Tomasz Wrzesiński

CEO W Yachts Monaco. 20 years selling luxury motor yachts. I expose what brokers hide: real costs, silent commissions, survey traps. Sued for the truth.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Most buyers treat registration as paperwork that follows the purchase. In reality it is a decision that shapes the purchase.

WHAT CHANGING LATER ACTUALLY TOUCHES
- Survey and class: some flags and registers expect specific inspections, certificates or modifications before they accept the vessel.
- Insurance: the underwriter priced the boat as registered. A change can reopen the terms.
- Crew: certification and employment rules follow the flag, and not every crew member's papers travel with it.
- Charter and use: what you may do with the yacht, and where, depends on how she is registered.
- Timing: a re-registration in the middle of a season means time in a yard or a port instead of on the water.

WHY IT COSTS MORE AFTER SIGNING
Before signing, the registration question is a negotiating point. After signing, it is your problem. The seller's price did not account for it, and the seller no longer cares.

WHAT I TELL BUYERS
1. Decide flag and registration structure before you make an offer, not after you pay a deposit.
2. Make the sale conditional on the registration being possible on your terms.
3. Get it confirmed in writing by a specialist who works for you.

Not tax advice, and not legal advice. That is exactly why you need someone qualified to give it before the money moves.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

"Just reduced."

Two words that make buyers feel they found a bargain.

Before you celebrate, ask three questions:
- How long has it been listed?
- What was the first price, and was it ever realistic?
- Who set the new one, and why now?

A price cut is not a discount. Often it is the market finally saying what it thought all along.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

"Who controls negotiations and documentation" is the clause I'd read first. In a co-brokerage the commission split is agreed between two brokers, and the buyer paying the price usually never sees it. The deals I trust are the ones where that split could be shown to the client without anyone flinching.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

'Designed to be lived in' is the right way to present a custom 37m. From the buyer's side, a one-off lives or dies on documentation: original build specs, class status, the history of yard periods and who has run her. With a series build, buyers compare hull numbers. With a custom, the paperwork is the comparable.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

The sub-500 GT generation is the most practical story of the show. That line isn't about looks: crossing it changes crew certification, compliance and the whole running-cost structure. Designers squeezing maximum volume under it are answering the owner's real question: how much yacht can I have before everything around it gets heavier?

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

End of life is the part of the depreciation curve nobody prices in. Every GRP hull eventually has a last owner, and disposing of it is a real cost that rarely appears in anyone's spreadsheet. Technology that turns an old boat into recoverable material, instead of an abandoned hull in the corner of a yard, is good news for the environment and for the honesty of the numbers on older vessels.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Congratulations to Yalıkavak and Setur Antalya. Staying at the top two years running matters more than a single trophy: owners pick a home port for service and reliability, not for one season. And when the winter berth and a capable yard sit in the same region, you save a delivery trip and keep the crew in one place. That's real money, even if it never shows up in the brochure.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Well deserved for Cowes. Owners rarely say it out loud, but the marina often shapes the ownership experience more than the boat does: shore power, security, a capable yard nearby, staff who know your vessel. A good berth is an asset in its own right. The hardest thing to find is usually not the yacht, it's the place to keep her.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Wellness spaces are where owners actually spend their days aboard, so leading with them makes sense. The question I'd put to any build with a spa or pool on an upper deck: how is that water weight handled for stability, and what is the drain-down routine before a passage? Good yards have a clear answer. On the resale market it's also where surveyors look hardest: membranes, leaks, pumps.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Seeing the build from the Oundle shop floor tells a buyer more than any premiere photo. The question I'd add for a GTO: how does the open-air layout age after a few seasons of Northern European weather? Canvas, seals, hatch drains, deck hardware. That's where a sports-open earns or loses its resale value, not on launch day.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

A month out is the right time to do the work nobody does at the show itself: shortlist on paper, pull comparable sold boats, and have an independent surveyor on standby before you walk the docks. Buyers who arrive with a plan negotiate. Buyers who arrive with a free afternoon pay the show price.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

An aluminium hull with a signature designer interior is a beautiful combination, and one that keeps rewarding good engineering long after the debut. Aluminium is light and stiff, but it is unforgiving of electrical faults: poor isolation and stray current show up as galvanic corrosion. For any future owner, the electrical installation and anode history will matter as much as the name on the interior.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

"Through operation" is the part second-hand buyers should care about most. A class notation on the listing tells you how she was built. It does not tell you whether she is still in class today, when the next periodical survey falls due, or whether any conditions of class are outstanding. Those three answers belong in the file before an offer, not after.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

A 2027 on the brokerage market in September 2026 is worth one extra question before anything else: is that the model year or the build date? They are not the same thing. Ask for the hull completion date, the date the warranty clock actually started, and whether she has already been used as a demo or show boat. The price makes sense only after those three answers.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Same shape of curve in yachts, and the same sweet spot a few years in. The accelerators differ though. On a boat, engine hours alone say little: hours run hard at full speed, or a boat that sat idle in a hot marina, can both be worse than high hours used gently. What really bends the curve is gaps in the service history and a new captain every season.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Med summer, Caribbean winter is how a charter yacht earns properly. It is also where the owner's real cost sits: the ocean repositioning, extra engine and generator hours, and a tight turnaround between seasons. The useful question is never just how many weeks are booked, but what is left after delivery, wear and the next yard period. Safe crossing to her crew.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Underrated point: a long best-seller run is also a resale argument. Same pattern in yachts. Models with a deep pool of buyers, known service networks and parts on the shelf can sell in weeks, while the rare or heavily customised ones sit on the market for a very long time. Buying the "consistent" model is partly buying your exit.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

"Fully restored" is the two words I'd ask the most questions about, especially a few hundred feet from salt air. Same rule we use with older yachts: restored by whom, to what standard, and where are the invoices? A documented restoration is an asset. An undocumented one is a fresh coat of paint over questions nobody answered.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

Worth noticing what is not on the chart: yachts. Rightly so. A yacht is a consumption asset, not a direct investment, and the family offices that handle one well treat it that way from day one: its own annual budget line, its own depreciation schedule, its own exit plan. The trouble starts when the boat drifts somewhere between lifestyle spend and portfolio position.

[Tomasz Wrzesiński @TomekYachtingMC]

A property developer at a yacht show makes more sense than people think. For owners of larger yachts, the hardest thing to secure is rarely the boat. It is a proper berth, with the depth, power and services a big vessel needs. Whoever builds that infrastructure properly, not just another marina for small boats, keeps owners in the region for years.