Yacht broker and marine website design in Palm Beach CountySell the Water Before the Sea Trial
Epic Wolf builds websites for yacht brokerages, marinas, marine service yards and charter operators from West Palm Beach, where the Palm Beach International Boat Show lines Flagler Drive each March. A marine site needs listings that stay current, vessel pages with real specifications and film, slip and service inquiries that reach the dock office and license details shown plainly. We design, write and code it.
Yacht and marine websites
A yacht buyer studies a vessel for weeks before calling a broker. The listing portals give every boat the same grid of small photos and a specification table. A brokerage's own site is where a yacht can be shown properly: a walkthrough film, the refit history, the engine hours, the broker who knows her and a direct line to that person.
Marinas, yards and charter companies have a different problem. Their customers ask practical questions, such as slip sizes, draft at low tide, haul-out capacity and what a day on the water includes, and most marine websites make them phone to find out. The site that answers saves the office hours and wins the booking.
Florida licenses yacht brokers and salespeople through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and federal law sorts charter vessels by how many passengers they carry. Neither rule tells you how to design a website, but both shape what it should say. We build with them in view, and your broker of record, captain or maritime attorney confirms the details.
What it includes
Vessel pages
Film, full photography, specifications, refit and service history and the listing broker's direct contact.
A listings system
Inventory your team updates in one place, with sold and under-contract status changing everywhere at once.
Broker pages
Each broker and salesperson by name with the brokerage identified, so a buyer can look up the license.
Marina and yard pages
Slip dimensions, depth, power, lift capacity, fuel and services in a format a captain can scan.
Charter pages
What is included, how many guests the vessel may carry, who the captain is and how to reserve, confirmed by the operator.
Inquiry routing
Slip requests, service quotes and offers sent to the right desk with the vessel or dock attached.
Show landing pages
Pages for boat show displays with dock locations and appointment booking, ready before the show.
Owner and client portals
A later phase for service history, invoices and documents behind a login.
Send us your site and tell us how your listings or slips are tracked today.
We will reply with what a buyer or captain cannot find on it now and what should be live before the next season starts.
What to know
The rules behind yacht and marine websites
- Brokers are licensed
Florida Statutes 326.004 says a person may not act as a yacht broker or salesperson unless licensed under the Yacht and Ship Brokers' Act, and each broker must maintain a principal place of business in the state. The Act defines a yacht as a vessel exceeding 32 feet propelled by sail or machinery.
Source: Florida Statutes 326.004
- What DBPR regulates
DBPR's Yacht and Ship Brokers' Section says it licenses brokers and salespersons and investigates unlicensed activity, escrow violations, misrepresentation, fraud and dishonest acts. Its FAQ says a license is not required for a person selling his or her own yacht or for transactions involving new yachts.
Source: DBPR: Yacht and Ship Brokers
- Buyer funds go to escrow
DBPR's FAQ says the Act requires all funds received in connection with a sale, exchange or purchase of a yacht to be placed in an escrow account at a Florida financial institution, and that consumers can verify a license on the department's website.
- Charter passenger counts
Federal law defines an uninspected passenger vessel of less than 100 gross tons as one carrying not more than six passengers, including at least one passenger for hire. A vessel of that size carrying more than six is defined separately as a small passenger vessel. A charter page's group sizes should match the vessel's category.
Source: 46 U.S.C. 2101
- The show on Flagler Drive
The Palm Beach International Boat Show takes place each March along Flagler Drive in downtown West Palm Beach, directly across from Palm Beach island. For a local brokerage it sets the calendar: new listings, films and landing pages need to be live before the docks open.
How the work runs
Start with the inventory
We look at how listings, slips or charters are tracked today and design the data first: what fields exist, who updates them and where they must appear. A marine site fails when the boats on it sold months ago.
Show the vessel properly
We plan, direct and produce film and photography through vetted partners, or build from footage the brokerage already owns, and write each page with the specifications a surveyor and a captain will look for.
Time it to the season
We build and launch ahead of the winter season and the March show, connect inquiries to the people who answer and add portals or service tools afterward as the business asks for them.
Questions
Yacht and marine websites questions answered
A person acting as a yacht broker or salesperson in Florida needs a license under the Yacht and Ship Brokers' Act. The Act covers used vessels over 32 feet, and DBPR says no license is needed to sell your own yacht or for new yachts. We show the brokerage and each broker by name so a buyer can verify them with DBPR. Your attorney confirms how the Act applies to you.
Host your own and feed the portals from it where you can. Your site is the one place a yacht gets a full film, a complete history and your broker's direct contact instead of a shared lead form. We set up one inventory your team maintains, so a price change or a sale updates the website and any connected channels together.
It should state the number of guests the vessel is permitted to carry and never advertise more. Federal law defines a vessel under 100 gross tons that carries more than six passengers, with at least one paying, as a small passenger vessel, a different category from the six-passenger charter boat. The operator and captain know the vessel's status. We publish the figure they confirm and keep it consistent across the site.
Before the season, not during it. In Palm Beach County the boating calendar builds through winter toward the Palm Beach International Boat Show on Flagler Drive each March. A typical custom marketing website takes four to eight weeks from kickoff to launch, and filming vessels adds scheduling, so a brokerage that wants to be ready for the show should start in the fall.
Yes. The simplest version is a request form that captures vessel length, beam, draft, power needs and dates and sends them to the dock office. A fuller version shows availability and takes a deposit, which is a web application we scope as its own phase. We recommend starting with the request form and measuring demand before building more.
Keep reading
Go deeper before you decide
- Website vs Web App vs Custom SoftwareHow to tell whether your business needs a website, a web app or portal, a CRM, a mobile app or custom software, and when to buy instead of build.
- What Does a Website Cost in Palm Beach CountyPublished market ranges for a business website plus what drives the price: page types, content, ecommerce, integrations, software and ongoing costs.
- How to Market a Palm Beach Business Without Looking LoudMarketing on the island of Palm Beach: what buyers respond to, the channels that fit, Town sign and storefront approvals, the season and a checklist.
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