The train was on fire. It sparked her career
Sakeena Hazuri Mathis is a superyacht broker for Yacht Habit in Florida.
An electrical fire on a Monaco-bound train was the catalyst for her big break in yachting.
Sakeena Hazuri Mathis, a broker with Yacht Habit, was at her first ever Monaco Yacht Show, an American in at the deep end armed only with instinct and a remit to find a buyer for a 38m Ferretti.
The train from Nice had stopped for an age. A local testily translated the announcements for her. A small fire meant they would have to change trains once the doors were able to open.
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Later at the show she was walking in step with two industry guys who were discussing getting the train home later.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t talk to me about the train,” she said. “Mine was on fire.” It turned out they had had similar experiences a few years ago. It broke the ice and the conversation began. One was the designer Timothy Saunders and the other was Alex Shimell, an engineer. They chatted again at a party given by Lürssen at the Yacht Club de Monaco.
That’s how she was eventually introduced to the seller of a 50m super sailing yacht, designed by Saunders, which is under construction in Bodrum, Turkey. She now has the listing for what is known as Project Synergy.
“It’s been a whirlwind ride ever since,” she says. “I’m the first African-American Indian woman to list a 50m.”
She describes Project Synergy as a “rare opportunity”. The vessel can be completed to the new owner’s specifications in under 12 months.
“The foundations are already there,” she says. “At this level, it is about alignment. The right project, the right buyer and the right moment.”
Hazuri Mathis and designer Saunders on Project Synergy.
Ignition
Floridian Hazuri Mathis has a background in media and independent film making and worked with her husband in the early days of his entertainment law business.
A love of sailing since childhood spurred her to charter a yacht with some friends following the success of a Bollywood film called Aakarshan which she made and which won an award at a Bollywood film festival in Mumbai, India. That charter helped develop an idea to work in yachting.
“I like being able to make other people’s dreams come true on the water,” she says. “It ignited something in me that had been dormant for a while. That’s what brought me here to being a yacht broker.”
She began her yachting career with a Floridian brokerage focusing on smaller recreational and fishing boats.
A few years ago, Hazuri Mathis was in the audience at an IYBA forum. When the speaker asked for questions from the floor, a man in front of her asked, “Which one of us are you going to let sell you a yacht?”
Everyone laughed. The speaker gazed over the audience and said Pam Grier [American actress] could sell it. Hazuri Mathis looked around and realised she was the only black woman in the room. “I was like, is he talking about me?” she says. “He wasn’t saying it to be rude in any sort of a way. It was just like, look, I would pick her.”
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The question came from Jason Wood, CEO of brokerage and management company Yacht Habit. Afterwards the pair got talking and a few days later Wood sent a text message. He asked what was the last boat she had sold. She proudly showed him a picture of a 26ft Avenger fishing boat. “I worked very hard on that,” she says.
He showed her a 126ft (38m) Ferretti Custom Line 120 named Never Blue and asked if she wanted to work with him to sell it.
“Of course, it was a dream, but he had to really talk me into it,” she says, happy with the job she already had. “I couldn’t see myself really doing superyachts. But I went for it. And when I started working for Jason, I learned so much because he is very hands-on with everything.
“He was just a wonderful mentor. I’m very blessed to have him.”
Among the learnings were how to engage with clients and captains, the importance of respecting crew, understanding all parts of a deal and your place as a broker, and having the confidence to call someone else when you don’t know the answer.
“You’ll never know everything,” she says. “It’s more important to know who does know than always providing an answer.”
The sale of Never Blue just confirmed to her the teamwork and collaboration necessary to get a deal over the line. “It takes a lot to sell a big yacht,” she says.
‘Cold to newcomers’
Hazuri Mathis is no stranger to high-net-worth individuals through networking with her husband’s law firm, so what does she make of the superyacht industry?
“Cold,” she says. “It’s still cold to newcomers. It will make you feel like you don’t belong. You’ve got to be strong. If you feel a certain way and you cry about it and don’t return, that’s on you. It’s your job to believe in yourself, to stay hungry and want to get your client’s dream accomplished.
“There is a lot of learning to do. It’s a people business so you have to take time to learn the client. It’s the most emotional decision they’ll ever make. To earn their trust takes spending time with them. That’s the part most new brokers don’t get.”
Even for experienced brokers, mistakes are an occupational hazard, she says. One which still rankles is the construction business owner who was buying a $1m yacht with finance.
“The mistake was taking on a client for a particular size they were not truly qualified for,” she says. “He didn’t trust the banks and they didn’t trust him. I had to walk away. I spent so much time on it and he wasn’t able to execute. That was a hard lesson for me.”
Another time back in the fishing boat days she lost out on her commission after four months’ work with a couple who ended up buying a new boat from a dealer which refused to pay her share.
“It was horrible. Imagine four months of your time wasted. It happens all the time,” she says.
On the flip side, there are clients who you love spending time with and make you think, “this is why I’m a broker”, she says.
For Hazuri Mathis, the key to fulfilment is “showing up” every day.
“It doesn’t always work the way you want it to … that’s just life happening,” she says.
“But I don’t want to miss today because something great might happen.”
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