Why Yachting Needs Logs Like Aviation
Yachting has a structural problem that no amount of marketing can fix: there is no standardized operational record.
In aviation, this problem was solved decades ago.
Roughly 50% of an aircraft’s value lies in its logbooks. Not the paint. Not the interior. The logs. If maintenance is undocumented, the value simply does not exist. The market does not argue about this—it enforces it.
Yachting does not.
The Aviation Parallel
In aviation:
Every inspection is logged
Every part replacement is traceable
Every hour flown has context
Maintenance follows a regulated cadence
The aircraft’s history is continuous, auditable, and portable.
As a result, valuation is structured, financing is easier, insurance is rational, and resale is efficient.
The log is the asset.
Why Yachting Looks Like Cottage Cheese
Yachting operates in fragments.
Receipts in drawers
Service records are spread across yards, captains, and management companies
Verbal assurances replacing documentation
Refit history told as a story, not proven as a record
Each hole in that history is a loss of value.
Enough holes, and the asset becomes structurally soft.
That is why the market feels inconsistent. That is why similar yachts trade at wildly different prices. That is why buyers discount aggressively, and surveys turn adversarial.
The asset is incomplete—not physically, but informationally.
The Core Failure: No Continuous Log
Yachts depreciate faster than they should because their operational memory is weak.
Without a continuous log:
Preventive maintenance cannot be verified
Lifecycle costs cannot be modeled
Component-level condition is invisible
Prior investment is not defensible at resale
The value paid simply disappears.
What The Yacht Trader Changes
The Yacht Trader is built around a simple premise:
documented history creates value.
The platform is designed to:
Centralize service, refit, and operational records
Preserve maintenance continuity across ownership changes
Translate documentation into market credibility
Reduce friction during surveys, financing, and resale
Not by opinion. By structure.
This is not about pricing yachts higher.
It is about preventing unnecessary loss of value.
The End State
When yachting adopts log discipline similar to aviation:
Valuations stabilize
Buyers trust faster
Sellers defend value
Brokers negotiate with facts, not narratives
Until then, the market will continue to look like cottage cheese—solid in places, soft everywhere else.
Yacht Trader exists to fill those gaps.
