What a real valuation reads
Four things move the number, and a boat can be strong on three of them and still sell short on the fourth.
- The file — invoices, oil analysis, yard tickets, and more than any single document, whether they run steadily season after season or arrive in one cluster dated the month before a listing.
- The hours, in context. The same reading means one thing behind a diesel run at cruise and something else behind a gas package that has lived on short trips. Duty cycle, idle time and the engine's stored data all pull the number away from the meter.
- Systems, not surfaces. Canvas, varnish and a good detail say how she was treated. Generators, air handling, tanks, hoses, running gear, steering and what is happening under the bottom paint say what the next owner spends their first season doing. Those are separate lines, and only one of them can be answered at the dock.
- The paper. A title abstract shows what stands recorded against the hull — mortgages, assignments, notices of claim. A clean one is invisible. A surprise on it stops a deal where it sits and changes what the boat is worth today, not in principle.
The long version of that anatomy, engine type by engine type, is inwhat actually drives a yacht's value.
Why an instant estimate lands wide
Automated numbers work from what a boat is on paper — make, model, year, length, engine count. They cannot see what she has become since. Two hulls off the same mold, same year, same rig, separate by a wide margin the moment one of them has a documented repower and the other has a story about one.
The other half is the buyer side. An asking price is a question; a sale is an answer. Value is set by who is actively hunting for that layout, that draft, that range, in this part of the season, within reach of where she lies. Move the same boat a few hundred miles or a few months and the pool around her changes shape. A figure produced without any of that is a starting point at best — and the wrong starting point either costs you months on the market or leaves money in a buyer's pocket.
What comes back, and how fast
We reply within one business day, usually with questions. What follows is a written valuation in plain language, covering:
- a defensible range for the hull as she sits, with the reasoning attached
- the comparable boats we read her against, and why each one is or is not a fair mirror
- what is holding the number down, split into what is worth putting right before you list and what is better handled as a credit
- if you are selling, a recommended asking price and the argument that holds it up when a buyer's surveyor pushes back
Timing depends on you more than on us. A hull whose paperwork is already in order can be worked through in days. One where a repower date has to be chased across three previous owners takes longer, and we will say so up front instead of guessing.
What to have ready
None of this is required to send the request — send what you have and we will ask for the rest. It moves faster with:
- make, model, year and hull identification number
- engine make and model, current hours, and the date of the last major service
- where she lies and how she is kept — lift, covered slip, or wet year-round
- the maintenance file, or an honest description of what exists
- any survey from recent years, including the deficiency list and what was cleared
- major work since you took her on, with dates: repower, generator, air handling, canvas, bottom, electronics
If you are heading toward a listing rather than just curious,preparing a yacht for sale in 90 dayssets out the order to do all of that in. Our model pages carry the published specifications — the Azimut Fly 53 page, for one — which lets us weigh the boat you actually have against everything the builder offered on that hull.
Buying rather than selling? Same request, run backwards
If you are on the other side of the deal, this page still works for you. Send the listing you are weighing and we will tell you what we would advise an owner to accept for it — before you write an offer, and before you commission a survey. There is no listing agreement in the way and no obligation attached.
Use the form on this page, or reach us directly at TS@MintedYachts.com or +1 (404) 805-9819. Either way a person reads it: the boat, the file, and the water she sits in.
Tell us about the boat
Questions we actually get
How is a valuation different from a survey?
A valuation answers what the boat is worth; a survey answers what condition she is in. The two work together — a surveyor inspects hull, systems and safety gear and writes a deficiency list, and we read that list against the buyers actually shopping for the hull to reach a number. You can ask for a valuation before you commission a survey, and most sellers should.
Do I have to be selling to request one?
No. Owners ask for valuations ahead of an insurance renewal, for estate and trust planning, to settle a partnership buyout, or simply to know what an asset on their books is doing. Buyers ask before they write an offer. The work is the same either way, and requesting one commits you to nothing.
How long does a valuation take?
We come back within one business day, usually with a short list of questions. The written valuation follows once we have enough of the record to stand behind it — days when the file is complete and a recent survey sits behind it, longer when service history has to be reconstructed across previous owners. Slow and right beats fast and wrong.
Does the hour meter decide the number?
No. Hours matter alongside what kind of engine ran them and how they were run. Idle-heavy use, long dormant stretches and constant short trips all age a package faster than the reading suggests, and meters get replaced. At survey the engine's own stored data gives a record that does not depend on the display, and that is what we work from.
Should I fix things before I ask what she is worth?
Ask first. Some work comes back to you in the asking price and some is better handled as a credit to the buyer, and which is which depends on the boat, the season and who is shopping. A valuation done before you start spending tells you where to put the money, or whether to put it anywhere at all.
What if my records have gaps?
Send the request anyway. Plenty of good boats have gaps, especially ones that have changed hands more than once. We work from what exists: what you can document, what the engine data shows, what any previous survey found, and what the boat's condition supports. Gaps move the number, but they are something to price in, not a reason to skip the exercise.