Newly formed Yacht Auction Group sells $4,950,000 boat

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – On the eve of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, a new way of selling megayachts earned its stripes when the 122-foot Bon Bon sold at auction for $4.95 million, International Yacht Collection reported in a recent statement.

The yacht was sold by the Yacht Auction Group, a newly formed venture made up of several partners, including Fort Lauderdale yacht broker Kelly Drum, and Kaye Pearson, president of Show Management, which produces the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

“We showed today that the auction process is a very powerful tool for getting a boat sold,” said seller Steve Hudson, president of International Yacht Collection.

Auctioneer Craig King predicted the success of the closely watched auction will spark more interest in yacht auctions.

“Almost from the day we announced plans to auction Bon Bon, we’ve been getting calls from other yacht owners interested in using the auction method to sell their yachts,” said King, president of J.P. King Auction Company, also one of the owners of the Yacht Auction Group.

“The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is where everybody comes to show off their new ideas and innovations, and I think this is one innovation people will be talking about for a while,” said Drum.

King, whose 89-year-old firm has been selling mansions and other luxury assets for more than two decades, said the idea for yacht auctions began to develop three years ago when J.P. King and Drum’s real estate brokerage worked together on the sale of a Fort Lauderdale mansion.

“There are so many similarities that it made a lot of sense. The price range for mansions and megayachts is similar. The cost of ownership is comparable. And in both cases, ordinary sales channels can often be frustratingly slow,” said King. “An auction sets a date on which the yacht will sell, and that’s attractive to a lot of people.”

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