Boatshed.com celebrates 25 years

Online yacht brokerage group Boatshed.com is celebrating its 25th year in 2024.

Founded by Neil Chapman (pictured above) in 1999, what started as a one-man crusade to encourage boat owners to embrace e-commerce and buy and sell their vessels via the internet has grown into a global phenomenon with thousands of daily site visitors worldwide. The firm says it is now the world’s leading online yacht brokerage with over 1.2m registered users.

Described as the UK’s first online yacht broker, Boatshed.com has 12 UK-based staff supporting over 120 franchises and brokers in over 80 locations across 18 countries.

Covering Europe, Asia, North America, South America and the Caribbean, they support Chapman’s business model: to combine local knowledge and expertise with the best technology available.

The company says it uses a transparent sales process where brokers check and list boats for sale, post videos and photos in full detail, and work alongside data-driven and AI-supported dashboards and internal platforms that track users’ behaviour, model preferences, and best times to contact.

“Boatshed.com has revolutionised boat sales; no other broker can track the behaviour of over a million active users and know who wants to talk about buying a boat now, who’s at the research stage and who wants to be left in peace,” says Chapman.

In 2023, Boatshed.com launched a new service, BoatshedCharter, enabling its worldwide audience to charter boats.

“As Boatshed sails into its 25th year, we are further developing our ‘friends of Boatshed’ strategic partners’ programme. This initiative shatters the traditional ‘sale, then silence’ narrative, creating a seamless bridge between brokers, service providers like marinas, engineers and sailmakers, and excited new boat owners.

“My goal is for Boatshed.com to be represented in every port around the world. As tech continues to evolve and our global support grows, we look forward to what the next 25 years will bring.”