Yacht Purchase Support Program
We’re here to help you buy a boat…not to sell you one.
Yacht Purchase Support
Zimmerman Marine now offers a unique service that represents the buyer’s interests before, during, and after the purchase of a used boat, by utilizing the expertise of one of the industry’s leading boat repair yards.
How It Works
We offer a radically different boat buying experience.
Zimmerman Marine will represent your interests throughout the purchase process. We are not here to sell you a boat – we are here to help you buy one. The right one for your cruising plans, at the right price, in the right condition.
We use a team-based approach to the process, utilizing our collective experience and varying backgrounds for your benefit. Although you will have a primary contact, all of us will contribute to the process.
Benefits
No Cost
Our service has no additional costs to buyer or seller.
Support
1 year of free 24/7 Technical Support, whether a system failure while cruising, or advice regarding repairs at another boat yard.
Warranty
One year Post Purchase Limited Warranty for problems not identified during survey and inspections.
Service Credit
Credit toward any service work performed by ZMI within 12 months of the purchase date, equal to 20% of the fee (up to $5,000).
Our Process
Create Cruising Profile
Search For Boats Based on Cruising Profile
Assessment of Boat Prior to Offer
Contract Prep and Negotiations
Organize and Manage Surveys
Review and prepare estimates post survey
Post Survey Negotiations
Closing
Plus a Full Year of Technical Support

While it has become popular for one broker to represent buyer and seller, in our experience neither side receives full advocacy when that happens.
For Selling & Listing Brokers
Our program is designed so that the net proceeds to the seller and listing broker are not reduced. Our approach is not geared toward finding every possible flaw and condemning every boat we inspect. Although finding problems is a necessary part of the process, it is equally important to put those finding into context for the buyer. Are the findings what can be expected for a vessel of this age or price? How many of the items have to be corrected, and which ones can be left alone? What would it cost to repair the ones that need attention?
Coming up with a list of ABYC “violations” doesn’t mean the boat is unsafe or should not be purchased.
In fact, when problems are found (and there are always some), it has been our experience that buyers are often scared off by the prospect of depending on a yard they don’t know to correct the problems. By working from the outset with a boatyard they trust, these concerns can often be overcome, and the sale of the boat becomes more likely.
Your Yacht Support Team
Bob Arrington
Bob Arrington has 45 years boating experience on the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and off-shore waters of the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard and Caribbean. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Master’s Certificate. Bob shares his love of the water as a writer, marine industry consultant, boat training captain, and scuba instructor. He provides boat owners with lessons in seamanship, safety systems, handling and vessel operation, at the TrawlerFest boat show seminar series and boat brand owner’s clubs. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, he enjoys cruising extensively aboard the trawler Liberdade, looking for the next story to tell.
Haywood May
Haywood May grew up in New Bern, NC, spending most of his free time from an early age on the water. He was fortunate to have grandparents and parents who loved the water and cannot remember a time when there was not some kind of boat in the family. He managed a yacht yard in Maine for 16 years, and has made 20+ round trips on the inland waterway, many trips to the Southeast Coast of Nova Scotia, and one transatlantic sailing trip, as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas, and some of the Pacific Northwest. He stills goes boating at every free opportunity.
Graham Wright
Family connections on the Maine coast and a lakeside camp in western Massachusetts set the path for Graham’s love of the water from an early age.
A graduate of Maine Maritime Academy, Graham started his yacht service career in Marblehead, MA, learning rigging from the best in the business. He then returned to Maine where he spent the next 30 years providing service management at two of the best boatyards on the coast. His reputation for sound advice, clear communication and attention to detail have followed him throughout his career.
Graham holds a 100T USCG masters license, he has moved boats up & down the intracoastal waterway and cruised the Bahamas & the Canadian Maritimes. He additionally provides boat owners guidance in operating their vessels knowledgeably and safely.
Graham & his wife sail their Tayana 37 from their homeport of Harpswell, Maine with a crew of two standard poodles.
Steve Zimmerman
Steve Zimmerman is the founder and President of Zimmerman Marine, Inc. Steve has logged several thousand miles on the water, including the entire East Coast from Canada to the Caribbean, the Pacific Northwest from Anacortes WA to Glacier Bay Alaska, The Downeast Circle, and over forty trips between the Chesapeake and Long Island Sound. Steve has supervised the construction of more than twenty custom boats and has managed boatyards for more than 40 years. Steve provides input and guidance regarding build quality and survey findings.