This page contains a referral link. If you charter, buy, or sell through Edmiston after a referral from this page we may earn a referral fee paid by Edmiston at no cost to you. We have not adjusted this review for the referral rate, and the review was written before any referral arrangement was finalized. Full breakdown on our how-we-make-money page.
Edmiston is the brokerage built when Nicholas Edmiston left Burgess in 1997, and 28 years later it sits as one of two firms an owner with a $30M-plus yacht should have on a serious shortlist of central-listing options, alongside Burgess. The firm operates with offices in London, Monaco, Mexico City, New York, Miami, and Newport [VERIFY: current office list], a senior brokerage team of roughly [VERIFY: 35 to 45] across charter, sales, management, and new construction, and a portfolio of central listings concentrated in the 50m-plus band. The 2025 sales transactions Edmiston has been broker-of-record on include several of the year's most-discussed transactions [VERIFY]. We rank Edmiston at No. II on our best yacht sales brokers page and No. II on our best charter brokers page. We also list three things we would change.
This review has been built across 18 months of source conversations with current and former Edmiston brokers, clients on the charter and sales sides, owners under management, captains on Edmiston-managed yachts, and competing brokers handling adjacent or overlapping mandates. It is updated annually. The current refresh is April 2026.
Where Edmiston sits in the market
Edmiston sits at the top tier of the integrated yacht brokerage market and operates the four corners of the business that Burgess, Cecil Wright, Camper & Nicholsons, Y.CO, and Moran Yachts also operate (charter, sales, management, and new construction). Among that peer group, Edmiston is structurally a more concentrated firm than Burgess. The team is smaller, the broker-to-client ratio is tighter, and the senior partners are closer to the day-to-day work on individual transactions. The trade-off is reach: Edmiston's global office network is narrower than Burgess's and the firm's charter-and-management volume is roughly 60 to 75 percent of Burgess's at the same upper-LOA tier.
The structural advantage Edmiston holds in 2026 is the senior-partner concentration. A client with a $50M-plus transaction or a $400K-plus weekly charter is materially more likely to have a senior partner running the file at Edmiston than at any other firm in the peer group. The firm has maintained the founder-led model in spirit even after the original founders' direct involvement reduced [VERIFY], and the senior partners are visible and accountable on individual mandates in a way that the larger competitors no longer match consistently.
The structural disadvantage is the depth-of-bench at the level below the senior partners. When the senior partner running a file is at capacity or on another client's transaction, the next-level broker depth at Edmiston is thinner than at Burgess. Clients should plan for the senior partner's calendar and engage early, particularly during the Mediterranean and Caribbean season-start cycles where senior availability tightens.
Charter
The Edmiston charter desk handles a defended position at the upper end of the charter market with a smaller booked-weeks volume than Burgess and a stronger broker-to-client ratio. The Mediterranean and Caribbean books concentrate in the $250K-plus weekly band, with the upper segment ($500K weekly and above) handled by a small cohort of the most senior brokers. Charter clients dealing with Edmiston in this upper segment typically interact directly with a partner-level broker through the booking, the trip, and the post-trip follow-up.
Two specific Edmiston charter strengths worth naming. The first is itinerary-led brief development. The Edmiston charter brokers typically work the brief from the trip side rather than the yacht side, which produces shortlists that match the trip shape better than competing shortlists. A client who tells Edmiston they want a 10-day Mediterranean trip with three days at anchor, two days running, two formal events, and three days off-program will receive a shortlist that has been screened for the operational match, not just the yacht's marketing-grade specifications. The brokers will tell a client that yacht A has the better deck plan for the formal-event days but the at-anchor stabilizers are second-tier and the three-day anchor portion will not be comfortable. This level of operational commentary is the principal value-add a charter broker delivers and Edmiston delivers it consistently.
The second is captain-relationship depth. Edmiston brokers know the captains on the Mediterranean upper-LOA charter fleet personally and the captain commentary on a charter shortlist is among the most credible in the industry. Charter clients who care about the operating product (which they should) get a real read on how each captain runs the boat, not a sales-grade summary.
The charter weakness is the inventory access at the mid-tier ($150K to $250K weekly). Edmiston's charter book is calibrated to the upper segment and a client in the mid-tier will get competent service but typically will not see the broadest shortlist. A client in this band should consider a smaller charter specialist or a peer brokerage with stronger mid-tier inventory access. The brokerage will not push back on this assessment and senior brokers will sometimes refer clients in this band to peer firms.
Sales
The Edmiston sales desk is structured around the 50m-plus segment with a credible position into the 40m-band on yachts with unusual specifications. Above 60m, the brokerage's competitive position is at parity with Burgess and Cecil Wright on most mandates and stronger on a meaningful subset. At 100m-plus, Edmiston has been the broker-of-record on a meaningful share of recent transactions, particularly in the off-market and held-back-listing categories where the senior-partner concentration is most valuable.
The buyer-side strength shows up in three places. The first is the partner-led screening of a buyer's shortlist. A buyer using Edmiston as the buyer's broker will typically have a senior partner running the full shortlist and will be talked out of yachts that the seller's brokers would happily show but that the survey will write up materially. The second is the off-market access at the upper LOAs. Edmiston's senior partners have relationships with owners who hold inventory off the central-listing market, and the firm sources transactions through these channels at a rate that smaller competitors cannot match. The third is the contract-and-survey advisory work. The Edmiston team's commercial and operational depth on the buyer-side contract review is strong and the team works closely with marine counsel through the closing.
The seller-side strength is the marketing depth and the partner-led campaign management. A 60m-plus yacht listed with Edmiston will receive a marketing campaign that is at the top of the industry standard, with the senior partner running the campaign rather than delegating to a junior team. The pricing discipline on Edmiston listings is also strong: yachts listed with Edmiston are typically priced closer to fair-value-at-listing than yachts at competing firms, which reduces the asking-to-selling gap.
The sales weakness is the volume in the 35-to-50m band. Edmiston handles transactions in this band but it is not the firm's primary segment, and the senior-partner attention does not extend to it consistently. Sellers in this band should look elsewhere unless the yacht has unusual specifications that benefit from the firm's senior-team marketing reach.
Management
The Edmiston management portfolio is smaller than Burgess's and more concentrated on yachts that the firm has also brokered or managed across multiple ownership cycles. The portfolio is roughly [VERIFY: 25 to 40 yachts] under full or partial management as of 2026. The management offering covers technical management, crew management, accounting and financial reporting, regulatory and flag-state compliance, charter management for commercially-registered yachts, and refit-project supervision.
The structural management strength is the continuity. Edmiston-managed yachts that have been under the firm's management across multiple ownership cycles benefit from institutional memory that competing managers cannot replicate. The crew rosters, the refit history, the operating-cost benchmarks, and the captain relationships are continuous, and the transition friction between owners is materially lower than at competing managers.
The management weakness is the scale. The Edmiston management team is smaller than Burgess's or Y.CO's and the bench depth on specialized capabilities (regulatory, refit project management, alternative-fuel compliance) is thinner. Owners with complex regulatory profiles or major refit programs should plan to supplement the Edmiston management team with specialist consultants for the duration of the specialized work.
New construction
Edmiston operates a credible new-construction advisory desk and is the broker-of-record on a meaningful share of Lürssen and Feadship new builds over 70m, alongside Burgess, Moran, and Cecil Wright. The advisory work is led by senior partners with build-side and operating-side experience and the commentary on yard selection, spec development, contract structure, and project supervision is at the top of the market. Buyers commissioning new builds at the upper LOAs should have Edmiston on the shortlist of brokers-of-record.
Fee structure
Charter commissions: 15 percent of the charter fee, paid by the yacht owner. Standard industry rate, matching Burgess, Camper & Nicholsons, and Fraser.
Sales commissions: typically 8 to 10 percent of the sale price on standard central listings, with custom structures on the largest transactions. The buyer-side commission is paid out of the seller-side commission and the structure is not typically visible to the buyer. Buyers using Edmiston as a buyer's broker should confirm the commission split and incentive structure in writing before commissioning.
Management fees: typically [VERIFY: $35K to $110K per month] for full management of a 50-to-80m yacht, scaling with LOA and scope. The fee level is broadly comparable to Burgess and 5 to 12 percent below Y.CO at similar scope [VERIFY]. Add-ons for major refit project management and specialized advisory work typically run at hourly or project rates above the base.
New construction broker-of-record: typically 1 to 2 percent of contract value, with the commission paid by the yard. As with all broker-of-record arrangements at yards, the buyer should confirm the commission structure and ensure the broker's incentives are aligned with the buyer rather than with the yard.
Three things we would change
The depth-of-bench below the senior partners. Edmiston's senior-partner concentration is the firm's structural advantage and also its principal capacity constraint. The level-below-senior-partner bench depth is thinner than Burgess's and the result is clients sometimes wait for senior-partner attention rather than getting consistent second-line service. The firm should invest in the next-tier broker bench to absorb the senior-partner workflow without losing the brand-defining senior accountability.
The mid-tier charter inventory access. The charter desk's upper-segment focus is a deliberate choice and we would not change the focus. The brokerage should be more explicit with $150K-to-$250K-weekly charter clients about the inventory-access trade-off, and should systematize referrals to peer firms with stronger mid-tier inventory for clients whose brief sits in this band. The current practice is informal and clients sometimes spend cycles before discovering the structural mismatch.
The management-fee transparency. Edmiston's management fees are competitive but the structure is bundled in a way that makes side-by-side comparison with competing managers difficult. We would prefer a tiered, scope-itemized fee schedule that allows owners to compare like-for-like with Burgess, Y.CO, Hill Robinson, and Fraser.
Passed on
Passed: Edmiston as the charter broker for a first-time charter client in the $80K-to-$150K weekly band. The desk is not calibrated to this band and the inventory access is narrower than at peer firms with stronger mid-tier books. We would recommend a smaller charter specialist or a peer brokerage that handles this band as a primary segment.
Passed: Edmiston as the central-listing broker for a 30-to-45m yacht with a typical specification. The marketing reach is real but the senior-partner attention does not extend to this band and the asking-to-selling gap on listings here is wider than the firm's reputation would suggest. Sellers in this band should look at Fraser, IYC, Northrop & Johnson, or Y.CO.
Passed: Edmiston as the management company for owners with simple, sub-$25K-per-month management scopes. The management team's strength is the continuity and the institutional memory on complex yachts. Owners with simple management scopes are paying for capability they do not use and should look at dedicated yacht-management firms instead.
Passed: Edmiston as the new-build advisor for a buyer who has settled on a Mediterranean-builder slot and a yard team. The new-build advisory at Edmiston is strongest on Northern European yards (Lürssen, Feadship, Oceanco, Abeking) and on the buyer-side spec development for those yards. A buyer committed to a southern European builder with a specific yard team in place is paying for advisory work that the slot decision has already foreclosed.
Bottom line
Edmiston is one of two brokerages an owner with a $30M-plus yacht should have on a serious shortlist of central-listing options. The smaller team, the senior-partner concentration, and the tight broker-to-client ratio make this firm the right choice for clients who want partner-level attention through the file rather than the broader institutional reach of Burgess. We rank Edmiston at No. II for charter and sales in 2026 and we would change the three things named above. We would recommend the firm on its current operating product to any client whose brief matches the upper-LOA orientation and who wants the senior-partner contact through the transaction.
Frequently asked questions
Is Edmiston independent from any yacht builder?
Yes. Edmiston operates as an independent broker without ownership ties to any builder. The brokerage works with all the major yards on new-build broker-of-record relationships and the commercial terms are disclosed to buyers on a transaction basis.
Does Edmiston have a charter or sales conflict on yachts where they manage the yacht and also broker the charter or the sale?
The structural conflict exists at most integrated brokerages and Edmiston manages it through internal teams that are walled off between charter management, brokerage, and management oversight. Owners should ask the firm to confirm the internal team structure in writing, and charter clients should engage a separate buyer's-side charter broker on yachts where the conflict is material.
How does Edmiston compare to Burgess?
The two firms are structural peers at the upper end of the market. Burgess is larger, has broader global reach, and a deeper bench below the senior level. Edmiston is smaller, has stronger senior-partner concentration, and a tighter broker-to-client ratio. Clients who want institutional reach and a deep bench should lean Burgess. Clients who want partner-led attention through the file should lean Edmiston. Both should be on the shortlist for a $50M-plus transaction or a $400K-plus weekly charter.
What charter destinations does Edmiston cover?
The charter desk covers the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the Maldives, French Polynesia, the South Pacific, Northern Europe and Scandinavia, and Alaska. The Mediterranean and Caribbean book the largest volume of weeks. The Mexico City office has expanded the firm's coverage of Mexico and Central America for charter and acquisition work.
Does Edmiston accept first-time charter clients?
Yes, at the $200K-plus weekly band. Below $200K weekly the firm typically refers clients to peer brokerages. The desk is not a junior-account operation and the team allocation reflects that.
How do I start a conversation with Edmiston?
The firm operates a contact form at edmiston.com. For a charter inquiry, the initial response typically routes to a senior broker within 48 hours during the booking season. For a sales inquiry above $30M, the response is typically faster. For an inquiry under $15M in sales value, the response time and the team allocation are weaker.