18. Inside the Market - Yacht Sales Insights & Trends for April 2026 - Berthon International Yacht Brokerage

The 2026 sailing season is now properly underway, and with boats launching across Europe and the Mediterranean season beginning to gather pace, the market is starting to reveal where confidence, caution, and genuine activity currently sit.

In this episode of Inside the Market, Ben Cooper and Alan McIlroy discuss the Top 7 Yacht Sales Insights for April 2026, drawing on conversations from across Berthon’s international offices in the UK, Spain, Sweden, and the USA.

The picture, as ever, is mixed.

General enquiry levels remain noticeably lower than this time last year, but the quality of enquiry has improved considerably. As Ben explains, “the people that you are talking to, those targeted enquiries, they’re quite focused and they want to buy boats.” Fewer casual browsers perhaps, but more serious buyers prepared to make decisions.

One of the clearest trends emerging this spring is the pressure on the production yacht market between 40 and 60 feet. Buyers appear to be waiting for further price adjustments, even as the season begins. In a crowded marketplace, pricing and presentation are becoming more important than ever.

At the other end of the spectrum, well-prepared quality yachts continue to attract strong interest. Bluewater cruisers and proven offshore brands remain particularly resilient. “There’s always a market for those well-presented quality marques that represent good value,” Alan notes, reflecting a trend being seen across multiple territories.

The discussion also looks at the Palma International Boat Show, which Berthon has just returned from. While general footfall may have felt lighter than previous years, both Ben and Alan highlight that the show remains hugely important from a brokerage perspective, particularly for networking, getting brokers aboard yachts, and generating future sales conversations. As Alan puts it, “what we as an industry use Palma for really is to show other brokers the boats.”

New yacht sales remain more measured overall, although there are signs of renewed confidence within the quality segment. Both Pegasus and Solaris are seeing more serious discussions beginning to develop again, particularly where buyers are looking for well-built, performance-oriented cruising yachts designed for long-term ownership.

The episode also touches on broader regional differences. Sweden continues to see a highly active and liquid local market, while elsewhere some owners are choosing to hold onto their yachts for another season rather than bring them to market after investing in spring preparation and refit work.

As always, the fundamentals remain remarkably consistent. High quality yachts, properly presented and realistically priced, continue to find buyers, even in a more selective marketplace.

Key Points

• The 2026 sailing season is now underway, with activity increasing across all Berthon territories
 • Enquiry levels are lower than in 2025, but conversion rates are significantly stronger
 • Production yachts in the 40–60 foot segment remain under pricing pressure
 • Palma Boat Show delivered focused, high-quality brokerage interest despite lighter footfall
 • Sweden and parts of Northern Europe continue to show strong local market activity
 • New yacht sales are showing signs of renewed confidence in the premium segment
 • Well-presented, high-quality yachts continue to sell at sensible price levels

Transcript

All right, so this is the Top 7 Sales Insights for April 2026.

We’ve done one before. We’re professionals.

No, I think we’ve done one actually…

Right, look, you’ve got to sit and be quiet and not jump all over everyone, okay? If you’re going to be sitting here…

Is this recording or not?

Oh dear, can you wipe all that? Harry just goes over a barrel.

Ben telling Alan not to sit on his lap. Stop licking me.

There’s some laughs there you can cut in later.

Can you take the dog away with you as well?

No, just leave him in here because otherwise he’ll go off and kill someone.

Right, it’s Ben and Alan here and we’re going to do our first Insights podcast. So we’re both looking at each other scratching our heads a bit about podcasts and how we do these.

These are our monthly sales insights and the information is largely gathered from the team calls we have on Teams with all our colleagues around the world — Sweden, Newport Rhode Island, Palma and so on. Every couple of weeks we have a little pow-wow and find out what’s going on in each other’s markets, what’s hot and what’s not.

April has been quite a month of contrast really across the offices. We’ve got offices on the East Coast of the USA, in Sweden, Spain and the UK here in Lymington. There are some general trends running across all these territories and the international market generally, but there are also some local market movements that we’re monitoring carefully.

The sailing season is here and wherever you are broking yachts there are increased levels of activity, both in the market and on the water, as yachts are prepared for the season — boats going in the water, antifouling, all the usual spring commissioning work.

Yeah, I think we were definitely slightly concerned at the start of the season because it felt like things were getting off to quite a slow start. The Med was quiet and, by virtue of the fact we had the wettest February on record, that didn’t help.

No, I don’t think it stopped raining for three months in the UK.

It did feel unusually quiet, even after Düsseldorf, which usually kicks things off in our market. It was a bit subdued, but since then it has definitely picked up.

We have noticed that the general enquiry level across the board is lower, but the people you are talking to — those targeted enquiries — are quite focused and they want to buy boats.

There are always buyers. People have plans to carry out, and the one thing they can’t buy is time. I don’t think the market will ever completely flatline because there’s always someone out there who needs to buy a boat, and always someone who wants to move their boat on to a new home.

Yeah, I agree. I think we’re getting a higher quality of enquiry. And what we mean by that is the conversion of enquiry into sales.

Of course, in stronger years when enquiry levels increase, a lot of those enquiries are people researching for the future, which is very sensible. But the conversion rate naturally goes down because there’s a much higher volume of enquiries.

What we’re seeing at the moment is less speculative research into the future and more focused buyers.

What we’re also seeing is that production yachts in the 40 to 60 foot segment are a little bit sticky, as buyers position themselves waiting for price falls and perhaps looking ahead to next season already, even though the current season is only just beginning.

If you’re in that more production-orientated market, you’re in a much more crowded marketplace.

Yeah, it’s the high-volume marketplace. That’s where it really comes down to competition and it becomes less about the individual boat. It’s definitely a tougher market.

It is. And what we see, as always really, is that boats in great condition, priced well and in a sensible location, are the ones that sell. Unfortunately, price is always the dominating factor.

We deliberately held off recording this until after Palma because we wanted to see how the show went. We thought it would be a good barometer for the market in general.

Having returned from Palma, the feeling in the larger yacht sector is that enquiry levels are lower, but again the enquiries themselves are targeted.

The general enquiry rate is lower, but the people enquiring are focused. They’re looking carefully at what’s available and those targeted enquiries are definitely leading to sales, even if the overall footfall is down.

We didn’t see the same numbers of people over the boats at Palma and there was definitely less window shopping. But it’s easy to think Palma feels a bit down simply because there aren’t huge crowds walking the docks.

What we as an industry really use Palma for is to show other brokers the boats. It’s a great networking event for brokers to get on board, get feet on deck, and then later in the year when a client asks “Have you seen the boat?” they can confidently say yes. It’s absolutely worthwhile for that reason alone.

In terms of the boats actually at the show, it was a good spread — multihulls through to modern classics and large bluewater cruising yachts. There were some really nice boats there and it’s always useful just getting aboard different yachts and seeing what’s happening in the market.

What do you think, Murphy?

What’s interesting in some territories is the strength of local markets. In places like Sweden, yachts are coming to market and selling readily — the market is quite liquid.

Elsewhere in Europe there are fewer yachts coming onto the market as owners decide to use them for the season after investing in spring fit-outs and preparation work.

What that tells us though is that grassroots sailing is alive and kicking, especially in Northern Europe and here in the UK as well.

Throughout the spring we’ve seen a strong turnover in good quality offshore bluewater cruisers — yachts equally at home cruising the West Country as they are going further afield. HRs, Swans, Discoverys and similar yachts have all done incredibly well.

Absolutely. It’s no secret that new yacht sales have been quieter for a while, but personally with Pegasus I’m starting to see a little more interest now and we’ve got one in contract currently.

How’s Solaris looking on the new boat front?

Goodness me, we enjoyed those couple of years after Covid. I almost feel guilty referring to it, but there really was a post-Covid bounce for a few seasons and the market was very buoyant.

Solaris performed phenomenally well over the last few years. Then, naturally, the enquiry level and the market itself levelled out a bit and slowed down.

Through autumn 2025 and the early part of winter 2026 it definitely felt like a slower start, but actually some of the enquiries we had at Palma were very live. We were discussing specifications and individual owner requirements in detail, so it does feel like there’s some traction returning now.

I think generally our brokerage sales are reflecting that high-quality yachts are attracting the strongest interest. Correct pricing remains extremely important, but these yachts continue to sell at sensible levels.

As you say, the bluewater quality brigade — the Discoverys, Oysters, Hallberg-Rassys and similar — continue to perform strongly.

We say it time and time again, but there is always a market for well-presented quality yachts that represent good value and sensible ownership.

Regardless of whether markets are up or down, people still have plans they want to get on with, and that part of the market will continue moving ahead quite happily.

So in summary, that’s our little overview of the market for April.

There’s definitely more activity beginning to kick off in the Mediterranean. Our local market here is pretty good, Northern Europe is moving ahead well, and Scandinavia in particular seems very active.

Hopefully that all bodes well for the coming months.

Yes, well, I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to us wittering on. In May there’ll be another update from one of our colleagues — I’m not sure who’s on the roster yet — but no doubt later in the year you’ll hear from us again.

And thanks very much for listening.

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