Broker, captain, YouTube star – Mortlock’s triple threat
Tristan Mortlock, founder, Mortlock Yachts, is a broker, captain and YouTube star.
Yacht brokers are always looking for an edge, an angle that will secure the business or get the deal done.
They all have their unique selling points, but one broker combines the job with working full time as a superyacht captain and producing a thriving YouTube channel.
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Tristan Mortlock, founder, Mortlock Yachts, is captain of Espiritu Santo with 229,000 subscribers to his Super Yacht Captain channel. His more than 500 videos, with catchy titles and compelling thumbnails, chart life on a private superyacht.
Mortlock combines that with the role of sales broker and owner’s representative, in conjunction with his wife Giv Jade, a former award-winning chief stewardess, who is a charter expert.
In the great game of prospecting for clients, Mortlock says his approach is paying dividends.
“Being the face of the channel and serving as a captain has been a massive advantage in generating leads and securing clients for both yacht charters and sales,” he tells us. “While only a small fraction, perhaps 0.01% of viewers, have the means to purchase or charter a yacht, that’s precisely the audience we’re targeting, and it’s more than enough.”
Mortlock’s client has ordered a Lazzara EX 165 explorer.
Mortlock’s latest project came through the channel. He has recently represented a client who signed on a Lazzara Yachts EX 165 explorer vessel to be built at its Antalya, Turkey shipyard. “The client had been a long-time subscriber and engaged follower for several years prior to making his purchase,” he says.
Mortlock is still “100%” an advocate of deepening relationships with quality face time but says the personalised channels are an effective, organic way in. He insists he doesn’t use paid social campaigns to boost his traffic.
“Conventional brokerages have amazing marketing, beautiful photos but there is no face to the business,” he says. “By consistently creating engaging videos, you cultivate a loyal following. Those who resonate with your content begin to form a connection with you through the screen, they trust you, they relate to your perspective, and ultimately, they aspire to engage or work with you.”
Pushback
He says he received considerable “pushback” from the industry when he first started the channel in 2018, with some brokers calling it an “invasion of privacy”, but he believes times are changing, including the behaviours of prospects.
“I only wish I could share the list of individuals who have reached out to me,” he says. “These are names you would instantly recognise. Even I’m amazed by the level of interest.”
However, he thinks the case of M/Y Loon, which was doing “amazingly well” as a social media-fuelled charter operation until the widely publicised tender crash in St Barths in December 2024, might deter other operations from starting up.
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Mortlock began his career in yachting aged 17 with Marina Marbella in 2003 after his family moved from the UK to Spain when he was young. He began working as a skipper on small boats before advancing to the role of yacht captain.
From 2007 to 2021, he commanded two yachts under the same owner. When the second vessel was eventually sold, Mortlock and his wife decided to set up on their own, channelling their industry experience and the increasing volume of enquiries from the YouTube presence into a company specialising in yacht sales, charter, management and new builds. “Our first-hand experience has shown us exactly where the industry’s weaknesses lie,” he says.
They pushed the button on the website in May 2022. “Within the first 15 minutes of launching the website we got our first charter enquiry which went to contract,” says Mortlock.
Intentionally selective
He is able to combine his role as a working captain with building the business because Espiritu Santo is a one-season private yacht based in the Mediterranean and because he doesn’t have to chase every lead.
“My approach is intentionally selective,” he says. “Rather than pursuing volume, I focus on securing a handful of high-quality clients whom we can truly look after. With our low overheads and personalised service, we build long-term relationships that keep clients returning season after season, yacht after yacht.”
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Being prepared to dig into the detail and give owners an honest assessment is one area where Mortlock says his experience pays off. He cites the time his boss was looking to buy the 37m Sanlorenzo AWOL and was given an annual running budget by the broker.
“I went through it and said, ‘This is not right, this is way too low,’” he says. He phoned a couple of captain friends on similar size charter vessels for their input. “There was a monumental difference, 40-50% from the broker’s numbers,” he says.
“He decided to buy the boat and after year one, you can guess which budget was accurate. We just try really hard to manage expectations.”
Mistakes
Before signing the contract on the Lazzara EX 165, Mortlock and his team spent six months fine-tuning the technical specifications and build contract. When it goes into build next year, Mortlock Yachts will work full time on the project along with their build engineer and surveyor.
“I wish people new to yachting had better representation,” he says. “A lot of owners have made mistakes, built boats in the tens of millions and not got the boat they were hoping for.
“I can’t stress how important it is, and also not to rush it. If you want a boat in between, charter one, buy a second hand one, don’t rush a new build. If you’re spending tens of millions of euros, spend a bit more and have a team representing you.”
To illustrate his point, Mortlock cites a new 35m yacht that had been built without Class, a situation he discovered when interviewing for the captain’s role.
The oversight, from a first-time owner with no one guiding him, had huge implications for insurance, areas of operation, charter and resale. “It was a significant oversight that ultimately cost the individual tens of millions,” says Mortlock, who declined the role. “I genuinely felt for the owner.”
The Yacht Chef
Operational design input is another key area where a good owner’s team can enhance a project, he says. “Sometimes designers are not seafarers,” he says. “We are there to work with them to give perspective to how things actually operate at sea.”
His quest for operational integrity has led him to recruiting chef Dean Harrison, who was formerly on Loon and is now on Project X, to consult on the galley layout. Harrison, known as @TheYachtChef, is another industry influencer with an Instagram following of more than 100k.
“Countless chefs I’ve spoken with point out that the ergonomics appear to have been designed by a stylist, not by someone who truly understands a working galley,” Mortlock adds.
The trend for side garages on yachts in the 30-50m range is another bugbear. “Side garages are simply not suitable for smaller yachts,” he explains. “In anything over half a metre of swell, they become hazardous, the garage can flood, crew are at risk of slipping and injury, and the tender gets tossed around. When a side garage was proposed for the EX 165, I immediately rejected the idea.”
That’s in keeping with Mortlock’s maxim of “brutal honesty” with owners. “I regularly share the hard truths others avoid and that’s exactly why clients turn to us,” he says.
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