Paul Simon Fraser Yachts · San Diego
Portrait of Paul Simon, yacht sales broker at Fraser Yachts San Diego and former 3,000-ton licensed captain
About Paul Simon

Eighteen years at the helm.
Now at your side.

There are two kinds of yacht brokers: those who have read about boats, and those who have run them. Paul Simon spent nearly two decades in the second category before he wrote his first listing.

It started in Michigan, where boating is not a hobby but a way of life. Paul was still in school when he founded a marine maintenance company, learning yachts the honest way: hands in bilges, seasons on the water, customers to answer to. At 19 he moved to Miami for college and kept the business running while he studied.

After graduation, he went to sea full-time.

18
Years as Captain
3,000t
Master’s License
2
Coasts Run, E & W
Global
Voyaging Experience
The Captain Years

What 18 years at sea teaches you

Paul holds a 3,000-ton captain’s license, a credential earned through years of documented sea time on serious vessels, and he has spent 18 years in command on both the East and West Coasts, traveling the world on yachts.

A captain lives with the consequences of every decision made at the sale: the engine package, the layout, the builder’s wiring choices, the systems that hold up and the ones that fail a thousand miles from a yard. That perspective cannot be studied. It has to be lived.

Along the way, Paul served as project manager on numerous large-vessel refits, planning scopes of work, managing shipyards, and bringing boats back better than the day they launched. When he tells a buyer what a refit will really cost, or a seller what will actually move the needle before listing, it comes from invoices he has personally signed off, not guesswork.

The Brokerage

Why Fraser, why San Diego

Paul brokers yachts from the San Diego office of Fraser Yachts, the largest and longest-established full-service yacht brokerage in the world. Founded by David Fraser in Newport Beach in 1947, Fraser today counts more than 240 yachting professionals across 21 offices worldwide and handles a fleet portfolio in excess of $6 billion.

For sellers, that means a vessel listed with Paul is marketed to qualified buyers on every continent, not just the local dock. For buyers, it means access to Fraser’s global market intelligence, comparable sales data, and in-house sales, charter, management, and new-construction expertise, all through one broker who personally knows how every system on board should look, sound, and run.

His specialty is matching owners with the right vessel, whether that is a custom-built superyacht or a timeless classic, and guiding the ownership journey long after the closing.

When he is not on the docks, you will find Paul on the water, working the farm, or on the golf course.

Work with Paul View Current Listings
“
I have delivered boats through weather that tests every bolt the builder chose. When I recommend a yacht, it is because I would take her to sea myself.
Paul Simon · Sales Broker, Fraser Yachts San Diego