About the brokerage
Ashwell Foyle Yachts is a yacht and motorboat brokerage on the Annapolis waterfront, selling sail and power vessels between 24 and 62 feet, new and brokerage. Every boat is shown by appointment, and what a job costs is written down before it starts.
The brokerage begins with the boat rather than the budget. A hull walked in daylight, a service record read end to end and an hour spent on the water rarely tell the same story as a set of listing photographs, and the difference between them is usually where the real decision sits.
From there the work is ordinary. Condition is written down as it is found, the cost of a trial, an appraisal or a delivery is confirmed before it is booked, and the result is set against what was agreed rather than against a price guide. Ashwell Foyle Yachts does not predict what a vessel will fetch later and does not describe a sale as likely.
Three operating principles
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Condition before price, price before listing
What the hull, the rig and the engine are actually in is written down first. A figure the appraisal will not support does not go on the floor.
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Plain language, including the unwelcome parts
A soft deck, a weeping gland or a rig past its age is named as such. So is a boat that is simply the wrong size for the water a buyer has described.
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No promised outcome
The brokerage states what it will do and what it will charge. It does not say what a boat will be worth later, and it promises no date by which one will sell.
What happens, in four steps
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Step 1
The boat is seen
A sixty-minute viewing by appointment, at no charge, with the service record open.
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Step 2
It is tried on the water
A sea trial to a fixed list: cold start, charging, gearbox, steering, handling under way.
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Step 3
It is appraised and surveyed
Condition recorded as found, and the yard report walked through line by line.
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Step 4
It changes hands
Berth transfer, commissioning and handover, each billed at the rate agreed first.
What the brokerage does not do
Ashwell Foyle Yachts does not arrange marine lending or comment on how a purchase should be paid for, and it does not act as an insurance broker. It promises no date by which a listing will sell, and it does not deliver beyond the Chesapeake Bay and the waters immediately outside it. Where an enquiry needs any of those, the brokerage says so and names the kind of firm that handles it.
Start with a showroom viewing
It carries no charge and runs about an hour, and it ends either with a boat worth a sea trial or with a plain statement that nothing on the floor fits.