Buy a yacht with Rayan
A straight opinion on every boat you are considering, from someone who steps aboard hundreds of them a year.
Most of the work of buying a yacht is ruling out the boats that are not worth a viewing. That is the part that happens before you get on a plane.
What is covered
A buying mandate, from the written brief to the day you take the keys
Your brief, written down
Programme, waters, number of cabins, crew or no crew, and a budget that includes running costs. A brief on paper is what stops a search drifting.
A shortlist, and the boats left out
You get the units that fit and the reason the others were dropped. Five to ten boats, rarely more — a list of forty is a list nobody has filtered.
A straight opinion on each one
What the model is known for, what tends to fail on it, what it costs to run. Including when the honest answer is to look at something else.
Viewings and sea trials
Grouped into one trip where possible, with the right questions put to the crew and the yard while we are still aboard.
Negotiation
Offer, counter-offer and conditions, argued on what comparable boats actually sold for rather than on what they were advertised at.
Survey, closing and handover
Independent surveyor, sea trial, then the paperwork: memorandum of agreement, deposit held in escrow, flag, VAT status, insurance, delivery.
How it works
Six steps, and two to four months from first call to handover
First call
Thirty minutes. What the boat is for, and what you want to avoid. No shortlist is sent before this conversation.
The brief
Written, sent back to you, corrected until it is right. It is the document the whole search is judged against.
The shortlist
Boats that fit the brief, each with an honest assessment and a realistic all-in budget for the first year.
Viewings
Grouped by area. I am aboard with you — or I go first and film the whole boat if you cannot travel yet.
Offer and survey
Offer made subject to survey, deposit held in escrow, surveyor of your choosing. The report decides what happens next.
Closing and handover
Balance, transfer of title, registration, insurance, berth, and an introduction to a captain or a yard if you need one.
What it costs
What a purchase costs you in fees
- Buying a listed boat
- Nothing for you. The commission is paid by the selling side out of the agreed price, as it is everywhere in brokerage.
- Off-market search
- A retainer agreed in writing, and deducted from the commission if a purchase goes through.
- Survey, transport, registration
- Invoiced to you directly by the surveyor, the yard or the agent — at cost, with no margin added on top.
No fee is ever invoiced that was not agreed in writing beforehand.
What is not included
What a broker is not, and who to hire instead
- The survey. The surveyor is independent, chosen by you, and answerable to you alone — never to the broker.
- Legal, tax and VAT advice. Ownership structure, flag and taxation are matters for your lawyer and your accountant; I work with them, not instead of them.
- Financing and insurance. I can introduce specialists in both; the contract is between you and them.
- Delivery, transport and crew recruitment, quoted separately once the boat is yours.
- Repairs. I am not a yard, I employ no workers, and I take no margin on work carried out.
Why go through Rayan
The honest answer, in two parts
Hundreds of boats, seen from the inside
Two days aboard to film a yacht properly, engine room and bilges included. After hundreds of units, you learn which models hold their value and which ones hide their invoices.
Nothing to gain from selling you the wrong boat
A buying mandate is a long relationship, and a badly advised buyer talks. With an audience this size, a bad purchase is expensive for me too.
- 2 millionFollowers
- 1 billion+Views
- Hundreds of yachts visited and presented on camera.
- An international clientele, in French and in English.
- Tens of millions of euros in closed deals.
Frequent questions
Questions buyers actually ask
Sometimes. A filmed boat is not necessarily for sale, and several have sold since. Ask about a specific one and you get its real status.
No. Most purchases are boats listed by other brokers or sold privately. Restricting a search to my own listings would be doing you a disservice.
From a first serious boat upwards. What matters is that the budget and the programme match — a boat bought at the top of the budget, with nothing left to run it, is the most common mistake.
Yes. I go, I film the whole boat including the engine room, and you get the footage and a written assessment before you decide whether to fly out.
Two to four months in most cases. Faster when the boat is already identified; longer for a specific model that rarely comes on the market.
The offer is made subject to survey. You either renegotiate on the strength of the report, or you walk away and the deposit is returned.
Looking for a boat?
Tell me the programme and the budget. You get an honest answer, and a shortlist that respects both.