Halloween at FLIBS and big yacht sales are screaming

opinion

by Rob Hodgetts

4 November 2025

Superyachts at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) 2025. (Photo: Informa Markets)

He describes himself as first mate, deckhand and bartender. Ernie also keeps up a good line in chirpy commentary as his yellow water taxi ferries punters around the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

Ploughing the Intracoastal Waterway, past the palm-fringed riverside mansions of the rich and famous, Ernie points out David Beckham’s yacht Seven and the former or current pads of names such as NBA star Scottie Pippen, NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and the ex-Anheuser-Busch estate.

Approaching the stop under the 17th Street Bridge, Ernie turns to the imposing blue hull of Steven Spielberg’s former yacht Seven Seas, now named Man of Steel and owned by Canadian steel magnate Barry Zekelman.

“It’s yours for $135m,” drawls Ernie. “That’s $135m more than any of us has.” The lines etched on his tanned face dance at the joke.

Some of Ernie’s spiel might not be entirely accurate, but whatever. It’s Halloween and nothing is as it seems. Which is why he can’t know for sure that none of us are Billy Bigcash. Unlikely, granted. But for every veteran owner like John Staluppi, happy to be photographed on the deck of his 74m Amels Casino Royale moored in the FLIBS Superyacht Village, there are plenty of deep-pocketed punters strolling the pontoons. Sifting the whales from the wannabes is tough.

Broker Chris Cecil-Wright reports huge interest in his 66m Feadship Hampshire, while visits are non-stop for the 65m Codecasa Eternity, according to Barrett Wright, president of Hill Robinson USA.

“It used to be that you’d speak to someone here and then not hear from them again for two years. Now it’s more like two weeks,” says Darren Dubois of US yacht builder Westport, chatting on his stand in the Bahia Mar area of the show.

‘More selective’

Fort Lauderdale is certainly “the start of a lot of conversations”, according to AJ Blackmon, CEO of the Miami-based Ikonic Yachts. Blackmon reckons the overall superyacht market in the US has stabilised with a “new normal” emerging.

One pillar of that is a younger cohort of first-time yacht buyers, enticed by recent innovations in yacht design, such as large aft decks with pools, which could render older boats even less desirable.

“You’re going to see this separation of the market,” he tells us. “It’s basically going to bolster the superyacht market and continue to soften that old-style, three-to-four-year-old smaller boat market.

“But if you’re wanting top product that is extremely high pedigree, the inventory is dangerously low still so you’re going to have to pay for it.”

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Clients nowadays are “more selective”, according to Sakeena Hazuri-Mathis, a broker with Yacht Habit. “They know what they want. They are more intelligent and therefore tougher on all of us,” she told the Mare Forum ahead of the show’s opening.

Over at the Italian Yacht Group in Bahia Mar, sales director Boomer Jousma says a few things are “cooking”, adding that Fort Lauderdale has traditionally been a successful show for him.

“The market is very strong in certain segments,” he says. “For larger boats, 40m, 50m, 60m, the market is on fire.” He explains the younger buyers are being influenced by their home lifestyle, impacting the smaller segment. “When they get onto a 70-80ft boat and the shower or head is small, or they are used to a sauna and wellness suite, they instantly gravitate to a larger boat because they can afford it,” he says.

“So there is a bit of a miss right now in that 20-30m segment. It’s a very specific buyer who is looking for the right boat. There is a lot of product on the market and a lot of manufacturers in the States have a lot of inventory. It’s tough.”

Dubois, though, suggests the market for under 50m, sub 500GT is “really starting to come around”.

“We saw a lot of softness for a couple of years but we’re actually seeing a comeback, in our case because we’ve put out a new model,” he adds.

Jousma is seeing a trend for clients buying a range of yachts for different uses, with the larger vessel perhaps kept in Europe.

“It’s similar to families having three or four homes, with a ski chalet and a beach house,” he says. “What are you going to do on a 50m boat in Miami? On a smaller day boat you can go up the river to the local restaurant or have a swim and then come back and dock behind your beautiful house to barbecue for the evening.”

The Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, venue for FLIBS.

Taxis and tenders ferry guests around the Intracoastal Waterway at FLIBS.

Conflicting forces

Any discussion of the market these days will quickly come around to the twin pillars of trade tariffs and a return to 100% bonus depreciation, allowing owners in specific circumstances to write off the cost of the yacht if used for business purposes more than 50% of the time.

Lawyer Robb Maass of Alley, Maass, Rogers & Lindsay described them as “two conflicting forces”. “Bonus depreciation really is quite complicated and it isn’t something that’s advantageous to everyone, but it’s still a positive where tariffs are a negative,” he told the Mare Forum.

“Where it’s really having an impact is the smaller production boats where people want to import them and put them under a US flag.” Maass points out that the US Supreme Court will soon rule on whether tariffs are unlawful, which could change the picture.

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In terms of bonus depreciation, the allure gets phones ringing but it shouldn’t be the overriding factor in a yacht purchase, says Blackmon. “The tax benefit is a secondary bonus and you’re inviting a lot of scrutiny,” he adds, suggesting a good lawyer is key. Jousma says many clients, when they start to grasp the specifics, decide they “don’t need the headache”.

Another issue peculiar to US yacht owners is the application of the law as it pertains to insurance in different jurisdictions, according to Louis Montello of Montello Law.

“Under New York law if there is any breach you are not covered,” he says. “For example, if you run aground but you didn’t weigh your fire extinguishers, the claim will be denied. In Florida, you’re still covered. So there is a big distinction.”

‘Blood’ teak

For Eugene Samarin, a lawyer with Lochner Law Firm, a potentially bigger stumbling block than tariffs is the application of the Lacey Act. This is a conservation law which decrees that boats built from 2008 onward must declare the source of all wood on board. Further, those built from 2021 can’t use Burmese teak at all. Sunseeker was fined in the UK last year for using illegal “blood” teak. A transgression could incur the loss of the vessel in some circumstances, says Samarin. “That is probably the bigger issue that we’ve seen,” he says at the Mare Forum.

“Clients who want to bring their boat to the US will pay the tariff but they have this door that’s been slammed shut because they will never be able to fill out the compliance form. They have no idea where the wood is from. If you have a refit in South Africa or Turkey or wherever, you better have the paperwork.”

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Back at the show and heading off to meet a client for a viewing, Blackmon offers this as a parting shot: “About 40% of people worth more than $100m in the world are American.

“When you factor that in, you need to pay attention to now through April. That will give you a complete lay of the land to where the market is globally.”

It also helps fuel the real estate market in Fort Lauderdale, offering Ernie more material. “See this huge mansion here? Married couple have lived there for 35 years, just the two of them. It’s about 20,000sqft. They last met six years ago.”

He likes that one.