What Goes Into Buying (And Selling) A Yacht?

This month the Monaco Yacht Show returns to Port Hercule, one of the most glamorous marinas in the world. Running from 24 to 27 September, the event will showcase some of the world’s most extraordinary superyachts from Kismet boasting one of the top-tier charter rates in 2024 to classics like Hampshire and Lady Christine. 

Here C&TH sits down with Chris Cecil-Wright, a trusted name and founder of yacht brokerage Cecil Wright with more than three decades of experience. Chris shares his thoughts on the event, the state of the market and the enduring appeal of yachting, ahead of this year’s show.

Interview: Chris Cecil-Wright On Yachting In 2025

Chris Cecil-Wright: ‘With property it all comes down to location, location, location. In yachting it’s timing, timing, timing.’

How do you tailor the yacht-buying or chartering process to each client?

We start a conversation discussing their background knowledge of boats and yachting. There’s no point in meeting and saying, ‘Oh, you want a boat? How about this one?’ It’s understanding the client first. 

The single most important thing is to find out what it means to the client to own or charter a yacht. We get to know them, understand who he or she is, who their family is, what their intentions are, what their priorities are… Is it sustainability and new technology? Is it the biggest boat for the best budget? Or is it the best quality boat regardless of money? What are the things that really flip the switch for them? 

We then demonstrate to the buyer or the seller how working with Cecil Wright adds value to their proposition. Only once you’ve got that understanding can you move forward to proposing some sort of option. And it doesn’t work with everybody. That’s why people talk about chemistry. You’ve got to have chemistry when you’re doing this sort of transaction because it’s going to take some time – maybe months or years. And it’s going to take a whole lot of unwritten, unspoken nuances that you learn through that relationship.

How do you know when a yacht is right for a client?

Our role has many facets: part matchmaker, part psychologist, part psychiatrist, part friend, part business ally, part CEO! That’s all part of the relationship. Ideally, Cecil Wright is a one-stop shop in yachting for the client. We want to build ourselves into a place where a person who is extremely busy relies on us for all information in yachting – to be their trusted source and ear.

Whether the boat is ‘the one’ really depends on timing. With property it all comes down to location, location, location. In yachting it’s timing, timing, timing. There you are in the market at the beginning of the summer, wanting a 60 to 70-metre Feadship, as new as possible, and there’s one for sale. OK, well, that must be the one because there’s only one for sale now and it has all they need. But come September and the Monaco Yacht Show, there are two more – but by then summer is over and you’re not going to get it back.

Your close relationship with Feadship and Lurssen has become a hallmark of the Cecil Wright offering. What makes these Pedigree yachts so special?

I’d go back to when we started the business in 2013; we haven’t changed our ethos since. You can’t be all things to all people. When I started selling yachts in 1993, I used to know every single yacht on the market. I used to know who the owners were, or if I didn’t know who they were, I knew how to get to them. But these days the market grows by 100 yachts a year almost. There’s no way I can have all that information. I can’t know where it was built, who the build manager and captain were, who the CEO of business was when they built it, and what the ethos of the owner was when he built it. Did he build it on a budget?

I decided to focus on a couple of brands that I admired, and I thought I may as well aim at the top. That’s why I started focusing on Feadship, Lurssen and all the Northern European brands. And that’s still the ethos: not wanting to be all things to everybody. I can’t add a lot of value to the transaction on a 45-meter San Lorenzo. I can tell you what it is and I can tell you where it sits in the market, but I can’t tell you about that boat. But I can talk about every Northern European boat. 

Also, the pedigree shipyards are leading on sustainability. Feadship has produced a yacht running on green hydrogen, producing near-zero emissions. Lurssen has a methanol‑powered fuel cell system for emission‑free anchoring for up to 15 days or cruising 1,000 nautical miles at slow speed.

Kismet, launched in 2024, is currently Cecil Wright’s most expensive yacht available to charter. (© BlueiProd)

How do you balance discretion with creating an unforgettable client experience?

At the higher value end of any luxury business – whether it’s real estate, jewellery, watches, cars, estates or islands – it goes without saying that discretion is huge. Yachting is the same. Discretion is in our DNA. It’s very tempting for people that haven’t been in the business very long to say, ‘Aren’t I clever? I’m dealing with this person or vessel.’ In fact, it’s much, much cleverer to say nothing, or ‘I can’t tell you’. Discretion is absolutely a core part of the high-end appeal of what we do.

What sort of lifestyle comes with owning or chartering a superyacht?

I would describe it by saying nobody needs a yacht. You might need a supercar if you like to go racing at the weekend with your friends. You might need a chauffeur-driven car to be able to go up and down the motorway. You might even need a private jet to get around – but it’s still a utilitarian purchase to get you from A to B quickly. You can spend a lot of time on it, but you don’t live on it. And you don’t cover your private jet with photographs of your family or have special memories of inside your private jet.

Yachting is a unique place in the world. It’s discreet if you want it to be. Theoretically at our end of the market, it’s the most luxurious atmosphere you can possibly imagine. You have a friendly, intimate relationship with the captain and crew. It’s a relationship that is exactly how you want it. If you go on a big yacht, you’ll never have to answer a question about how you like your gin and tonic more than once. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s the small things – those little touches. You don’t have to be asked how you like your massage or how you like your bed turned down every day. You get all these tiny things to make life so much more… I hate the word ‘luxurious,’ but it’s the only way to describe it.

What kind of experiences are your clients looking for today? Is it about exploration, wellness, family time, or something else entirely?

Our clients are such a small handful of people – we’re talking about at the top end of the yacht market.  Everybody’s looking for something different and unique. The one thing that they all enjoy is this level of super exclusivity – especially if you own your own boat, because you’ve got that fun feeling as you approach your boat that it’s your little fiefdom. I have a 55 ft sailing yacht which is by no means opulent but it’s the same concept. It’s very different from your home where you might have neighbours or a road not far away. This is absolutely your island. You could be at a remote location like Baffin Island in Canada or you could be at anchor off Saint-Tropez in high summer. It doesn’t matter. You still got your little floating island there.

What role does design play in helping a client fall in love with a yacht?

Design plays an enormous role. It incorporates everything from functionality and usability all the way to aesthetics and looks. Everybody has a different reason for being on their boat or wanting their boat to look a certain way. If you own a production boat (which all look the same) your reason for wanting the boat is to enjoy what it has to offer and the amenities, because the look isn’t bespoke. When you go to the top end of custom builds, somebody draws a boat specifically for you and there’s this great feeling that ‘this is mine’. It has been created especially for me, and anybody who sees it knows exactly who I am. 

It’s very difficult to put your finger on. Everything from the yacht’s interior layout and features through to what your crew are wearing to what colour your tender is or what the profile of the boat is. And then of course there are all the other amenities like swimming pools. Or maybe you just want that amazing feeling of being in open space on the aft deck with an uninterrupted view of a crystal blue bay.

Hampshire, a yacht currently for sale through Cecil Wright. (© Quin Bisset)

What do people often misunderstand about running a superyacht brokerage?

Obviously it’s a very glamorous commodity for sale, but when you’re involved in sales it’s all about relationships. It’s a lifestyle industry – and a 24/7 one. I’ve never not taken a telephone call because I’m on holiday. Also, I don’t really feel like we have competition. There are other people that do what we do and they’re our friends in the industry, but I don’t consider them as competition. It’s not like Waitrose versus Tesco who are competing for the same customer’s business on a day-to-day basis.

If you had to sum up the allure of yachting in a single sentence, what would it be?

A yacht, whether it be on your own or on a charter, allows for ultimate privacy, comfort and escape. There’s that word again I don’t like, ‘luxurious’, because when I’m on my sailing boat it’s not the luxury that I’m enjoying but it’s the privacy and time with family and friends away from it all. There is something in the separation of the water and what it affords when you are on a boat that is like nothing else you can describe.

Find out more at cecilwright.com