Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is the largest concentrated superyacht market in the Americas and the operational base for most Caribbean and US East Coast programmes. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) in late October is the world's largest in-water boat show by display volume, and the city's New River and Intracoastal corridors house a year-round refit and brokerage cluster unmatched outside the Mediterranean. For tender programmes, Fort Lauderdale is the natural hub for Atlantic-crossing fleets, Caribbean charter operations, and the US-flag commercial fleet, and the FLIBS run-up in September and October is the single busiest tender brokerage and re-spec window in the western hemisphere.

Local stock leans heavily towards Intrepid, Yellowfin, Boston Whaler, and HCB centre-console chase boats alongside imported limousine tenders. The sport-fishing chase-boat segment is more developed here than in any Mediterranean port, and the depth of the local market makes Fort Lauderdale the most reliable place in the Americas to source a two-to-four-year-old pre-owned tender coming off a Caribbean charter programme. The replacement cycle tracks the show calendar and the transatlantic repositioning: many owners refresh tenders before a yacht crosses to the Med for the season, so brokerage supply tightens through the spring and loosens again after FLIBS.

Fort Lauderdale is also where the US tender brand network is concentrated. The major US builders run dealer and service representation in or around the city, which makes it the practical place to take warranty work, order a factory-built chase boat or limousine, and find the trades who can integrate a new tender into a yacht's launch system. For programmes running US-flag commercial operations, the local surveyor, USCG and class ecosystem means SOLAS and Subchapter T compliance for tenders and rescue boats can be closed here before a yacht heads to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for the charter season.

• Lauderdale Marine Center runs three travel lifts (the largest at 485 tonnes) and serves as the base for dozens of independent contractors, so a tender refit can run under its own contractor in parallel with the mothership's haul-out.
• Bradford Marine at Port Everglades for refit and paint on yachts to 76m.
• Derecktor Florida (Fort Pierce), two hours north, for the largest hauls (1,500-tonne lift).
• Roscioli Yachting Center for refit and dockage.

The South Florida refit window runs hardest from late spring through summer, after the show season and before the boats reposition, which is the period to book tender paint and major systems work before yard capacity is absorbed by the FLIBS rush. The open-yard contractor model at LMC is the operational advantage worth using: a tender can be hauled and worked under its own paint or composite contractor on the same site as the mothership's refit, on a separate schedule, rather than queuing behind the yacht's own programme. The constraint that catches crews out is the New River bridge schedule and air-draft limit, which dictates whether a tender can follow the yacht upriver to certain yards or has to be moved separately by road or under its own keel.

US federal customs treats tender importation under HTS heading 8903; standard duty is 1.5% for vessels over 5m (with exemptions for vessels in for repair under TIB). Florida sales tax runs at 6%, capped at $18,000 per transaction for vessels (the so-called Florida cap), making Florida unusually attractive for yacht and tender purchase by Florida-resident owners. Foreign-flagged yachts can cruise US waters under a Cruising License (in countries with reciprocal agreements) without formal import; tenders carried on board are covered, but a tender bought locally and operated independently is not. The US Coast Guard enforces 46 CFR Subchapter T and Small Passenger Vessel regulations on commercially operated tenders flagged in the US. See our tender import VAT note for cross-Atlantic considerations.