Short notes on the used-boat market, and what we are publishing. For the monthly report, see Market Pulse.
We are on the water at Southampton for the full ten days, with the Valuation Challenge running on the stand — three real boats, sixty seconds, and you guess what each one is advertised for.
Come and find out how close you get.
He Retired to Sail the World. Then He Tried to Figure Out What a Boat Was Worth.
Blue Water Index makes its international debut at Cannes with a new approach to marine valuation and market intelligence.
CANNES, France & OTTAWA, Canada — September 8, 2026 — Robb Corrigan had a simple retirement plan: buy a sailboat and spend the next chapter of his life sailing the oceans of the world.
Then he found the boat.
And asked what should have been a simple question:
What is she actually worth?
After 30 years in enterprise software, including 17 years at IBM, Corrigan was accustomed to industries where data helped people make big decisions. But in recreational boating, he found opinions, price guides and thousands of comparable listings — without a single independent source that brought the market evidence together and explained the answer.
Two issues this month, reported separately because the two markets did not behave the same way.
In Europe, advertised repricing became less frequent without becoming shallower: about 94% of asking prices held within ±2%, reductions outnumbered increases 21 to 1, and the median reduction was 9.0%. The share of vessels reduced fell from 8.3% in July to 5.6% in August — lower than July's own forecast — while the typical reduction barely moved.
In the first United States edition, frequency and depth peaked in different parts of the market. The middle moved most often — 9.7% between $150,000 and $300,000 — while the entry tier moved furthest: below $50,000 the median reduction was 14.1%, the deepest of any band.
Both are free, twelve pages, and state the limits of their own figures.