My wife and I had been in the market for a trawler and had considered a few over the past two years, including power catamarans. We met our yacht broker, Steve Palazzo while looking at a 43 Lagoon Power Cat—while we loved the layout, that boat didn’t work out. Steve persevered and was patient with us. After looking at several subsequent vessels, Steve let us know about a 2003 DeFever 44-- we agreed to go up to Jacksonville to look her over. This was the boat- love at first sight -- WELL maintained, essentially a turn-key boat. The survey and sea-trial went very well, our offer was accepted, and we closed. Steve and the Denison team really did make our first large boat purchase an easy, fond memory.

Epilogue: Not having a lot of time at the helm of a 44,000-pound twin-screw and a delivery trip from Jacksonville to Boca Raton was a bit daunting, and Steve agreed to come along as a Captain-teacher. By design, my wife and I wanted to handle the boat as much as possible. Steve was a huge asset and patient mentor. We learned a LOT. And -there were two touchy moments (Ft. Pierce City Marina!) where Steve saved the day. Since coming home, we’ve been loving our new boat “Pawsabilities,” and look forward to ever longer day and overnight trips, the great loop, and the Bahamas cruising.

My yacht broker, Mickey Belden, made my first boat purchase an enjoyable experience. I truly appreciated all he did to make the process seamless & smooth. Purchasing a used boat 1200 miles away from our home port of Prudence Island, RI in the middle of a pandemic certainly was an interesting experience! My Dad & I had the experience & trip of a lifetime. We were able to navigate the boat back 1200 nautical miles to RI on her own bottom trouble-free in just under two weeks. Mickey was not only professional and personal, but a calming and reassuring presence throughout the entire process. I would use Mickey & Denison again and again because you are the most professional company I have ever come across and not just in terms of purchasing a boat. You are some of the nicest people I have ever done business within any aspect of my life. The stress of purchasing a boat can be challenging, but I felt like everything was right with you. Thanks again for your hospitality and all that you did to make this transaction possible.

I would like to send you a short note to tell you how much I appreciate the efforts of one of your yacht brokers for the sale of our prior yacht and the purchase of the new one. Mickey Belden was our selling broker on the sale of our Cruisers Yachts and the buying broker on the purchase of our new Sea Ray yacht. In both instances, Mickey’s professionalism, dedication, and knowledge went beyond my expectations. This is our 40th powerboat spanning 55+ years of boating and I can honestly say that Mickey made this process enjoyable. This is the 3rd transaction with Denison Yacht Sales and I applaud you for your selection of excellent yacht brokers.

I’ve been a boater in Chicago for 46 years. A few months ago, my wife and I decided we were done and that it was time to sell our boat. I went to the web and punched in some info about our DeFever trawler on the Denison Yacht Sales web site. Within 2 hours or so I received an email from Jeff Phillips. He began by letting me know that he understood exactly what I was going through, because he, personally, had a similar size and age of a boat, was a Chicago boater. Then he told me where he stored his boat over the winters and said that he had seen and admired a boat like ours in the winter storage boatyard. Turned out it was our boat. Talk about Serendipity! By the time the boat got launched for the season, because of the pandemic, it was already well into August and we thought the selling season was almost over. But, Jeff told us that very often, his best months are October and November. In our discussions I also let him know that in the summer of 2019 I had a quintuple bypass open-heart surgery and that my wife did not want me having the stress of taking the boat to or from the boatyard. Those were always the days we would call "Anything Can Happen Day" and in our experience, it almost always did. Jeff said "Don't worry about it", and then dealt with the boat getting launched, took our boat from the boatyard into the harbor, tied it up safely, and let us know all was good. By the way, that was a full day of work, over 12 hours.

Over the next couple of months, Jeff treated our boat like it was his own, including checking on it in bad weather, keeping it clean, doing video tours with people from all over the world (he even had yacht prospects from Australia and also New Zealand), and doing everything needed to make it appealing to prospective buyers. In Chicago, ALL boats must be removed from the harbors by October 31. But, since Jeff wanted to keep trying to sell it, he moved it to another harbor around 5 hours north of Chicago where he had a personal slip, and just tied up our boat in his slip without even asking for us to pay him anything for all of that effort, or for all of his work in bringing it there, and getting himself back home.

Finally, in DECEMBER, when all boats have already been taken out of the water and stored for the winter, Jeff found a ready, willing, and able buyer for our boat. The deal closed over the Christmas weekend and we quickly received our proceeds. We wanted to be sure that YOU were aware of how far above and beyond Jeff went to make sure that anything and everything that could be done to get our yacht sold, was done, and was done in the most professional way anyone should ever be able to expect. Just wanted to be sure YOU knew how professionally Jeff handled this entire process. We would be happy to recommend our yacht broker, Jeff Phillips, to anyone even thinking about selling their boat.