Palm Beach

Palm Beach is a winter-base destination for US East Coast programmes that summer in New England and run south for the show season. The Palm Beach International Boat Show in March and the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in late October bracket the cycle, and tender brokerage is busiest in the four to eight weeks either side. Most local work is short-hop: Lake Worth Inlet to Peanut Island, lunch at Sailfish Club, evening drops at the bridge of Lyford Cay or at Worth Avenue. Sport-fishing chase platforms feature heavily here, with sport-fishing chase boats running offshore for sailfish and mahi, and that offshore-capable bias shapes the local fleet more than guest-shuttle limousine tenders do.

The replacement cycle is tied to the two show dates and the northbound-southbound migration. Owners tend to settle tender decisions over the winter base period so the boat is commissioned before the spring run north, which concentrates brokerage activity around the March show and again into the autumn. Palm Beach itself generates more demand than inventory; many buyers source through the deeper pre-owned market an hour south and bring the boat up, while local turnover skews towards chase boats coming off sport-fishing programmes.

The programmes that winter here are predominantly large US-flag yachts running the East Coast circuit, so tender specification is weighted towards offshore capability and presentation rather than the high-frequency guest shuttling of a Med charter base. A typical Palm Beach fleet pairs an open tender or limousine for guest movements with a serious sport-fishing platform, and the winter base period is when those boats are surveyed, serviced and re-rigged ahead of the spring delivery north. Rybovich is the centre of gravity for that work because the management, captain and refit ecosystem all sit on the West Palm Beach side within a short run of the inlet.

Safe Harbor Rybovich runs a full in-house refit operation with over 330 craftsmen and project managers, and is the one local yard able to absorb a tender repaint or systems job into the mothership programme without sending the boat south. Derecktor Florida (in Dania Beach, an hour south) handles haul-outs to 1,500 tons. Bradford Marine in Fort Lauderdale runs a 3,000 ton floating dry dock and is the standard choice for major refit work; both are within easy delivery of Palm Beach. For tender-only work, Rybovich technicians, Roscioli Yachting Center and Lauderdale Marine Center cover engine, paint and electronics. Schedule major tender work into the winter base period, before the spring run north absorbs yard and crew capacity.

Florida caps sales tax on yacht purchases at $18,000 (the so-called yacht cap), which keeps the brokerage market liquid and pulls many out-of-state buyers to close in Florida. Foreign-flagged tenders need a US cruising license and CBP clearance, available at Port of Palm Beach, and a tender bought locally to operate independently is not covered by the mothership's license. Charter operations from foreign flags fall under the same PVSA/Jones Act restrictions that apply elsewhere in the US, so structuring matters and should be settled before the boat is put to work. See our note on tender import VAT for cross-Atlantic considerations when a tender is destined for European service after a Palm Beach winter.