Broker Insight

We spoke to three brokers who each had an Ocean 50 Super Sport listed on BoatQuest.com. Here’s what they had to say about the market for these versatile sportfishing boats. Mike McCarthy, HMY Yacht Sales; www.hmy.com “In the last 30 days I sold a 50-foot Ocean and have a deal pending on another one. And then I sold a 52 Ocean from 2005 a few weeks ago. The market’s pretty busy—there’s not much inventory in that space right now. I think they’ve reached a certain price point where they’re selling. You’ve got a boat that doesn’t burn a whole heck of a lot of fuel, it allows you to go out fishing, you can go to the Bahamas, and travel north and south. It’s got a lot of possibilities for you—it’s a three-stateroom layout, it’s got a comfortable saloon, and the flybridge fits a bunch of people. It’s the size where an owner-operator can take care of it themselves if that’s what they wanted to do, or they can hire a freelance person to keep an eye on it occasionally. Oceans and Post Yachts always seem to get kind of lumped together—they’re both naturally on the short list for this space. There’s no nuance to how those things are laid out. I think the big thing people are looking at for a boat in this size and this price range is: The more records you have of how the boat is maintained, the better. It’s just crucial. With all these boats, I have three-ring binders with everything that’s ever been done to them, and that gives a buyer the comfort level to pursue them.” Gregg Somerville, Galati Yacht Sales; www.galatiyachts.com “I’ve sold a few of the 50s, also 48s and 52s. I am a big fan of the newer Oceans. I just think that they’ve come a long way in the market and I also feel that they offer a lot of value to today’s clients that want to do more than just diehard fishing. They want to do cruising or use it for diving, and I think it’s a good all-around platform for that. It’s af- fordable. I look back over the last year and a half and I see five Ocean 50s that have sold fairly close to their asking numbers. Those boats range from 2004 up through 2007. They offer a nice interior to do more than just fishing. The 50s have three staterooms. The boat has an amidships master stateroom. They’re quick, you know. They’ve got good motors in them: Some have the MTUs, Detroits, or MANs. I think some of the fisherman appreciated the aggressive deadrise on the 50, which translated to a better ride offshore. The market has been very good with these boats, you get a lot of boat for the money.” Bob Hommel, HMS Yachts; hmsyachts@aol.com “Well the boat I have listed is unique in that it’s extremely low hours and the owner brought it into the Great Lakes, into the fresh water, immediately, and he has maintained it in covered storage, winter and summer. It’s been out of the water every other year to have the bottom painted— here in the fresh water you can go that long without any attention to the bottom. The boat is immaculate, he has it washed once a week and then about once a month he has a guy go into the engine room to shine everything up in there. The bilge is immaculate. The boat I think now has around 250 hours on her 825-horsepower MTU engines, providing a cruise of well over 30 miles per hour. There’s not much maintenance required on it short of 1,000 hours. At 1,000 hours they have a scheduled maintenance that’s about $2,000 to $3,000 per engine. People around here don’t use boats like this to fish, but they like the performanceoriented configuration with the flying bridge. This boat has the built-in fishing equipment on it, such as the freezer in the aft deck, and things like that, but there are no outriggers. I’ve run the boat a couple of times for him and it’s a powerhouse—it’s a thrill to drive the boat and run her here in the Great Lakes. Lake Huron is pretty big: 600 miles long and 200 miles wide, and it can get a little wild out here. The boat was delivered up the Hudson and through the canals to the Great Lakes. The owner has a nice photograph of the boat in front of Trump Tower in Atlantic City—that’s the only time she’s been in salt water.”