Berthon International

In this final Inside the Market of 2025, Sue Grant is joined by Berthon motorboat broker and lifelong yachtsman, Hugh Rayner, to unpack what is really happening across sail and power as we head into 2026.

They start with a striking datapoint from the USA. For brokerage yachts over 500,000 dollars, 1,893 motorboats have sold in 2025, against just 149 sailboats including multihulls. As Sue says, it is a sobering statistic. Hugh sees it every day as experienced sailors quietly move to semi displacement and long range motor yachts. As he puts it, many are discovering that “straight line sailing is quite nice be...

Inside the Market returns for November 2025 with a straight talking look at what is really happening in the yacht world right now. In this episode, Berthon International’s Sue Grant is joined by Alan Baines, Managing Director of Berthon USA, to unpack refit trends, pricing reality, and why some yachts are quietly selling while others sit and gather dust.

They begin in Palma, where Berthon’s refit and service operation is busier than ever, but the profile of work has shifted. The focus now is on seaworthiness, safety and essential maintenance, not teak decks and shiny cosmetics. Owne...

What really makes a motor yacht safe, comfortable and capable of crossing oceans, not just surviving them? 

Sue sits down with legendary designer and lifelong cruiser Steve Dashew to talk about FPB explorer yachts, and why not every metal boat in the anchorage is created equal.

Now retired from full time yacht building, Steve and Linda have swapped FPB commissioning for land yachting in Arizona, photography, and a very serious Ford truck and camper project. But Steve is still studying hulls, watching the America’s Cup, advising quietly in the background and thinking deeply about wha...

Tom Cunliffe joins us for a proper cup of tea and a wide-ranging conversation about boats, books, and why real seamanship still matters. A merchant seaman turned delivery skipper, Yachtmaster Examiner, columnist and broadcaster, Tom has spent a lifetime at sea—from engine-less beginnings on the Norfolk Broads to long ocean passages on traditional gaff craft and a Colin Archer to South America, the Caribbean and back. He shares the formative moments that shaped his philosophy: sailing without an engine, learning to think like a sailor (not a motor-boater with sails), and why how you recover from a mistake te...

In this October Market Insights episode, Sue is joined by Andrew Fairbrass from Berthon Spain to discuss the global yacht market as the team returns from the Annapolis Boat Show. Across all Berthon offices, activity remains steady, but the way buyers are engaging, researching, and making decisions continues to evolve. The conversation explores changing buyer behaviour, the challenges facing yacht manufacturers, and what’s driving momentum across new yacht sales, brokerage, and refit sectors as 2025 heads toward its final quarter.

This month’s insights:

1. The day of the boat show is waning. With more localised even...

Sue Grant sits down with designer, yachtsman, and long-time friend Steve Dashew to chart the leap from the record-setting sailboat BEOWULF to FPB 83 WIND HORSE—the boat that founded the FPB explorer-yacht line. Steve recalls why he and Linda built a fast, easily run sailboat, the two-handed 300-mile days they logged, and the stormy passage that flipped a prejudice against powerboats on its head: a broken boom, a hard motor-sail home, and a revelation about comfort, control, and speed. That moment led to Wind Horse—long, lean, efficient, and conceived from a sailor’s priorities: steering control, gentle motion, access...

In this September Market Insights episode, Sue Grant is joined by Magnus Kullberg, Managing Director of Berthon Scandinavia, to reflect on the yacht market as the season changes. With Cannes and Newport Boat Shows behind us and Annapolis ahead, both events were quieter than expected for immediate deals, though valuable for gauging trends and client interest.

This month’s key insights:

1. Cannes and Newport were information-gathering, not deal-making.
2. Brokerage enquiries are well up on 2024 levels.
3. Marketing teams are flat out as new listings swell stock.
4. Sweden is seeing a rebound after a sl...

In this episode, Ben Cooper, Rob, and Alan from Berthon sit down, for their first attempt at recording a podcast, and share an insider’s look at the yacht market, fresh from a busy September of shows and racing. Rob reports back from the Cannes Yachting Festival, where Solaris unveiled the new 60 Coupé alongside the latest 55, 50, and 74, while Ben and Alan reflect on the performance cruising sector and the innovation driving today’s sleeker, faster designs. From the flush decks of Solaris to the growing demand for wide transoms and twin rudders, they discuss how expectations for speed and style...

In this episode, Sue Grant (Managing Director of Berthon Sales Group) shares our latest yacht sales insights for August 2025. What began as a light-hearted Teams chat between our international offices has grown into a more structured monthly review of the yacht market — and now into a regular podcast feature.

Sue dives into what’s happening across our territories — the UK, Mediterranean, Scandinavia, the USA, and beyond. From seasonal slowdowns in August to the build-up for the autumn boat shows, we explore what’s hot, what’s not, and the wider trends shaping brokerage today.

Highlights include:<...

Welcome to the very first episode of the Berthon Podcast. In this short pilot, Sue Grant, Managing Director of the Berthon Sales Group, introduces who we are, what we do, and why we’ve launched this series.

Berthon is a fourth-generation, family-owned business with shipyard roots stretching back centuries, and today we’re one of the most established international yacht brokerages in the market. We sell around 200 yachts a year, across sail and power, from 35ft bluewater cruisers to 120ft performance yachts, working out of offices in the UK, Sweden, Spain, and the USA.

In this...