Superyacht Broker With Soul: Alex Clarke

Denison Superyacht broker Alex Clarke has overcome obstacles we all can relate to. And his self-deprecating humor is a breath of fresh air in an industry that has more than its fair share of puffed-up egos.

Alex Clarke has helped his clients buy and sell a wide range of yachts since he and Bob Denison started Denison’s Superyacht Division. He’s helped numerous high-profile clients build the custom yacht of their dreams with many of the world’s premier superyacht builders. And he’s quoted in the yachting press all the time. But as I learned recently, he’s way more than a stereotypical superyacht “super broker.”

He’s a broker with soul.

“I worked onboard yachts for a long time,” he said recently. “Then I moved over to shore-based yacht management and eventually started my brokerage career under one of the most successful brokers in the world.”

“The rest is history,” I thought somewhat disappointedly to myself.

“But I failed miserably in the beginning,” he said. “And I was probably one hundred grand in debt.”

Turns out, this was not going to be a typical “broker profile” after all.

“I knew Bob from our college days. He was building his company and I had the idea to help him build a superyacht division. He and I started going to boat shows and I started reaching out to shipyards, to see if anybody wanted us to represent them in the US. I’d do interviews with the yachting media and be like, ‘We started a superyacht division.’ But there was no super yacht division! We just said we had one and then worked our asses off.”

“We had a small office above Apex Marine where I’d crank out techno music and pound out emails until two in the morning. Then I’d ride my bike home, crash, get up, and do it again.”

“Ride your bike to the office?” I asked.

“My car had been re-possessed,” he said with a chuckle.

“Bob and I didn’t have much at the time. But he did have these crazy, old-school Mercedes wagons that he inherited from his grandmother. Two of them were even rigged to run on cooking oil he’d get from restaurants!”

“So we’d drive to showings in these crazy cars. But I had to bring an extra pair of shoes because the car would drip oil on your feet. And the sunroof wouldn’t close, so we’d be wearing our rain jackets in the car.”

“Our first big sale was a 135 Horizon. We flew over to Palma to get the listing and we shared a hotel room because we couldn’t afford two. I laugh with Bob about it now because he would always find a really ‘good deal’ that would end up with us sharing a king-size bed back-to-back. And things have come full circle.”

“It’s pretty cool to see how we’ve evolved over the years. Denison Yachts sold more yachts over 80 feet than any other firm in the world last year. And we’re on track to have similar results this year.”

“And I’ll be honest. I was in some pretty dark spaces in the beginning. I lost my father. I lost my uncle. I thought about giving up multiple times. But my wife has been a huge support and inspiration for me. Bob and I are both married now. We started this with no kids and single; we took a lot of risks at the time because we didn’t have much to lose. “

“And we’re still doing these things now. We may ruffle some feathers and have some naysayers, but we’ve done pretty well. It’s not a stuffy company. It’s a fun, young company and I take huge pride in sharing the knowledge and trying to do what a lot of people did for me with our younger brokers because there were some really good people in this industry that believed in me.”

“I’ve got all these silly little sales awards. But at my core, I just want to make my Dad proud. He helped me through the dark times and always believed in me. It’s a shame that he passed away right as I was getting there.”

“That’s one of the reasons why I try to be such a good dad. I’m a husband and a dad first, and then I’m a yacht broker.”

And he doesn’t need to ride his bike to the office anymore.