Financing a Yacht

Fifteen to twenty percent of the purchase price is the normal ask on a marine loan. Some lenders will go to ninety percent of value for a strong borrower on a newer boat. Older hulls, unusual types and one off builds attract a larger deposit, because the lender is lending against the collateral rather than against you, and an unusual boat is harder to sell if it ever has to be. The deposit and her age move together: a larger deposit is often what makes an older hull financeable at all, and a specialist marine lender will sometimes take a boat a general bank has already declined if the borrower puts more in. Work out what a lender will actually ask on the boat you are looking at before you make an offer, because discovering it afterwards is how a deal that felt agreed comes apart.

Through 2026 marine loans have generally run somewhere between six and a half and nine percent, depending on the loan size, the term, your credit and whether the rate is fixed or variable. Larger loans price better, and a credit score of 700 and above is the threshold for the better end of it. Treat any published rate, this one included, as a bracket rather than a quote, and call a marine lender for the figure that applies to you this week. One thing worth knowing before you shop on rate alone: the term drives the monthly payment far more than the rate does, so a longer term at a slightly worse rate often costs less each month and more in total. If you are looking at a variable rate, model the payment at two points higher before you sign it.

A marine lender, almost always, and the easiest way to reach one is through a marine finance broker. Each of our brokers keeps a network of them, and they represent different lenders between them, so one application is shopped across the market rather than tried at one desk. That is what tells you quickly which lender will take an older hull, which moves fastest, and which will not touch the boat you are looking at. A marine lender understands yacht valuations, expects to order the survey and the valuation itself, knows what a preferred ship's mortgage is and how to record one, and runs its underwriting alongside your survey and sea trial rather than after them. A general bank will often quote a worse rate simply because nobody in the building knows how to value the collateral, and it frequently discovers the documentation requirement late. That is where the lost three weeks come from, and they arrive at the point in a deal where a seller has stopped being patient. Aspire does not arrange finance itself. Ask your broker for an introduction at the offer rather than after, because the three to four weeks starts when the application does.

Before you start looking seriously. Pre-approval tells you the real budget rather than the one you hoped for, and it makes your offer worth more than an unfunded one when a seller is choosing between two. It also removes the step most likely to add three weeks to a deal, at the point where a seller has stopped being patient. Funding usually takes three to four weeks from application to closing, and that runs alongside the survey and sea trial rather than after them, so the work you do up front is the work that does not delay you later. Most of what a lender wants is about you rather than the boat: two years of tax returns, recent bank and brokerage statements, proof of income or an accountant's letter if you are self employed, and a personal financial statement. If you are buying through an LLC, the formation documents too.

Twenty years is the line, and most banks will not cross it. They are lending against the boat rather than against you, so a hull older than that is a collateral problem no amount of income fixes, and plenty of general banks decline it outright. Specialist marine lenders are the ones who will look at it, usually with a larger deposit, a shorter term and a clean recent survey as conditions. Above thirty years it becomes genuinely case by case and the survey decides it. Find out where a lender stands on age before you fall for the boat, not after: it is the most common reason a purchase that felt agreed comes apart.

For most loans of any size, yes. Federal documentation is a national registry of the vessel held by the Coast Guard, and it is what lets a lender record a preferred ship's mortgage against her. That mortgage is the security the whole loan rests on, and it is recorded nationally rather than state by state, which is why a lender wants it. Smaller loans on state registered boats do exist, but if you are borrowing to buy something substantial, expect documentation to be a condition rather than a choice. It matters beyond the loan as well: a documented vessel is easier to sell, easier to take foreign, and her ownership history is traceable, which a buyer's surveyor and title search will both look at. If she is not documented already, it is a process to start early rather than in the week of closing.