Mike and Mary Dickens live aboard their trawler, the Patricia Ann, they sell boats in and around Florida and the Keys, they help and counsel other people who might be interested in spending a lot of time or even full-time living aboard a yacht or trawler or sail boat. They jointly run and operate a successful and prosperous yacht brokerage business at: www.paradiseyachtsales.net, a yacht Broker located near Jacksonville, FL, serving Northeast Florida, Georgia, and SC. They take every bit as much satisfaction from helping others learn the boating lifestyle as in living it themselves or in selling boats.
Mike and Mary operate a Cruising Center. There is way more information about living on a boat, the difference in living in a house and on a boat, and great pictures of other boats and sunsets and the beauty of living on the water. They tell you how they still maintain their garden, how and why and when the boat needs repairs, even the type of paint that works best for their trawler and how and when to apply it. They can talk about whatever they want in their blog, and it quickly becomes apparent that they want other people to enjoy the boating lifestyle, to understand it and possibly to join in their passion for it. Just after the title of his blog, Mike cites his motto: If a man must be obsessed by something, a boat is as good as anything, perhaps better than most, by E.B. White.
Mike could dedicate whole blog issues to selling luxury yachts, but he doesn't. He sent me pictures and specifications of Greg Norman's yacht. The yacht is amazing. It has set the standard for superyachts. Mike has luxury yachts for sale, not this big but very nice none the less. He has fishing boats for sale, but he specializes in liveaboard and cruising trawlers for sale, not because those are the boats that make them the most money, but because those are the boats that he feels make people the happiest. Paradise Yachts has other trawlers for sale, they can also find you an inexpensive cruiser or luxury yacht. They have a good selection of used boats for sale.
“People call me and ask for the bluebook value of their boats,” Mike says in his Southern drawl, “the way we do it,” Mike tells them, “it is more like houses than with cars. There is no official bluebook value for boats, but I can give you some comparisons of boats if you would like. A yacht is only worth what you are willing to pay and the seller is willing to accept”. Other questions he gets repeatedly are: How can I find the value of my boat online? How are used boat prices going? What are boat values like right now? But the question he likes to hear most is: Do you have any live aboard boats for sale? That question perks Mike’s ears right up.
“They also want to know if I have any repossessed boats for sale. I probably wouldn't sell them a boat repo on a bet,” Mike explains. “One of the first things you look for in a used trawler, or motor yacht is how well it has been maintained. A repossessed boat almost by definition wasn’t taken care of properly. I just take my time with them and explain all these things and do my best to find them the right boat"
But his and Mary'sCrusing Center is very much like a diary, and it tells a story about a love of “liveaboard trawlers and yachts” and helping people learn to appreciate them and maintain them and occasionally helping someone buy one.
Everybody talks about living their dreams. When all is said and done, however, not too many people actually spend much time trying to accomplish living their dreams. Mike and Mary do exactly that, and not only do they live their own dreams, but they specialize in helping other people live theirs. So go ahead and browse the rest of the site and be sure to visit the blog.
And if you even think your dream might involve living aboard full time or part time a boat or a used yacht or a trawler, give Mike a call. Not because he knows the bluebook value of boats but because his favorite thing is helping you find the perfect boat for your dreams. He might even help you learn to navigate it, or steer it, or even back it into a slip. What he will not do, is steer you wrong.
