Pricing & Valuation
How to Value Your Dive Liveaboard Before Selling in Indonesia
Published by the Raja Ampat Yacht Broker Desk · Updated 19 August 2026
Value a dive liveaboard from comparable transaction evidence, adjusted for certification status, documented refit history, remaining life on major machinery and the transferable forward booking book. What you spent on the vessel is not evidence of what it is worth, and buyers will not treat it as such.
Start by separating the assets
A working liveaboard is at least three things: a hull with machinery, a compliance position, and a trading business. Value them separately and the number becomes defensible. Blend them and every buyer will attack the total from a different direction.
The five inputs
| Input | Evidence required |
|---|---|
| Comparable evidence | Recent transactions of similar class, size and certification — not asking prices that never sold. |
| Certification status | Current certificates, outstanding conditions, next survey date. |
| Refit history | Invoices, yard reports and photographs. Undocumented work is worth close to nothing in a negotiation. |
| Machinery life | Recorded hours against expected service life for engines, generators and compressors. |
| Forward book | Departures sold, deposits held, and whether the agreements assign to a buyer. |
Three adjustments sellers resist and buyers always make
- Deferred maintenance. Every item a surveyor will find is a price adjustment waiting to happen. Better to fix it or disclose it than to have it discovered.
- Certificate gaps. A lapsed certificate is priced as the cost and the lost time to restore it.
- Crew risk. If the captain and guides leave at completion, the buyer’s first season carries risk. That is a real number.
Preparing the vessel to defend its price
The strongest thing a seller can do is remove uncertainty before marketing: a current condition report, an ordered document pack, a clean inventory schedule and a reconciled booking record. Vessels presented that way transact faster and closer to the asking price, for the simple reason that the buyer has less to be afraid of. The full campaign structure is on sell your yacht.
If the business is worth more than the boat
Where the brand, the agents and the forward book carry material value, a share sale of the operating company may realise more than a hull sale — see charter businesses for sale. Either way, understand how buyers price this asset class first: what a fair price looks like.
Next step: send the desk your brief — vessel type, cruising ground, budget band in USD and timing — via the enquiry desk.