I spent 6 years at sea with the Royal Navy (two frigates and an aircraft carrier) travelling the world and developing an obsession with serious vessels built to go anywhere.
Before that, I was the kid with his nose in Boat International, daydreaming about life on the water. That obsession never left.
I also spent nearly two years as a volunteer coastal crew member at one of the busiest RNLI stations in the UK. When you've been involved in search and rescue, you develop a very different appreciation for what a vessel actually needs to be capable
On this channel I cover explorer yachts, trawler yachts, expedition vessels, and anything with a serious pedigree.
Every week I go deeper on Yacht Buoy which is my free Substack publication for people who love these boats. Forensic vessel audits, market intelligence, and the financial realities behind the listings. Free to subscribe, and the link is below.
If you love these boats as much as I do, you'll feel right at home.
Yacht Buoy
The spec sheet for Easy Rider rewards patient reading. The interior is not what you might expect from a passage-making Dutch motor yacht.
The owner's cabin has a double bed, a walk-in wardrobe, and an en suite with a bathtub. The galley runs a 5-burner Boretti cooker on granite worktops, an AEG dishwasher, and a separate AEG microwave oven. Webasto reverse cycle air conditioning in every cabin. Post Caminus central heating. A bar on the aft deck. Teak cockpit deck.
The structural spec backs it up: 21.5 metres of dark blue steel, 75 tonnes displacement, CE-B certified, Rotorswing ZeroSpeed stabilisers, and the 3.45m minimum air draft that covers the Main-Danube Canal.
Both ends have a Sidepower thruster, bow and stern, proportional with remote control. Whisper Power electrical system with 2 x 5,000W inverters. 5,000 litres of fuel. 3,200 litres of fresh water. €950,000 VAT paid.
My write up on this particular boat covers the full spec breakdown, route analysis, and the annual running cost picture.
Link in comments.
1 day ago | [YT] | 108
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Yacht Buoy
There is a particular kind of listing that stops you mid-scroll. Not because of glossy teak or a gin palace flybridge. Because the story behind the asking price is genuinely interesting.
Peking is a Diesel Duck 462, hull number three, designed by George Buehler and built in 2006. Her first owner spent ten and a half years sailing her seriously: east coast USA, the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific coast to San Francisco. Eight thousand nautical miles, accumulated deliberately.
In 2024 a new owner bought her with one specific goal: the Northwest Passage. He relocated her to Ketchikan, Alaska, and prepared her properly. New lithium battery bank. New solar array. Rebuilt heating system. Dickinson Antarctic diesel stove. He was methodical. Then, due to unforeseen circumstances, he had to let her go.
She is sitting fuelled in Ketchikan right now. $420,000 asking. Pointed at the Arctic.
The range figure alone is worth noting. Two thousand gallons of fuel at one gallon per hour gives her 7,000 miles of range. She carries a ketch rig for sail assist and paravane outriggers for stability in a seaway. George Buehler designed her to cross oceans, and two owners have proved she can.
My write up on this covers the full spec, what 3,550 hours on the John Deere 4045 actually means, the 2024 upgrades, and how $420,000 compares to what else is available right now.
Read/find out more, link in comments
2 days ago | [YT] | 185
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Yacht Buoy
There are boats with a history. And then there is the Alcyon.
She was built in 1959 as UK 43, a Dutch fishing vessel launched out of Urk. She spent years as HD 14, working out of Den Helder, green hull, white wheelhouse, every paint chip earned at sea.
Then on 10 June 1992, an electrical cable missing its gland chafed against a cabinet and ignited. The German Coast Guard found her in the Danish sector of the North Sea and towed her home a wreck. Blackened and battered, most surveyors would have written her off.
The owner saw her in Den Helder and bought her. He had been looking for years for a hull that size and shape.
Five years of rebuild followed at Urk, Stavoren, and Den Helder. Back to bare steel. Mitsubishi engine out for full overhaul. New tanks, new insulation, 200mm Rockwool throughout. Underfloor heating in the wheelhouse and galley. Hull washed at 300 bar, two coats of Jotamastic, tie coat, antifouling.
In 1997 she moved under her own power for the first time. Sea trials in Den Helder. Thirteen knots.
December 2024: five-yearly UBC re-inspection. Register Holland. 100%. Only the AIS unit needed replacing.
65 years on the water. Still fully certified.
Link in comments for the full blog
Would a fire history put you off, or does a full rebuild and a 100% UBC result change your thinking?
2 days ago | [YT] | 174
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Yacht Buoy
40 million views. I genuinely did not see that coming when I uploaded the first one.
I started this channel while I was running a completely different business. Nothing to do with boats, nothing to do with the water. But I missed it. The community, the characters you meet on the dock, the smell of diesel and teak and somewhere further away you haven't been yet. So I started filming. Not as a career plan. Not as a content strategy. Just because I missed it, and this felt like a way back in.
Somewhere between then and now it turned into something I could not have imagined. 40 million views, a community of people I genuinely look forward to hearing from, and a front-row seat to some of the most extraordinary vessels on the water.
Thank you for watching. Thank you for the comments, the questions, and the tips that have sent me to boats I would never have found on my own. This one's for you lot.
What was the first Yacht Buoy video you ever watched?
3 days ago | [YT] | 130
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Yacht Buoy
There is something about a 1971 Haak that gets your attention.
18 metres, 58 tonnes of Dutch round-bilged steel, an 8-6mm hull, and an original Mercedes OM 355 diesel that has been turning since 1972. She has been well looked after: Talsma Shipyard refit, new paint in 2025, new Kabola heating. CVO certificate until 2031. 4,800 litres of fuel. 2,700 nautical miles of range. Four cabins, eight berths. €555,000 VAT paid.
I am going to be writing about her in depth on my Substack and filming a full walk through for my channel (link to my free substack pinned in comments)
Is the 2.1-metre draft something you factor in when looking at boats like this, or is the 2,700nm range the number that matters most to you?
4 days ago | [YT] | 260
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Yacht Buoy
$599,000 for 82 feet of Dutch-built aluminium.... A comprehensive $1 million refit completed in 2016. A proven track record spanning three continents and 15 years of continuous operation. The question is not whether Braveheart 2 represents value. The question is whether you understand what bringing her home actually costs....Full write up now on my Substack (link in comments)
4 days ago | [YT] | 196
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Yacht Buoy
Next week, I am heading back to the Netherlands for a short but very busy schedule! I will be heading back to No Limit Ships to check out two of their vessels. Last time I featured No Limit Ships on my YouTube channel, one of the videos reached just under 700k views, so I know that many of my followers have a keen interest in these very capable vessels. I have written a blog about the boats which are going to be featured. To read it, head to the link in the comments.
4 days ago | [YT] | 133
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Yacht Buoy
5 days ago | [YT] | 173
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Yacht Buoy
M/Y Independence is a 1970 C.D. Holmes Clovelly Class Royal Navy fleet tender, 75 feet, Lloyd's 100A1 steel hull. She spent her working life in the North Seas. Now she is in the Caribbean, converted into a family explorer yacht.
The Clovelly Class produced 32 vessels between 1967 and 1982 to identical specifications. Sister ships have cruised the Atlantic and Pacific for years. Lister Blackstone diesel, 330 hp, recently overhauled (2023). Accommodation for 11 across 6 cabins, dual generators, watermaker, solar array.
Not a superyacht. Not a glamorous conversion. A working boat that has been converted into a liveaboard, with a very real naval pedigree and a proven track record. The ownership reality (steel in the Caribbean, running costs, what to verify before making an offer) is fully broken down on my Substack.
Link in comments.
5 days ago | [YT] | 97
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Yacht Buoy
In 2005, Steve and Linda Dashew launched Wind Horse from Circa Marine in New Zealand. Not on commission. Not for a future buyer. For themselves.
The question they were trying to answer: how do you engineer a vessel for a couple to cross oceans safely and regularly, without professional crew? Over the years that followed, they put 60,000 nautical miles under her keel including a run past 80 degrees north into the Arctic ice pack off Svalbard.
The engineering paradox at the heart of the FPB 83 is this: 83 feet of vessel powered by just two 150hp diesels. It sounds implausible until you understand the hull. Slender, full-displacement, built to slip through water at minimal resistance. At 10 knots she has a range of 10,000 nautical miles. Those are figures you associate with commercial shipping, not a private motor yacht. The unpainted 6mm aluminium structure is not a cost-cutting decision. It is a weight and maintenance philosophy that feeds directly into that range capability.
Hull number one is now on the brokerage market asking $2,998,900. My write up is a forensic audit of exactly what that buys you: the engineering logic, the redundancy systems built in for short-handed ocean passage, and a realistic assessment of the ownership case.
Would two 150hp engines on an 83-foot passagemaker give you confidence or keep you up at night?
6 days ago | [YT] | 206
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