Despite the odds of success, working yacht sales is a coveted job where I live in the Bay Area. You need solid contacts in the boating industry and the know how to distinguish between an Ocean Alexander and a Michelson. If you don't, you're sunk.

THE COMMISSION

Dealing with the clients was easy for me. It was the business end that kept me up at night. McGrath Yachts keeps meticulous records. Every transaction–even faxes–must be documented, signed or initialed. That's because the Department of Boating and Waterways, which regulates brokerages in California, is strict. Yacht brokers are responsible for protecting the interests of both the buyer and the seller.

Yacht brokerages operate a lot like real estate agencies, with the sales staff and the brokerage splitting the commission, which is generally 10 percent of the sale price on a used boat. McGrath was generous. If, for example, another salesman sold one of my listings, Ed would take 5 percent off the top while I'd split the remaining 5 percent with the other salesman. Some brokers pay less to their sales people, sometimes as little as 2 or 3 percent of the sale. Kim HaworthThe two dragons, sailboat and trawler, side by side.

I was naïve. This sounded so easy. So, with the encouragement of my husband, I studied for the Yacht and Ship Salesperson License test that is administered several times a year by the state.

I studied hard for two months, reading and re-reading the material that the agency provides to applicants. The test was as ugly as I had imagined. There were eight of us taking the test, which included the calculation of property taxes and bank loans, and questions on ethical business practices and fiduciary responsibility.

Somehow, I managed to pass, and my license arrived at the brokerage in a few weeks. I was now a licensed yacht and ship salesperson.

SOLICITING BUSINESS

Ed put me right to work sending out letters to boat owners. If your vessel is properly documented at the time of purchase, then your name, address, boat type, length, name and year of construction are public information. We used a computer program that was updated quarterly to collect that information and generate the letters.

I would target the types of boats I wanted to list and send out letters to their current owners. They read something like this: "Is 2006 the year to sell Liberty? Your 2001 Albin is extremely marketable."

The more you contact a potential seller the more familiar they become with your name. Still, the percentage of return on this method of solicitation is miniscule. Hoping to maximize bang for the buck, I would solicit the owners of high-end yachts with great regularity.

When an owner responded to one of my letters I'd slide into my sales pitch, laced with the smoothest talk I could muster. My job was to convince him that his yacht would be best represented by our team, not the competition. I have a pretty colorful personality and I tried to be myself on the phone because basically, that's what I was selling: me.

Once the listing was made and volumes of paperwork were filled out and signed, we determined a sale price and went about placing ads.

PRICING AND DRESSING

We used information we gathered on Soldboats.com to price our listings, considering the sale price of comparable boats. Price a boat too high and nobody calls. Correct evaluation was essential to coming up with a price that would please both seller and buyer.

Then it was on to the sale. For the most part, boats were advertised in print and on the Internet. McGrath advertises in all of the local boating publications, a few regional publications, and, for the mega boats, in the national boating magazines such as PassageMaker and Yachting World.

Ed told me that most of our customer traffic came through Yachtworld.com However, many boat owners still want to see their vessels listed in print. McGrath Yachts spends about $10,000 a month on advertising.

More is better when advertising a boat. More gear, more power, more value, more everything. I spent hours listing minute details such as sail upgrades, battery banks, new halyards, bigger primary winches, stereo equipment–anything that would make my listing more appealing to potential buyers.

Presenting the boat in the very best light often resulted in a battle with the owners. You simply can't sell a boat that smells like a holding tank or a diesel engine. Potential buyers will stop dead at the companionway and turn around. Owners, on the other hand, think their boats are perfect. I know I did. It's very difficult to get an owner to spend money on waxing, upholstery cleaning or new canvas, even though those are major selling points.