. Of smaller brokers having very little of a fighting chance to survive against the larger groups. Marketing budgets are being swallowed up with no room to compete.

In 2023, lan was contacted by Rightboat, an existing platform aiming to right the ship in the UK of struggling brokerages.

Putting the band back together, so to speak, lan set out to right the marketplace and provide a fair and affordable alternative to the giants of corporate boardrooms.

Rightboat takes feeds from associations and brokers directly, and using the assistance and benefits of Al, presents them to consumers across several platforms, providing solid, qualified leads back to the brokers. Here's the kicker: it is much more affordable and much less costly to the broker to share their listings and generate business.

One of lan's key team members, and part of the band he put back together, is Josie Tucci, VP of Marketing. She offered, "We continue to hear from brokers and dealers who are seeking a more transparent, cost-effective way to market their listings.

Rightboat is answering that call with a global, modern marketplace designed by marine industry veterans who truly understand the business."

She went on to add, *Our team brings decades of marketplace experience, and we've built a platform that delivers smarter lead generation, greater visibility, and more control, all without the steep price tag. With Al-driven tools that make managing listings easier and matching listings with the right buyers faster, brokers gain both efficiency and results.

Slaving the Giant: IYBA and YachtR.com

By now, if you've read this far, recognizing there was a problem was half the battle. And, it certainly has been easily recognizable. If our industry is to hold together, then we have to work together. So what's next? Our valued brokers saw the writing on the wall and have taken steps to mobilize. What follows are some options for the consumer to understand how you can be confident working with reputable brokers for your next purchase.

For starters, the IYBA, or International Yacht Brokers Association, around since 1987 with over 2,000 individual members representing 900+ businesses, exists to support brokers by maintaining a code of ethics and providing a level playing field for brokers to conduct business, support the growth of the industry, and provide avenues for consumers to make that dream purchase. IYBA heard from its members.

Understanding that Yachtworld was not delivering the returns they once used to, and costs were rising beyond reasonable affordability, while the quality of leads was declining.

IYBA created a consumer-facing platform called YACHTR.com, part of a 3-element solution to this growing problem, in an attempt to take back control of brokers being essentially held hostage by monopolizing, private-enterprise conglomerates.

Being a members-only organization, this is now the only industry-owned digital platform supporting the members for both B-to-B and B-to-C brokerage logistics. IYBA has essentially created a very affordable, ethical, accurate, and manageable platform for brokers of all sizes to operate on a level playing field, addressing the challenges of the current listing sites, while allowing direct contact between the broker and customer. This is a major win-win for the consumer, broker, and the industry.

In speaking with Stanton Murray of Murray Yacht Sales, he stated, *IYBA created YACHTR.com so that the yacht broker industry owns the MLS and the listings are shared with all yacht brokers. This platform shows the integrity of IYBA to support the industry."

YATCO.com and YachtWay.com

Also revolutionizing the antiquated and oppressive options of the past, two other excellent platforms for searching and sourcing your next purchase can be found at YATCO.com and YachtWay.com.

With YATCO.com, a global resource used by more than 2,000 professional brokers, and focusing largely on the luxury yacht market, you may also utilize the platform to serve as a resource for looking at charter options.

YATCO.com is a membership-based platform maintaining the same commitment to rules and a code of ethics. Member brokers are held to standards and utilize the same MLS-type approach as IYBA and YACHTR.com, offering users up-to-date and valid yacht listings.

Also membership-based, YachtWay.com recognized the challenges faced by brokers and consumers through the decades-old software and inconsistent practices, and serves to connect customers, brokers, dealerships, and shipyards, making for a seamless buying and selling process.

The Industry Rises

Eventually, the good guys prevail. With the rise and growing popularity of industry-owned and independently developed alternatives, many brokers are rapidly transitioning out of listing on the mega-sites, leaving Yachtworld and Boat Trader to essentially become the Yellow Pages of the marine market. Y'all remember those? Most end up in the recycling bin. Their platforms are no longer the monopoly they once were, with much of that being self-imposed. Mess with the little guy long enough and you'll get punched in the mouth.

So the next time you're looking for that dream boat, we encourage you to think about what's going on behind the scenes. We invite you to consider the family-owned business that has been buying and selling dreams for generations. We encourage you to envision the men and women who go to work every day, building and supplying boat parts, servicing your vessel at the local yard, or who can tell you anything and everything you ever want to know about that floating purchase you made.

You won't find any of that on a large corporate website. You'll find that through the dedicated individuals who devote their entire lives to being out on the water, and helping others experience the same.