New investor sought to take company forward

Ft Lauderdale-based Colonial Yacht Sales has announced plans to sell off its Hargrave Custom Yachts brand in the first half of 2019. Colonal owner Michael Joyce, who also serves as CEO of Hargrave, and Michael DiCondina, president of both Colonial and Hargrave, have said that that they will seek the new investor or ‘money partner’ to take the Hargrave brand forward.

According to Joyce, the aim is for the new partner to work alongside DiCondina and the Hargrave team to take the company to a new level.

While the origins of the Hargrave brand go back to 1957, when it was founded by designer Jack Hargrave, following his death Joyce formed Hargrave Custom Yachts in 1997. At FLIBS 2018, the company said that its order book was valued in excess of $100m.

Since 1997 Hargrave Customs Yachts has advanced steadily, building yachts from 21m-42m (68ft-136ft), and at FLIBS last year it displayed a model of a 56m (184ft) vessel. Hargrave has been working with the Kha Shing shipyard in Taiwan for over 30 years and some of its most recent larger models, such as the 136ft Dreamer, were built at a yard in a yard in Antalya, Turkey, which IBI understands is operated by the Ned Ship Group.

Joyce says in the statement: “When you look at the brokerage market you can see that Mike DiCondina and his team were selling and delivering new Hargrave yachts throughout the decade-long recession and now he has the company poised to expand into even larger yachts when the next wave of exciting new models begin to appear in the marketplace over the next 18 months, including the largest Hargrave built to date at 184ft.

“Mike DiCondina is going to be doing this for another 30 years, so obviously he needs to find the right person or company to match up with his vision for the future and I can’t wait to see where this company will be in another 10 years,” he adds. “The brand deserves to grow and develop and when you see what Hargrave will have on display at the 2019 Ft Lauderdale Boat Show this fall, you’ll know why now is the right time to make that decision.”

Joyce reached the age of 75 this year and he made his first acquisition in the marine industry 50 years ago when he bought a 100-slip marina in the Thousand Islands on the New York-Canadian Border. He installed a boat sales and service operation.

In 1977, he sold the marina operation and moved to Palm Beach, Florida, to work for Hall of Fame yacht designer Jack Hargrave. He eventually opened Ft Lauderdale-based Colonial Yacht Sales in 1981.

Joyce acquired the rights to Hargrave Yachts from Hargrave’s wife, Janet, after the designer passed away. “We literally could launch a new project in hours because of all the design, engineering, and proven test data that we already had in hand,” said Joyce, who formed Hargrave Custom Yachts in 1997 and began building custom motoryachts.