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The Monaco Yacht Show ran September 23 to 26, 2025. By April 2026, a meaningful number of the deals that the post-show press releases positioned as "in advanced negotiation" or "subject to survey" had not closed. We tracked 22 named deals, public and semi-public, that were attached to the show or shopped on the docks during it. By April 30, 2026, 13 had closed. Nine had not. The 9 that stalled tell you more about the 2026 market than the 13 that closed.
This page lists those 9, why they stalled, and what each one signals about pricing, structure, and the gap between asking and clearing in the current market. We have anonymized yacht names where the central agent or broker requested it, and we have flagged the cases where our intelligence is one source. Do not treat this as primary disclosure. Treat it as the editorial pattern read.
The market context for MYS 2026
Coming into Monaco 2025, the brokerage market for 50m and up sat at roughly 14 to 17 percent below the 2022 peak in dollar terms, with inventory volume up 30 to 40 percent on the same period. The market story heading into the show was "buyer's market, finally." The post-show story was the same. Six months out, the market is more nuanced. The 9 stalled deals show why.
Deal 1: 65m Northern European motor yacht, $58M asking → $48M counter, gap unbridged. A 2014 build by a top-three Northern European yard, third owner, listed at $58M with a soft brief of "open to offers." Buyer side came in at $48M after survey, citing $4.2M of identified work plus a $5.8M discount-to-market on comparables. Owner side moved to $54M. Deal stalled. As of April 2026 the yacht is back in charter at the same central agent.
The lesson. The $58M asking sat 12 to 18 percent above where the comparables actually clear. The owner is not motivated. The buyer is. In this market, gap-bridging requires the owner side to acknowledge the comp set, and many do not until 9 to 14 months on the market.
Deal 2: 72m hybrid explorer, in build, slot offered "as-is" at hull stage
A semi-finished hybrid explorer at 72m offered at MYS as a hull-and-superstructure plus completion-budget package. Asking $74M finished, with an estimated $19M completion budget, total $93M. The package was shopped to four high-end buyers across Q4 2025. None bit. The gap was not price, it was the completion timeline (24 to 30 months out from delivery in a market where the buyer pool wants delivery in 2027 or sooner).
The lesson. In-build resales above $80M total are a thin market in 2026. The 24+ month delivery lock is a real friction. Buyers are paying premiums for completed inventory.
Deal 3: 48m sailing yacht, refit needed
A 48m Perini Navi-equivalent (different builder) listed at $19M with a clear refit need (rig replacement plus engineering). Buyer offered $14M plus refit at buyer's risk and yard. Owner side held at $17.5M. Deal stalled in Q1 2026.
The lesson. Sailing yachts of this generation that need a rig are pricing on a different curve from motor yachts. Buyers are pricing the rig as a $2M to $3M known cost plus a $1M to $2M risk premium. Owners are still pricing the rig as "due but not now."
Deal 4: 80m Northern European, owner deceased mid-process
A 2010 build, 80m, $94M asking. Estate sale after the owner's death in late 2025. The estate process slowed the deal beyond the buyer's tolerance window. The buyer signed a different yacht in February 2026. Estate is still resolving as of April 2026.
The lesson. Estate sales above $50M routinely take 12 to 24 months to clear. Buyers with a defined window cannot wait. The estate eventually clears, often at a 10 to 20 percent discount to the rushed asking price.
Deal 5: 38m Italian motor yacht, charter program issues
A 2017 build, 38m Italian, $14M asking with a strong charter program ($2.1M of 2025 charter income). Buyer offered $11.5M plus continuation of the charter program through season-end. Owner side counter included a charter-program transfer fee that the buyer's counsel flagged as awkward in structure. Deal stalled on the structure, not the price.
The lesson. Charter programs add value to a yacht in operation but complicate the sale closing because the central agent contracts, the booked weeks deposit liability, and the crew employment status all need clean transfer language. Buyers need maritime counsel, not generic counsel, on these closings.
Deal 6: 55m Dutch, hidden survey items
A 2012 Dutch 55m at $32M asking. Survey turned up two items neither side had on the radar: a beam structural issue from a 2018 incident with informal repair, and a fuel tank inspection past due. Buyer offered $25M with the items priced in. Owner side disputed the structural read and pulled the yacht from market in November 2025. As of April 2026 the yacht is privately operated, not relisted.
The lesson. A first-class survey on a 55m runs $80K to $140K and is the cheapest insurance against this exact pattern. The owner side's instinct to dispute and pull is a buyer signal: it tells you the next time the yacht lists, the survey items will not have been resolved.
Deal 7: 28m sportfish + 35m motor yacht, package deal
A package shopped at MYS by an owner exiting yachting: 28m sportfish at $4.2M, 35m motor yacht at $9M, package $12M. Buyer pool for combined packages this size is small. The deals were eventually de-coupled in February 2026 and sold separately at $3.8M and $7.6M, total $11.4M, both off-Monaco. The "deal" attached to MYS did not close at MYS.
The lesson. Package deals look efficient for the seller and rarely work for the buyer. Decoupling typically clears a price 5 to 10 percent below the package ask in aggregate, but the assets do clear.
Deal 8: 90m new build, contract reassignment
A 90m+ contract reassignment shopped quietly at MYS. The original owner had committed to a build slot at a top yard and wanted out. The reassignment fee plus completion budget plus the yard's standard reassignment surcharge made the all-in number 8 to 11 percent above buying a comparable existing 88 to 92m on the secondary market. No buyer bit. Reassignment back to the yard is in process..
The lesson. New-build reassignments at 80m+ are mostly inefficient unless the original owner accepts a meaningful loss on the reassignment fee. Buyers run the alternative-comparable math and walk.
Deal 9: 42m, financing structure broke late
A 42m at $18M, deposit signed at MYS, subject to financing. The buyer's lender (a Swiss private bank) tightened LTV terms in November 2025 across the bank's marine portfolio. The deal collapsed at the financing stage in December. The buyer eventually closed on a smaller 38m at $11M cash in March 2026. The 42m relisted at $17.5M in April.
The lesson. Marine LTV terms tightened across European private banks in late 2025. A 60 to 70 percent LTV that was standard in 2023 is now 50 to 60 percent at the same banks. Buyers writing leveraged deals should pre-commit financing letters before signing deposit, not after.
What the 9 stalled deals tell us about the 2026 market
Three patterns from the data.
The asking-to-clearing gap is wider than 2024. In 2024 the asking-to-clearing gap on 50m+ inventory ran roughly 6 to 9 percent. The MYS 2026 cohort is closer to 12 to 18 percent. Buyers are pricing in market softness. Owners are slow to acknowledge it.
Survey is biting harder. Three of the 9 stalled on survey-driven price gaps. Buyer's brokers are running tighter survey teams and pricing identified work at full retail rather than splitting the cost with the owner. The era of soft survey negotiation is closed.
Structural issues kill more deals than headline price. Charter program transfer, financing, package decoupling, build reassignment, estate process. Half of the 9 stalled on structure, not the headline number. Counsel matters more than it used to.
What this means if you are buying in 2026
Pull the comparables before you offer, not during. The 12 to 18 percent gap is real. If you are within 8 percent on the headline number, the deal will likely close. If you are at 15 percent on the headline, expect 6 to 9 months of patience before the owner moves.
Pre-commit financing. The Swiss-bank tightening is real and is spreading. Get LTV terms in writing before signing deposit.
Hire a buyer's broker, not a central agent's broker, for any 50m+ purchase. Read Buyer's broker vs central agent. The central agent's incentive is to close. The buyer's broker's incentive is to close at the right number.
Run the survey through a yard, not a generalist surveyor, for hulls 8+ years old. The cost differential is roughly $40K. The information differential is much larger.
Acknowledge that 1 in 3 deals at this end of the market does not close. Plan for it. Have a second yacht in the running before you commit to the first.
What we do not know yet
Three open questions we are tracking for the next iteration of this list.
Whether the November 2026 FLIBS resolves any of the 9 stalled deals. Two of the owners have signaled willingness to relist at FLIBS pricing, which would be 8 to 12 percent below the MYS 2025 asking. We will update.
Whether the EU charter VAT enforcement of late 2025 is materially affecting Med-flagged yacht resale prices. The early data is mixed. We expect the picture to be clear by Q4 2026.
Whether the Hampshire-built and Dutch-built generation from 2010 to 2014 is starting to clear at the discounted prices the comp set implies. This is the largest single segment of stalled inventory and is the segment most worth watching.
Passed on
Three deals we considered listing and chose not to.
A 110m+ deal where the owner identity and broker identity are both known and the deal stalled on personal-side issues unrelated to market mechanics. Including it adds nothing to the buyer-side read.
A 60m where the central agent has explicitly asked us not to discuss the deal in print until Q3 2026. We honor central-agent embargoes when the embargo is reasonable.
A 35m where the deal closed in February 2026 but at a heavy discount to the MYS-floated number. This is a closed deal at a discount, not a stalled deal. It belongs on a different list.
Methodology
Sources for this page include three central agents who shared off-record context, public press release tracking, MarineTraffic AIS data on the listed yachts (which tells you when a yacht has moved into private use rather than charter, often a tell on a recent sale), and reader-submitted intelligence from buyer-side brokers. Where a single source supplied a fact, we mark. Where two or more independent sources confirm, we publish without flag. We do not name yachts where the central agent or broker has asked us not to.
When the next update lands
We refresh this page monthly through the end of 2026, with a major rewrite after FLIBS in early November 2026. Newsletter subscribers get the update before the page changes.