‘Do you even want the yacht?’ – broker-turned-owner Pitasso on her epiphany
Eleonora Pitasso is a broker turned owner and founder of The Wayve advisory.
She stood by as the client’s representative fired a volley of technical questions on a tour of the new build, but eventually she had to pipe up.
They were all very sound questions and the representative was doing their job, but Eleonora Pitasso realised something was missing.
Glancing over at the client, a first-time buyer, she said to the rep: “May I pause you for one second? I just have to ask this question to the client: ‘At the end of the day, do you really like the build?’”
The client’s face lit up. Pitasso knew they were on track. There were aspects of the deal that would have to be negotiated and areas they might have to accept, but she knew the nitty-gritty could be sorted out later.
“It changed completely my vision of things,” Pitasso tells SYI. “I’m really looking under a new light on how we relate to each other from the industry to the end user.”
READ: Pitasso – ‘There’s always a buyer somewhere on the planet’
The Italian has worked in yachting for nearly 20 years, with the last seven spent as a superyacht broker and shipyard coordinator at Burgess. But she is now also a yacht owner and sees the industry from a different perspective.
“You are not only selling a product, you’re selling a lifetime experience,” she says. “There is a gap in communication. We are extremely professional in a lot of areas but on the other side we are less good at listening to the real requests of the owner.”
It’s the “little signs, the little expressions” that can be invaluable, she explains. On one yacht tour, a client quietly mentioned the four washing machines on board. Instead of glossing over it and focusing on seemingly more exciting items like the tender garage, she encouraged the client to air his thoughts. He said he had been in the military and insisted on crisp, clean linen and towels. He was worried there were not enough machines.
“It was a little thing but if I hadn’t asked him he might have said later it was a disaster,” she says. “I’m learning to read the human being much more.
“It’s an industry of detail, but thoughts are details.”
Pitasso and De Pundert bought and refitted Bijin.
Eleonora Pitasso and Wim De Pundert sold their 50m Heesen Bijin in January 2026.Eleonora Pitasso and Wim De Pundert sold their 50m Heesen Bijin in January 2026.
Keen to broaden her perspective outside yachting, Pitasso left her job at Burgess last year to pursue an MBA at EDHEC, one of Europe’s top business schools.
“I grew a lot with Burgess, and I had a great expertise in my field but I probably needed to see somewhere else,” she says. “The MBA focuses a lot on leadership and personal development. It’s extremely insightful. You ask yourself questions, the perceptions that other people have of you, what you can improve, what are your strengths and weaknesses. It’s a great journey.”
‘Horrendous housewife’
She also married businessman Wim De Pundert, a passionate yacht owner with plenty of experience in yacht building, last April. But suggesting she would make a “horrendous housewife”, Pitasso has launched The Wayve, a boutique brokerage, advisory firm and curated “club” of superyacht owners.
The idea is to “narrow the gap” between the professional and the client, she says.
Pitasso is not driving for big numbers of clients. The vision is to create a bespoke group of owners who talk to each other and swap advice.
“Owners are confused navigating the more and more complex world of yachting,” she says. “There are some owners who don’t want to be involved in the technical aspects. But there is still a big chunk of people who want to be involved. They want to feel that you are explaining it in their language and coping with their emotions and their ideas of yacht ownership.”
Pitasso manages the couple’s Vitters-built sailing yacht Magic.
She first met her husband in 2021, over the sale of S/Y Ribelle. It was a “simple professional relationship” and the deal was straightforward.
Their personal relationship developed in 2024, as did other projects, among them the refit of the 49.9m Heesen motor yacht Bijin. “We went at a thousand miles per hour at everything,” she says. With circumstances changing, Pitasso acted as the owner’s rep as Burgess sold Bijin for the couple earlier this month.
“It was sad but it proved that I was doing the right things in my own sector, finding the right boat second-hand, doing a proper refit, making a very successful charter boat and selling her in a very short time frame,” she says.
As she develops The Wayve, Pitasso has the sounding board of her husband in the background, offering a “slight difference of perspective”, allied to her technical and brokerage skills and contacts in the industry.
“It’s been game-changing,” she says. “We try to bring that to a small bunch of people that want to feel the same.
“We’re in an era, with AI and fake news, where we’re losing the touch. I need to give this touch back to the clients.”
Cartier bracelet
She’s already seen The Wayve evolve in an unexpected direction, with owners exchanging seemingly small but, to them, important tips.
“Someone asked: ‘Did you have the same experience with the stewardess overwatering the plants?’ I would never ask that. But they do,” she says.
“And they post the link on Amazon or to shops where they can buy the right product to give to the stewardess. It’s unbelievable. But it’s happening.”
Pitasso says she had “10 fantastic years” with Burgess, learning from “incredible professionals”.
“They taught me the detail and told me to be careful, to think, to look at the situation,” she says. “To figure out how to speak rather than just storming in. I cannot take all of the Italian out of me, but I channelled a lot of my emotions over a deal.”
But acknowledging some owners prefer to go with a big brand for “security, history, legacy”, she says there will always be those who prefer a more boutique environment with a unique offering.
“If one day they want to go to a bigger company, I will totally understand,” she says.
“You can always own a unique piece of jewellery and the bracelet from Cartier. The one doesn’t take away the other.”
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