From the humble beginnings of window cleaning to navigating the complex high seas of yacht brokerage, David Seal, the host and creator of the famous YouTube channel Yachts for Sale, plus a broker with Northrop & Johnson, joins us to share his remarkable journey. Discover the serendipitous path that led a young man from Wolverhampton, England to become a pivotal figure in the luxurious world of yachts, all beginning with a leap of love to Italy, where selling novelty items opened the door to an industry where passion reigns supreme. David's story is not just about ambition, but a vivid illustration of how drive and entrepreneurial spirit can carve out a place among the titans of yacht brokerage.
Peek behind the curtain of yacht sales with our deep dive into the ethical framework that underpins every successful deal. As we navigate through the stories and insights, you'll learn about David's creation of a masterclass that's revolutionizing the industry. It's doing so by equipping the next generation of brokers with the knowledge to conquer the waves of sales, law, and client satisfaction. David and podcast hosts Michael Moore and Diane M. Byrne dissect the importance of fostering longevity in client relationships, emphasizing that in the intricate dance of yacht brokerage, trust and integrity are your most reliable compass.
Finally, we set our sights on the horizon of yacht building and the intricate craftsmanship that goes into every vessel. Amid tales from the shipyard and the perils of social media's flashy veneer, we underscore the invaluable role of a broker's expertise in ensuring the quality their clients expect. David's masterclass becomes a beacon for those sailing into the yacht brokerage waters, teaching the importance of diligence and ethics.
Have a yacht law question? Email it to info@megayachtnews.com or michael@moore-and-co.com for your chance to have it answered on our podcast. All requests for confidentiality and/or anonymity are respected.
Hiring a lawyer is a big decision. Visit Moore & Company for the legal team's qualifications and experience. And, to learn the latest about superyacht launches, shipyards, designs, and destinations, visit Megayacht News.
From the humble beginnings of window cleaning to navigating the complex high seas of yacht brokerage, David Seal, the host and creator of the famous YouTube channel Yachts for Sale, plus a broker with Northrop & Johnson, joins us to share his remarkable journey. Discover the serendipitous path that led a young man from Wolverhampton, England to become a pivotal figure in the luxurious world of yachts, all beginning with a leap of love to Italy, where selling novelty items opened the door to an industry where passion reigns supreme. David's story is not just about ambition, but a vivid illustration of how drive and entrepreneurial spirit can carve out a place among the titans of yacht brokerage.
Peek behind the curtain of yacht sales with our deep dive into the ethical framework that underpins every successful deal. As we navigate through the stories and insights, you'll learn about David's creation of a masterclass that's revolutionizing the industry. It's doing so by equipping the next generation of brokers with the knowledge to conquer the waves of sales, law, and client satisfaction. David and podcast hosts Michael Moore and Diane M. Byrne dissect the importance of fostering longevity in client relationships, emphasizing that in the intricate dance of yacht brokerage, trust and integrity are your most reliable compass.
Finally, we set our sights on the horizon of yacht building and the intricate craftsmanship that goes into every vessel. Amid tales from the shipyard and the perils of social media's flashy veneer, we underscore the invaluable role of a broker's expertise in ensuring the quality their clients expect. David's masterclass becomes a beacon for those sailing into the yacht brokerage waters, teaching the importance of diligence and ethics.
Have a yacht law question? Email it to info@megayachtnews.com or michael@moore-and-co.com for your chance to have it answered on our podcast. All requests for confidentiality and/or anonymity are respected.
Hiring a lawyer is a big decision. Visit Moore & Company for the legal team's qualifications and experience. And, to learn the latest about superyacht launches, shipyards, designs, and destinations, visit Megayacht News.
Welcome everybody. So we have a bit of a surprise for you today, a little change of pace, if you will. Rather than Michael and I discussing a topic of interest in yachting and the legalities surrounding it, we have a special guest. So, michael, why don't you introduce our guest?
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, Diane. So it's always a pleasure talking with the owner, editor and publisher of Mega Yacht News, who is extremely well informed about the subject of yacht law, but it becomes a little dry from time to time, and both discuss who in the industry kind of makes it real, keeps it real, keeps it on the road is good, is well known for educating, which is what we try to do and that we mutually agreed.
Speaker 2:That would have to be David Seale, he of Northrop and Johnson, who is very informative, special masterclass on the internet. And yeah, we're going to discuss initially how a boy from Wolverhampton, england, which the last time I since the Mesozoic has not been on the ocean by the way, it might even been previous one of the other epoch, one of the other epochs, I guess they're called so how did a boy from Wolverhampton, england become a yachty David?
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for the amazing introduction. And you're right, wolverhampton is nowhere near the ocean and, as I was growing up, the one thing I knew for sure was that I did not want to stay there any longer than I really had to. So I'll give you a very quick, potted history of how I ended up in the yachting industry. I moved to London because I thought that's where people make their fortunes. I forgot that's also where people spend a fortune.
Speaker 3:And I was working at the time as a window cleaner, which is a very English pursuit. I had a pair of ladders that I'd carry on my shoulders in a bucket and I'd clean the windows of people's homes and shops and pubs in the day and in the evening I actually worked as what we call in England the man from the crew, which is an insurance collector. People used to pay five pounds a week, five pounds a month, to have an insurance policy known as an endowments, which was also a savings. And so, yeah, I was window cleaning in the day, collecting insurance money. In the evening I actually on my insurance round. I had the Tower of London, I was collecting from the Yeoman, which is quite an amazing experience.
Speaker 3:Every day I'd go to a sandwich shop because there was a beautiful Italian girl who used to serve me sandwiches, and it's kind of a very long story short. We started dating, she moved back to Italy and we carried on seeing each other. I'd fly back and support to Italy and eventually I thought I have to follow my heart, I have to move to Italy if I'm ever going to marry this girl. And in fact we were married for one week short of 25 years and we still remain very, very good friends now. So when I moved to Italy, but wait a second.
Speaker 2:I mean, let me just ask you a question cleaning windows, Now that sounds like a quintessentially yachting activity, Would you agree?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, the windows run a yacht, if they're portholes.
Speaker 2:Isn't it all about cleaning, cost of cleaning? And if you're not, if you're not into that, you're not going to make it on this trip.
Speaker 3:I think you're probably right and actually it was a very good grounding Because right ahead, they meet the rupture.
Speaker 3:Okay, it was a good grounding for business because I used to have to go out and find customers and do his hard work Exactly.
Speaker 3:But by the time I moved to Italy I was already experimenting with little businesses and there was an exhibition called the Ideal Home Exhibition.
Speaker 3:An amazing product there which was a little ball of sawdust made to look like a man's head and it was called Grow your Own man. The idea was that you'd immerse it under water for, I think, five minutes and there was grass seeds in the top of it, so the grass would grow like hair and people used to love these things because they'd sit on their windowsill and they'd cut the grass to be a moheeker or a side parting or a skinhead, and it was just a fun little product. So I had a tiny little car called a Vauxhall Corsa and I don't know how I did it, but I persuaded the owner of the Grow your Own man Company to give me 1,000 units on sale or return. I don't think he knew I'd be taking them to Italy, but I crammed them in the car I hardly had any space for even clothes and I drove to Italy and I sold all thousand in one week and I went on to sell 30,000 of them over the summer.
Speaker 2:So, you're in Italy, you're in the heart of yacht country, because there may be, would you agree, more yacht builders in Italy than any other place on earth. For sure.
Speaker 1:Definitely.
Speaker 2:And it's beautiful. It's got two coasts, it's got a love of the sea. It's got some of the giants. It's all about the water. They even have a city, I'm told, where the streets are filled with water. It's kind of a strange place. So you arrived in Italy town or UN now again.
Speaker 3:So the actual village is called Gridara, but it's quite close to a better known place called Rimini, a Catholic, a Pesero. It's on the Adriatic coast yeah, on the Adriatic and unfortunately the Grow your Own man lasted for three months and it was just a fad for the summer that people were enjoying.
Speaker 2:The women would just so relate to that.
Speaker 1:That was the Italian or the English version of the chia pet. Really, that's what it sounds like to me.
Speaker 3:The Grow your Own man, that's right.
Speaker 2:They have a few like grow.
Speaker 1:But it never let any of us go move to a beautiful country like Italy. So your story is much, much better than any experience we've ever had with the chia pet.
Speaker 2:You're in the art central. You're in the art global art world central. How do you capitalize on that?
Speaker 3:So when the fad of Grow your Own man ended, I heard that a local businessman wanted to learn English and, to be honest, originally I thought it'd be a great activity for my bed girlfriend because she spoke English perfectly. So we went to meet this businessman and it was Mr Norbert of Thoretty, and I will never forget the experience. He had a shipyard in a place called San Giovanni Maragnano and he had a big office and behind his desk was a huge window looking into the shipyard. This was 1994, 95.
Speaker 3:So back then an 80-foot yacht was huge and he had them lined up in production and my jaw dropped open and before I knew it, I was going back every day teaching him English. He'd introduced me to some clients, but more significantly even than the clients was, I met the people from Thoretty, of America. You know, I think you both remember the late. West Dickman, who was an absolute legend of the industry, and he took me under his wing. He taught me a lot about sales, a lot about yachts, his two henchmen, reg Corbett and Ron McTye, who you probably both know as well they became very close friends and I was like a sponge.
Speaker 3:I just absorbed all of the information that I possibly could and started to learn about yachts.
Speaker 1:That's interesting Everything you've just described, david, is really the perfect story to summarize in something that you say all the time that the brokerage business is really the relationship business that you were able to do, being the sponge being introduced to Weston, the team being introduced to Roberto all of that was relationship building and relationship cultivating really, and I know you've done that for many, many years as a broker and that's what you're really trying to impart with this masterclass that you teach. So let's kind of talk about that. But let's back up a little bit. You were the first person to really leverage YouTube in terms of the yachting industry showcasing yachts, walking people through a yacht, showcasing the features, the technology, the design, etc. Your YouTube channel, yachts for Sale, is definitely the largest yacht brokerage channel to this day, so you've able to take that and turn it into this brokerage masterclass. How did you figure out how to leverage all the information that you learned, all the relationship building expertise that you really built, and turn that into this class? How did you connect the dots?
Speaker 3:So two things were happening. On the one hand, as the YouTube channel became bigger and bigger, I was receiving a lot of emails from young people who saw Yacht brokerage as a great aspirational career for them and didn't know how to get into it, and I always felt terrible if I didn't reply to their emails. But the truth was that if you're going to give a proper answer to that question, it's not a five minute email. People need mentoring, they need training. So that was happening. And on the other hand, I always found it very frustrating that there was a lack of training industry. I had no training. I had to learn from mistakes, from talking to other yacht brokers, and I believe that I did a pretty good job of teaching myself. But sadly, the truth is in our industry that there's a lot of what I would call armchair brokers.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of people who go to Pronto Prince and get themselves a business card that says Yacht broker and all that they're doing is sitting at home copying and pasting other people's listings downloading the photographs, pretending that they're listening, to try to attract the inquirers, and that would be harmless in itself, but what happens is when they get an actual, proper inquiry, they don't know how to handle it. They are impossible to work with, and yachts potential yacht owners will sometimes throw their hands up in the air and say you know what? I was buying a yacht to have fun. It's more trouble than it's worth and, as a result, they never enjoyed this fantastic industry. So I decided that this is a business opportunity, but also the best business opportunity is when there's a real problem that needs solving, and so I spent a lot of time making notes, putting together what I thought was everything that Yachtbroker needs to know.
Speaker 3:I spoke with Michael and some other industry professionals, particularly for the legal aspects, because I don't think that somebody who hasn't had a good legal background should be advising on contracts. So, for example, the whole module about the EBA contract. Michael spent hours with me talking about every single line item, nuance, and that's what I wanted to pass on to students. I don't want them to learn that from me. I wanted them to learn it from somebody with the experience of Michael, who's been through every possible scenario, and at the end we put together a whole masterclass course which I think pretty much teaches people everything they need to know to be a good, effective, ethical, knowledgeable Yachtbroker. It's a good point because the sorry.
Speaker 3:Michael.
Speaker 1:I think what people end up doing a lot of the time in sales let's just take sales in general is they know it's a relationship business, they know they need to introduce this client to the product, the service, et cetera, and they think the relationship ends as soon as that sale is consummated. Right, it's like OK, I'm done, now I'm moving on to the next. It's not that simple and it should never at least in terms of yachting, that should never be the end of the relationship. That's really, in many ways, just the beginning, and from where I sit, and I'm wondering if that's really what you were trying to teach to all the people who have been emailing you over the years- yeah, I mean really.
Speaker 3:There's a whole module in the masterclass called it's a relationships business, because it's not just the relationship with the owner, it's understanding as well all of the intricacies of who are the people who influence him. It might be his daughter, it might be his wife, it might be his girlfriend, it can be very often a best friend who's whispering in their ear and influencing them. So you need to understand all of the relationships and, as you absolutely rightly say, it should be a long term relationship. And if a yacht broker can establish that kind of longevity in a relationship, we spoke earlier about Kevin Merrigan, who is one of the all time great yacht brokers. He has sold yachts to some of his clients over a period of 30 or 40 years. He's sold I think there's one he sold 12 yachts to over the years, maybe more than that.
Speaker 3:Right. That's an absolute testimony to his ability to not just have a relationship and then disappear, but to keep a strong relationship with the clients.
Speaker 2:You answer the needs of the client. What we see in the law context is, you know both where the draft is too much to the birth cannot accommodate the yacht, because the draft is too great or the beam is to encroaches on that the yacht is scheduled to be on. So the yacht cannot literally fit on that birth. Or bridges. We've had bridges that vessels cannot get under except at certain windows of a low tide, but that yeah, but I think the knowledgeable yacht broker is you're right, they can sort of bring in the central buyer, but that's the sad part because then they have to actually do get the client in the right boat and so on and so forth, to get the right boat in the right birth and the right everything.
Speaker 3:That's right, and it takes real courage and integrity to walk away from a deal, because the numbers can be very high indeed. You can be looking at half a million plus maybe a million dollar commission in your pocket. But if you as a broker find out something about the yacht that's just not going to work with your client, you have to have the integrity to advise your client to walk away from it, knowing full well that you may buy another boat from another broker. But you have to have that integrity if you don't have a long term relationship with the client.
Speaker 2:Have you run into situations where the brokers have not noticed what, in your view, ethically, they should have disclosed. If there's anything, come to your mind.
Speaker 3:You know, nothing springs to mind. But the opposite was true on a sale that a colleague of mine made a couple of years ago now and the particular yacht that he was selling surveyed so badly that the broker said walk away from it, and instead the buyer had fallen so much in love with the yachts he went ahead and bought it. They took it out on a sea trial, one of the engines broke down. That was two years ago. He's never used the yacht. He should listen to his broker, right. But I have no doubt at all that every week passes there are brokers giving bad advice simply because they want to make that commission. And it's a point I make a lot with the people who are considering taking the masterclass, because I think there's something like 2000 yacht brokers worldwide. There's a lot of yacht brokers worldwide.
Speaker 1:And somebody may think well.
Speaker 3:There's no space for anymore. It's so competitive. But the truth is that the standard of yacht brokers worldwide on the whole is appalling the lack of ethics, the lack of knowledge, the lack of following through and we all know. When I say we, us three, we know who the brokers are who are really doing extremely well. There's probably less than a hundred brokers worldwide who are making amazing profits and having an amazing career because they're so good at what they do and there are so many who are not good at what they do. So the opportunity for good, ethical, knowledgeable yacht brokers right now is huge.
Speaker 2:Do you have sort of an asset test for what you teach a broker, a young broker, to disclose to a potential or existing line looking to buy a yacht?
Speaker 3:I believe that they should disclose just about everything. I think transparency is absolutely fundamental to the deal because otherwise you know a client clients are very smart. Something I learned very early on when I was working with Ferretti Group and I go into the sales and the marketing side of it was that pretty much every yacht owner I speak to is a hell of a lot smarter than I am and a hell of a lot better negotiator than I am. So I'd better just be honest with them and truthful with them, because they're going to find things out anyway. I don't really, off the top of my head, I can't think of a scenario where I wouldn't disclose something to a buyer.
Speaker 1:The more information that they have, the better their decision is. Ultimately, like you were saying, with the situation where the broker had said just walk away because the yacht had surveyed so terribly, if that knowledge were known upfront, it would have been much easier to say listen, here's a situation, the engines aren't functioning well, these systems are broken or what have you, whatever the other issues are. And you could have said much more definitively before their heart starts to really fall completely head over heels and love the boat. This is just not a good situation. Walk away and it saves a lot of heartache.
Speaker 3:And to put some balance to that? Of course we're. Especially if you're involved with marketing, you always want to put over the positive side of things and not the negative side. That's part of marketing. But if you're aware, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3:If you're aware that the range of a furry yacht is important, to that client and you know that a particular yacht is a real fuel burner. He's not going to get good range. It's going to really annoy him when he has to fill up the tank so often. You've got to let them know. If it's not an issue for them, why bring it to their attention? I think as a salesperson, because of course you also have a responsibility to the seller of the yacht if you have the central listing. So you need to show good judgments, good business sense, but always within the parameters of being honest and transparent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 3:So, Michael and.
Speaker 1:David, I know that. I'm sorry, Michael, go ahead. Go ahead, Diane.
Speaker 2:Well, I was going to say that you know the meat you mentioned. The Mediterranean Yacht Records Association contract has this language in it that tries to you know what is material and D, you know, doesn't affect seaworthiness and these kind of tests are very esoteric tests. What I hear you saying is more of a what I'd call a humanistic test. In other words, think about the client. What is he looking for? Is this going to be something he should know? Don't look at the very. I mean, for example, the EBA contract basically is if there's any reason you don't like the vessel after a sea trial and survey, you can walk away. Well, the EBA contract is, frankly, much more difficult to walk away. I would say look, it's got to be more of a gut check in your heart. You know what you should disclose. I think that's a very good way of looking at it. I mean, you had supposed to go oh, I didn't think that was material. It's like what did you didn't disclose it?
Speaker 1:We just that's the judge right now.
Speaker 2:We're not going to be glad, whether it's material or not.
Speaker 3:Yes, always clear yeah. And again it comes down to relationships. You have to know your clients and you know what they like. You know what they don't like. You know it's going to annoy them. Bring it to their attention, because they're not going to thank you for it if you don't.
Speaker 1:Very much so.
Speaker 3:But on the subject of the sort of legal side of it, it's shocking some of the stories that you hear about things that haven't been disclosed and then come out as the yachts about to close and it completely blows the deal. And there was a story which I'm sure you've heard, of One particular yacht deposit paid, contract signed, everything goes through and they go offshore to do the closing and the buyer was on the yacht for the closing, which is not that usual, and she said boats rocking about a lot, isn't it? So you don't have the stabilizers switched on. And that didn't said I'm sorry, the what the here we don't have stable like that, we don't have zero speed stabilizers. And he was under the impression he did and the deal fell apart. It was a bad day for everybody. I don't know how that ended Most likely it did go to court. But if he can prove that he was given specs that stated there was zero speed stabilizers, I would imagine he'd be in a pretty strong position to defend this corner 100%.
Speaker 2:You know something that's been tearing through the yacht world. I think it's relevant, but it's exactly what you're getting at in terms of the depth of the knowledge of the our broker and how to see his client who has now purchased the yacht. Now here's this is the power curve that I'm referring to. It's a very it's a recent thing. It's every policy of insurance now states that you must have your fire extinguishing system whatever system you have suppression system certified annually, and if it's not certified, you will not have coverage. And under New York law, for example, if the fire extinguishers aren't certified and the vessel goes to ground, you don't have coverage. Fires are related to grounding, but there's it's a technical state, so you don't have any coverage.
Speaker 2:And I think about that in the context of what you're saying. You know the quality broker is going to say oh, by the way, there's been a lot of fires in the industry. The insurances people have met that challenge and here's what they require. First thing you should do on this boat I want to go back to the survey and make sure that the fire extinguishers were examined and that they are certified, and For some reason that's not in the survey. Then we're gonna go on board ourselves. It's always that broker who's going that good at a little bit extra step. And, by the way, there will be lawsuits for different reasons. It'll be lawsuits against the insurance broker who didn't book the, didn't tell the insurer, the you know. Now new owner You're, you know you got to keep your extinguishers system certified. But it's also this catastrophic thing where you lose the entire yacht and you you're losing the yacht for one reason and you don't have coverage for another reason.
Speaker 3:Going back to the fire extinguisher it's a great example of why relationships are important, because I'm listening to you and I've just learned something there that's that's really valuable. And again in the masterclass I encourage the students to get to know marine lawyers. I'm not going to talk to them because you learn so much and that's the kind of thing that if a yacht broker Passes that on to his client, the client is going to be so appreciative. How can they be anything other than thankful to have that information passed on to you know?
Speaker 2:It is true, if you dial 786 473 and was getting, someone will answer the phone.
Speaker 3:But you know it's so true.
Speaker 2:I mean, what we're seeing, the law is always tugging at the Codetails of progress as that arrow of progress is arcing into the future. It's kind of like you know, what do we have now? And this is. You see, these the results of the bad brokers. They give you one example. We have this vessel survey and I said what it? What is that that? She said Well, you know, we hired so and so. And I said, well, look, let me give you another name, have him just go. Redid the survey, redid this, that. Well, that's gonna cost money. I said it's, yeah, it's gonna cost money. But that first survey is just, I can't really tell what happened there. But the next survey comes in and the conservator says the first guy didn't notice the pants on was falling off.
Speaker 2:It's literally falling off and he says here the it's night and day. Now you, same vessel, same time period, 2024 to surveyors go to the boat and Two surveys are generated night and day, with arrows pointing to cracks. Component cards gonna work, but you know what I mean. Okay. So that example, okay. So, yes, it's a lawyer example, but it's also a yacht broker example. These yacht brokers are always there when that's the all-important sea trial and survey are done and they absolutely know they should know and in their heart of hearts, why they need to tell that buyer yeah, you know, this is not a good survey. This is, but it's not a Complete survey. We need to get somebody else out, or I've already found that guy, but he's just know he's. He may have the credential but he's not qualified. He's just not getting it done hmm Now does that survey?
Speaker 1:here's a question, because this is something that I actually Don't know myself Does that survey become part of, say, a listing agreement when a yacht is being Listed by a broker, or does it become and or actually does it become part of the the buyers Contract?
Speaker 3:that also included purchase and sale agreements. Is they want to eat that? There are buyers who buy site unseen or as is where lies, but it's not advisable though. And so both the meber contract and the eber contract make provision for a survey at the buyer's expense.
Speaker 2:We have a case in the office, multi-million dollar situation. Well, it's like sitting on in the office because we've declined to get involved. But I, I saw the facts Law for Surveyor, yacht broker all three are getting yelled at. We know about it because I said we'd like to you to represent us. I said, listen, I know the law firm, I know the surveyor and I know the outbroker. I'm not gonna get involved. I'm just saying I'm, that's, that's my worldview, I'm. I Think you've got a situation here. What was the situation? Situation was that the Yacht broker, surveyor and a law firm did not review all of the certifications, all of the certificates. Well, that boat is up for its second five-year survey. Some people call it a ten-year survey. That will that over several million dollars of Changes will have to be addressed or issues will have to be addressed within a year of this man's purchase. He's not a happy guy.
Speaker 3:There's not actually any yacht broker with experience and integrity who sees that the yachts that their client is thinking of buying Was delivered in 2014? Their first question should be has the ten-year survey been done? Because, anybody with experience knows exactly that's a hell of an expensive Survey and it's a lot better if it's already been done.
Speaker 2:Totally. You know everybody in your world. I think the brokers are. There's a new world out there and there's a very sophisticated buying public. They they spent a lot of time on the internet, they do the Google, they go to your match or class, but they also. They also don't hesitate to say you know there's something, there's just something wrong about this picture. I should have been advised, and I don't know who yet. But I'm mad at the law firm, I'm mad at the surveyors and I'm mad at the yacht broker. The yacht broker, I thought interesting. He's actually believe this. This buyer is. He looks at that yacht broker, selling broker as the guy that he relied on. In fact, everyone in the group was related to the selling broker. Get this lawyer, get this survey and it's. You know it's.
Speaker 2:It's an interesting dynamic we don't see very often. That's not. I had done it with a guy and he's a typical buyer. But he says Well, my wife and I will know it when we see it. And I said I actually don't agree with that. I Said I think you'll, you'll know the design on the exterior and you might even like the look and feel of the interior, but Wow, it's a lot more complicated than that. You really need a qualified broker walking you around. If it's not, what's the price to you? You're the buyer, yeah you're it actually it's.
Speaker 3:It's interesting. You say that because the the dangerous side of social media is that people will make judgments on the yachts based purely on the way that they look on a YouTube video and I Obviously I won't mention the names of builders, but I get I Get close to a million views on the channel every month, so you can imagine how many comments like it. And I get a lot of comments From people saying, oh yeah, it's a lovely fed ship, but I would rather have a. And they mention a much cheaper brand. That just has a big impact on social media. And I read them and I'm like, oh, you don't know what you're saying if you think that's better than a fed ship just because of what you've read online.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so.
Speaker 3:You know that that's the dangerous side of social media, because you know I'm into marketing. I can't speak badly about any shipyard. There was some shipyards I just won't cover at all. I would rather do that than speak badly about a yacht builder. But yeah, the Just because a yacht is popular on social media doesn't mean to say it's a great yacht at all right, I'm with you, brother.
Speaker 2:I like the way you think it's. You know, sometimes it's amusing. This guy wanted to sew a boat Yacht boat builder and he the the one of the wind chills came loose and almost decapitated his wife and he wanted to say you know, the problem with the law is she has to get decapitated. There's lots of cases on there, so that you know he negligence in the air, so to speak will not do. That means yeah, somebody's got to get hurt.
Speaker 2:I I heard your problem was is that the yard that I'm where? I said those people are not great yacht builders. They cut corn, yeah, to save money. They sell a cheaper product and, yeah, and there's no backing plates on the cleats. I mean, it's just fundamental. These people are really, but there's no law that keeps them out of the marketplace. They're in the marketplace and you need a broker. You need a broker that cares about you and your interest and we'll take you through and say no, no, no, let me. Let me show I've had brokers do that with me, by the way and a broker walk a beautiful yacht, legendary yacht, and as he cry, he described it as a piece of yes, and he would open really, he would open up compartments and say, say, see, see the wiring, see how bad that is.
Speaker 2:I say you know honestly, I just can't tell, I don't really have the expertise. He says not always terrible this should be, and but he was. He was enjoying Mike, I told him what a beautiful yacht it was. He says I know it's a piece of. And he says let me show you. And we spent most of the party Going through compartments. I mean I said really wasted a perfect good evening. Yeah, but you never forget it because he's a knowledgeable guy and he just you know he was former crew, he was former on board, he served this time at sea, he came ashore. He's now a great yacht brover and yeah, so I totally. I think your advice is Massively every body should listen to it.
Speaker 3:I think as well, having worked for your builder. I was with 30 group for 10 years, so the last five were with CRN. Crn, shipyard Right. I think any builder who can produce a product that looks beautiful, floats, has the interior of the top hotel or the top villa you can ever imagine, you can propel it through the water and it will get to its destination. I take my hat off to them and I don't feel like going to any shipyard and pointing a finger and saying your fed ship, do it better lesson, do it. But I think they're all incredibly innovative, intelligent and people who should really be applauded for what they've done, because there's not all that often a lot of money in it. It is as we all know, as a lot of shipyards go bust. So you know, as a broker I don't really feel inclined to criticize too much On the little details of the way the yachts well you may remember the book written by Jimmy Carter why not the best?
Speaker 2:But you may not remember Elliott and it. Richard was answer, because it costs more money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the end of the day, that's what it all comes down to, right? I?
Speaker 2:think that's your key. It's true 30, 48 minutes.
Speaker 1:Well, david, we could talk for an hour or more, I'm sure, about all the nuances of your masterclass and all the lessons you've learned the years, and the best lessons, of course, always come the hard way right. I think it's fortunately, but unfortunately. This has been a great conversation. I I highly encourage anybody if they want to be coming up over, they should absolutely, absolutely sign up for your class, because it really is a masterclass, literally and figuratively. There's there's so much to learn and really so much to take away in terms of Ethical behavior and doing right by your clients. So thanks for sharing some of the insight with us today.
Speaker 3:Thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:It's been a real blast, absolutely relationship between this Podcast and the yacht law podcast, then you haven't been paying attention. Well, this is like a more saying goodbye and over to you, diane.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did cover a lot of the, the legalities, for sure that you know the importance of having the right things done in terms of the surveys and and just that the basics of how you treat a client. So there's no confusion at the end and there's no what you said this no, I didn't going on Everybody. Thank you so much for listening. If you want to learn more about David and, of course, this fantastic masterclass that he offers, you can visit his yachts for sale Channel on YouTube. Also, you can check out north of and Johnson's website. We can't not give them a shout out here north, when Johnson's website is, of course, northrup and Johnson calm. And If you have a yacht law question for us that you would like to have addressed on an upcoming episode of the yacht law Podcast, please reach out to Michael Moore or me. Our contact information is in the show notes for this episode. Until next time, I'm Diane Byrne. I.