Yachting Industry News | March 2022

This article is a transcription of Denison’s March 2022 monthly recap video. Tune in monthly to discover the most recent yachting industry and superyacht news from Denison. Watch the full video above:

Hey guys, it’s Bob, and today we’re going to talk about what we did in the month of March 2022. We’re going to do three things: the “what we did”, part two–“what we’re going to be doing”, and three–“who we are”. The “who we are” part is kind of cool because we’re going to talk about OneWater, and that was the biggest news, that we just got acquired by OneWater. At the end, I’ll be talking about who they are, why we did it, and what this means and all that stuff.

The other thing that was big news for us was the completion of the Palm Beach Boat Show. We had over 20 boats on display, we put over 20 boats under contract. It was a really good show. It’s sort of the end of the season show for us down here in South Florida and it was a special one, lots of great memories, great parties, and all the stuff that’s associated with just getting together with the people we love, our employees and brokers and clients. It was a really really good time on the docks.

Also, we sold a bunch of boats. So, I’m going to go over some of the bigger ones and interesting ones, leading off with the 161′ Trinity 2008 called STAY SALTY, which was sold by Kurt Bosshardt and Patrick Hopkins. We also closed on a 118′ Moonen 2015, that was Chris Daves over in the Med. Also, Will and Karie Nofsinger closed three yachts–actually more than that but I’m going to highlight three of them. One was a 112-foot Broward called LADY SHARON GALE, I love that boat. We also closed on a 110-foot Horizon called NIRVANA, that was Will and Karie. And they also closed on one of the coolest yachts that was in our sales fleet, she was one of the most romantic nostalgic-looking modern-day yachts built in Italy. It’s a 97′ De Cesari and that closed. Also West Coast broker Eric Mayol closed on a 95′ Benetti 2020. I also wanted to highlight a 92′ Viking 2016 sold by Palm Beach’s very own Spencer Markatos.

The other thing that was exciting is the third edition of FRANK Magazine, which hit the docks of Palm Beach and hit the docks at all of our offices. Very proud of the articles that are written in there and very proud of the people that put it together. Grab a copy, or you can go online and request one and we will actually mail it to you for free. We love FRANK Magazine.

Here’s “what we’re going to do”. So three big things. The one that I want to mention first is probably the most boring one and it’s just the integration of our team and systems and processes and all that kind of mundane, boring stuff with the OneWater people. So we’re going to be starting to work on that like right now, today, tomorrow.

We’re also going to be doing a real effort on selling some new listings that we got. And I’m going to mention those now. And this is a weird, cool, awesome one: it’s a 206-foot Delta being sold as an NFT. We will do another video just kind of talking about our broader NFT strategy and what NFTs are. But it’s a Gregory Marshall design to be built at Delta and that’s being done with Cloud Yachts and Alex G. Clarke. We also picked up a listing that I love. It’s actually a local listing that was secured by our newest European broker, Pierre Badin, and he secured a 131′ Columbus yacht called LEUDIN and she was at the Palm Beach show. Also, we’re working with Silver Yachts to represent their new power catamaran series. We’re very very excited about that. There’s a range that goes up to 118 feet. Tony Smith is leading the charge on that–very exciting things to come. And also a 105-foot Sunseeker called DELFINO listed by Paul Denton. I also want to mention a 88′ Horizon 2015 listed by Peter Quintel, along with an 84′ Sunseeker called MOON DOG listed by Bobby Giancola. And last but not least–I love this boat–it is a 65-foot Western Craft built in 1959. It’s located out in the Pacific Northwest with our Seattle broker Jason Smith, and I love these old boats. Hope you enjoy it.

Also in the “what we’re going to do” category, we are starting our planning for our summer rendezvous, not only here in the South Florida area. We’re looking at some trip options in the Bahamas, maybe the keys, but also on the west coast for our annual trip to Catalina Island.

Now we’re going to talk about “who we are” and I mentioned it before, we’re going to talk about our acquisition by OneWater. Some of you don’t know much about them, some of you know them really really really well. But I wanted to speak to kind of who they are and what this is going to mean for our brokers, employees, and clients.

First of all who they are: they are a publicly-traded company based in Beaufort, right outside of Atlanta. They are headed up by a great leadership team led by Austin Singleton and also a lot of other names that people know in the industry, including Anthony Scott, Tom, Bryan Braley, there is Dave Widdy, there are so many people that come from our industry. They built this thing called OneWater and they’ve aggressively been growing up a lot of great firms in the small boat and big boat space. Many of you guys locally here in South Florida know that they recently purchased Roscioli and they are really really good people. As a third-generation member of the Denison family, it was a thoughtful and hard decision. But the fact that they are aggressive and just good, solid, honest people made the decision so much easier and for us, it really allows the team to hitch our wagon to a really really great group of people. Our goal here, our aim, is for a better client experience and we really really love some of the systems, and some of the embracements of technology. There’s just a lot of neat things around the corner for us and our clients and we’re excited about that. Everything about them we love so much and we’re excited about the future with them.

For our employees and brokers, nothing really changes and that’s one of the exciting things about this transaction is that we stay here, I stay here, I get to keep doing what I’m doing. The branding stays here, the name stays here, the really good experience of working with your friends at Denison remains the same. Our goal, though, is that–like I mentioned a second ago–it accelerates and just makes the whole experience better. There’s a lot that I can’t wait to talk to guys about very very soon, so stay tuned for more news about that.

Yeah, that’s it, that was our month in March. We’re excited about the future. Thank you guys for tuning in. I never know how to say goodbye to these things, so here is a clip of Rivers that we use a lot, but he’s just going to be, like, buttoning his jacket. There’s just a clip of that, just Rivers doing that. Bye, see you guys later.