Everyone had part of the answer. Nobody had the whole picture.
Brokers understand their local market. Surveyors understand the vessel. Lenders understand collateral risk. Insurers understand exposure. But each works from different evidence, different tools and different assumptions.
Broker
What boats like this one are asking, and what buyers in this harbour will pay.
Surveyor
Condition, structure, equipment and everything a photograph will never show.
Lender
What the asset supports at origination, and how that holds over the term.
Insurer
Agreed value at renewal, and the number that has to hold after a loss.
There was no shared, independent reference for what a boat was actually worth. That was the problem.
So we built the number we couldn't find.
Ask Blue Water Index about a boat and get:
Estimated market value
A current view of where the boat sits in its market.
Confidence range
Not false precision. A clear indication of how much evidence supports the estimate.
Comparable boats
The real market evidence behind the number.
Value drivers
The characteristics that moved the estimate up or down.
And when the evidence isn't strong enough to value a boat with confidence, we say so. No bluffing.
| Comparable | Location | Asking | DOM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 Sun Odyssey 490 | Solent, UK | £377,000 | 62 d |
| 2018 Sun Odyssey 490 | Hamble, UK | £356,000 | 128 d |
| 2020 Sun Odyssey 490 | Palma, ES | £394,000 | 34 d |
| 2019 Oceanis 46.1 | La Rochelle, FR | £352,000 | 77 d |
It shows its work.
A valuation is only useful if you can understand where it came from. Blue Water Index breaks the estimate into the characteristics and market evidence that produced it, from age, length and location to equipment, configuration and current market activity.
You see the range.
You see what moved it.
You see the boats behind it.
Not a black box. A number you can interrogate.
The market never stops moving. Neither does the Index.
Follow the market
We continuously follow boat listings across major recreational marine markets, recording asking prices, price changes, days on market and listing outcomes.
Understand the boat
AI reads the details buried inside listings, across languages and formats, including specifications, equipment and condition signals.
Make boats comparable
Builders, models, variants, currencies and locations are standardized so boats can be compared on a consistent basis.
Turn evidence into a number
Pricing models turn that market evidence into an estimated value, confidence range and relevant comparables.
The result reflects the market now, not a number left behind in an old guide.
One valuation engine. Built for different decisions.
Which Blue Water product is for me?
The number has no deal to close.
Blue Water Index does not list boats. We don't broker the transaction, finance the purchase or insure the vessel.
That separation matters. Our job is to measure the market, show the evidence and be clear about the limits of that evidence.
It's the product.
The independent reference
One boat tells you its value. Thousands tell you what the market is doing.
The Blue Water Market Pulse follows the same boats month after month to see what changes.
Published monthly · Available free
- Europe and the United States, reported separately
- Differences by price band, region and builder
- The same boats followed from one month to the next
- Advertised asking prices — not transaction prices
It started with a boat.
After thirty years in enterprise software and a lifetime under sail, Blue Water Index founder Robb Corrigan went looking for his next boat. He found her.
There was no independent answer he trusted enough for the biggest cheque of his sailing life. So he started building one.
What began as one buyer's question became a much bigger idea: