United States

Eclipse Yacht Group

Francesca Webster sits down with&nbsp;<a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8767" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Eclipse Yacht Group (Company)">Eclipse Yacht Group</a>&nbsp;co-founders Liliana Lopez and Katya Hall to chat about their brand new brokerage<a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8767" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Eclipse Yacht Group (Company)">Eclipse Yacht Group</a>, founded by Liliana Lopez and Katya Hall, is one of the only female owned brokerages in the world. Based in Miami but with connections that span the globe, these two women are building the next era of yachting, based on their shared experience and exciting vision for the future.&nbsp;SuperYacht Times Editor in Chief Francesca Webster finds out more. <img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/390233/image/large-fa3d94c29c196cf8a3117132371e547d.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/390233">How did&nbsp;<a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8767" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Eclipse Yacht Group (Company)">Eclipse Yachting</a>&nbsp;and your partnership come about?Liliana: Katya and I know each other from our days at <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/244" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="IYC (Company)">IYC</a>, maybe even from before that. Katya had been working there for about six years before I joined, and we worked together for another five before Katya ventured elsewhere. We always stayed in touch and saw each other at FLIBS last year and both of us were looking to explore the next step.Katya: We ended up having lunch and wondered ‘what’s next?’. We have a similar view on business, on the industry and on people and building relationships: we get each other, which is so rare. We’re both very entrepreneurial. Lily had her own brokerage before, Propel Yachts, she had the best day charter agency in Miami.Liliana: We both experienced the growth of <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/244" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="IYC (Company)">IYC</a> from a small business into a huge company with global offices, and it was great to be a part of that, but eventually you start to look at what’s next. You want more. <img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/390229/image/large-9ffc5c945b92b30f334c64d33621e407.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/390229">Why start&nbsp;<a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8767" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Eclipse Yacht Group (Company)">Eclipse Yacht Group</a>&nbsp;now and what’s your modus-operandi?Katya: We have the experience, we have the knowledge, the connections, know the people, the shipyards, the industry. Why wait?Liliana: As two women starting our own brokerage house, we bring a new and fresh perspective; the opportunity to go about the work differently. Our focus will be both sales and charter: full service save yacht management.Katya: In the future we plan to add it. I started my career in yacht management. We like to think we have the perfect combination of experiences: I have experience in management, sales and retail charter, but it’s rare for a female broker to have experience in new construction and sales.Liliana: I bring the marketing corporate side, advertising, PR, entrepreneurial and the charter management component.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/390232/image/large-79f037e94e9c67e8c1d6593f8b209c2e.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/390232">How do you see the client’s perception of a brokerage house run by two women?Liliana: Positive. A lot of our clients are male, but I think Katya and I bring a different component, one of emotion and understanding the emotion: understanding what drives people and discretion. As women I think we have a better understanding.Katya: We’re more intuitive to the client’s inner needs. Maybe they don’t know or can’t vocalise it, but we can see what drives them, what’s behind the asset, but also understanding what the wife wants and her role in the buying or chartering of a superyacht. While there’s a fantastic shift happening to more female owners and captains, the industry is still largely male, and often it’s the wife’s influence on whether a sale or a booking happens.How does your approach differ from the other companies out there?Liliana: We’re going to lean on innovation, technology, AI and are going to be very data driven. For me that’s always been my personal MO: the facts and the numbers don’t lie. If an owner comes up to me and is unhappy with how their yacht is chartering, I do a full scale comparison with other superyachts doing the same itinerary in the same size range to understand what the market is doing and how we can adjust to be on top of it. We’re in conversation right now with partners to develop really cool AI tools to help us streamline our work and be able to do a lot of the administrative work. We want to be productive and be ahead of the curve.Katya: We’ve actually taken a number of AI courses and are invested in it, pushing ourselves to understand and learn and to be able to incorporate it into our ethos.How does your approach to managing clients differ?Liliana: Our business model is a little different than the regular brokerage houses, which are often very segregated. If you manage a charter yacht and your client wants to sell the yacht or upgrade, they get immediately taken from you. Not every brokerage house lets you get your sales broker licence.Katya: There are some exceptions, where you can be both a retail charter and sales broker, and I luckily have that experience because I was working with a Russian client very keen on privacy who didn’t want another broker. I had to push to get it, but in the 10 years since I made the company a lot of money. Why would you not promote that?”Liliana: Trust is crucial in this industry and for a lot of clients, they don’t want to switch brokers when transitioning from charter to sales. If you come to work for us and you bring in or get a client, you build trust with that person and they remain your client. We will provide what the client needs; at the end of the day that is what matters. We think everyone needs to win in order for the client to win.<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/289301/image/large-c07fad90b534c3501173287dd9b6fd88.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/289301">You’re based in Miami, do you envision a foothold in the Mediterranean?Katya: From a retail charter perspective, geography is far less important than trust and reputation. Charter clients tend to work with brokers they already know or who come highly recommended, regardless of where those brokers are based. As long as you have deep destination knowledge and strong relationships with yachts and crews in the Mediterranean, a physical presence isn’t essential.Liliana: That said, we spend a lot of time on the ground in the Med during the season. Being present at key moments allows us to stay closely connected to the yachts, the crews, and the destinations our clients care about, without needing a permanent base.Looking ahead, where do you see yourself in five years?Liliana: It’s about leaving some sort of footprint and legacy behind.&nbsp;Katya: Everyone says they want to be different, they want to innovate, to bring some fresh air into the data stream. For us, right now that is all talk, but in five years, we want to look back and reflect on all the ways we’ve innovated or actually added that different, fresh perspective.&nbsp;

Women in yacht brokerage: Redefining the industry with Eclipse Yacht Group

Eclipse Yacht Group founders discuss innovation, client trust and building a female-led brokerage in a male-led yachting industry.