Off the Hook Yachts filed with the SEC this summer to raise up to $29 million for an initial public offering. This marks a pivotal moment for the Wilmington-based boat dealer as it looks to expand.

The company will offer 5 million shares of its stock at a price between $4 and $6.

“This isn’t just about raising capital, it’s about entering a new era of scale, professionalism and transparency,” Jason Ruegg, the company’s president, founder and CEO, said in an email. “As a public company, we’ll have the resources to grow faster, recruit top talent and form partnerships across the marine, technology and finance sectors.”

And according to Ruegg, there are several reasons behind the company’s push for an initial public offering.

He said that Wilmington-based Off the Hook Yachts sees an opportunity to modernize and scale its industry by using technology, AI-driven valuations and a nationwide sales network. He also said that he’s always wanted to build a company that can outlast him.

In addition to having such a company, he added that he wants to lead a business that allows leadership to give ownership back to its key people through stock. He said that this was a way for the company to attract top talent and set itself apart from the competition.

Ruegg also said that Off the Hook Yachts aims to be the Carvana of the marine industry and that it wants to have a “fully integrated platform where customers can buy, sell, finance and store their boats, powered by AI pricing, transparent auctions and a national agent network.”

On the luxury side, he said, the company is building premium divisions such as Autograph Yacht Group to serve the high-end yacht market.

And while the company’s primary goal for 2025 is to complete the initial public offering, Ruegg listed several plans Off the Hook Yachts has for 2026 and beyond.

These include securing more than $100 million in credit lines for buying used boats at scale, expanding its Boats & Buyers platform so that the boat-selling process is more seamless and growing Azure Funding, its in-house marine finance and warranty division.

In addition, Ruegg said, Off the Hook Yachts aims to acquire marinas, storage and service centers to vertically integrate the customer experience. The company also aims to purchase more than $200 million of pre-owned inventory next year.

“We’ve already identified several dealership and marina acquisitions, and top brokers nationwide are reaching out daily to join the platform,” Ruegg said. “We will give them capital and everything else they need to be successful.”

And as for the company’s achievements, Ruegg said they have developed patent-pending software that matches buyers with sellers, tracks every bid made by the company’s wholesale network – including every boat they’ve ever bought and sold – and uses that collective data to produce the most precise valuations in the industry.

“This system allows our team to review bids collaboratively – avoiding the limitations of a single person’s judgment,” he said. “And now, with AI integration, it ‘remembers’ every past deal, helps prevent mistakes and fine-tunes our offers so we consistently bid at the right level.”

He also shared that the company has become one of the largest buyers of pre-owned boats in the U.S., has launched an auction platform and built a nationwide agent network.

Plus, Ruegg noted his satisfaction with creating Azure Funding, raising significant capital and being recognized in the past on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies.

But for Ruegg, building a successful company didn’t happen overnight. The vision started years ago.

“I started flipping boats in high school – buying them cheap, fixing them up and selling for a profit,” he said. “By college, I was completely hooked. My senior year at UNCW, I knew there was no chance I’d do anything else for the rest of my life. I even built a side program where I fronted the money, and my friends or roommates could buy and sell boats for a percentage of the profits. It was the earliest version of what would later become our buyer network.”

He later launched Off the Hook Yachts in 2012.

While the company has grown significantly since then, he wrote that an initial public offering is the logical next step.
In 2024, the company generated more than $100 million in gross boat sales across 13 locations, with a team of roughly 75 employees and independent brokers.

“We’ve spent years building the people, processes and technology to transform how boats are bought and sold,” Ruegg said, “and now we’re ready to bring it to the public market.”