Kent,

I wanted to take a moment and provide some feedback on David Jackson.

In October 2018 we purchased our first sailboat, a 2001 Hunter 340.

From the first time we walked in the door at 4:30 on a Friday, David acted as a trusted advisor in helping us select the right boat for our needs. He is a wealth of knowledge and his expertise made us feel comfortable during the sales process.

Through the entire deal David was there for us with any questions, concerns and provided assistance with negotiations. We even spoke a few times while he was on vacation, sailing in the Northeast.

David also helped coordinate repairs to the vessel prior to purchase, as well as after the sale.

Most recently, we had quite a scary experience. As we were motoring out of Watergate for a nice sunset sail, we noticed a plume of black smoke come out of the exhaust. I immediately went down below and upon opening the stair cover to the engine compartment, the entire cabin was filled with black smoke. Once I realized there was no evidence of fire, I went to work troubleshooting the problem. With my wife at the helm, she quickly steered us across the channel and into Clear Lake to avoid any boat traffic. Ultimately we had a failure of the exhaust mixing elbow and had to be towed back to dock. Unfortunately our sunset sail that evening was cut short.

Why I tell you this story is because of the response we got from David and his action to get the boat back in order. I reached out to David after the incident to see if he had any recommendations for a mechanic. He contacted me back quickly and didn’t just provide a referral, he apologized for the problem. That’s right, he showed genuine concern for what had happened to us. With us being new to sailing, it was nice to have someone to count on when such a stressful event took place. He then went into problem solving mode and coordinated the repair work and had our boat running again in a matter of days.

Please share this with David and let him know he has made a customer for life. We won’t need another boat anytime in the near future, however I can tell you that when we upgrade, my first call will be to David.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Over the past several months it has been our pleasure to work with our boat broker, Bobby Brown from Little Yacht Sales. Our boat, a Catalina 470, was a very large and relatively expensive boat to move in this market. Bobby, working with Little Yacht Sales, was able to have our boat proximately featured a number of times in South Winds Magazine. He insured that the boat was featured on key websites and arranged to have a video imbedded in the ads and on YouTube. He kept us informed about the market, the number of views that our boat received and advised us on pricing, and recent sales of 470’s.I found Bobby knowledgeable and helpful when showing the boat to prospective buyers. As a former boat surveyor he was able to work with the buyer’s surveyor and educate him on items they did not
understand about our boat and politely challenge him on wrong assumptions.We found Mr. Brown friendly, courteous, and always calm when dealing with us or a prospective buyer.
He was always available to us when we had questions was always present when the boat was being
shown. We feel he as always gone above and beyond. In the end we received a bid that exceeded our
expectations. We would highly recommend Mr. Brown to anyone wanting sell their boat

Hi Kent,
Just wanted to tell you about the positive experience I had dealing with David Jackson , we felt like he was a neutral party helping both sides to reach a agreement, plus he stepped up to help with getting shipping quotes that helped seal the deal for me. Great job !

Sincerely

I recently purchased my marlow hunter 31 from little yacht sales in Texas. Being from California I was apprehensive about the whole process. I flew to Texas to survey the boat and it was smooth sailing all the way through. David Jackson handled all of the details even our stay in Kemah. Every detailed was attended to by David and the boat just arrived in Santa Barbara by truck and its going in the water Friday. David made my year and when I buy another boat I’m calling him first.Cheers!

I recently purchased a boat out of Texas and being from New York I was very apprehensive because I would not be traveling to see it first hand. Enter Rusty Hightower, the salesman that represented my interest during the process. I can’t say enough, he was honest, patient and thorough. Rusty went above and beyond, he suggested a number of surveyors and shippers to research which I to use. He also helped the negotiation process along. Even after the purchase was complete he assisted me in finding a local marina to complete some work that needed to be done and made sure they didn’t take advantage by padding the invoice.When I’m ready to trade up, Rusty will be the first person I call to sell my current boat and find me a bigger one. You don’t meet many honorable people in life but Rusty Hightower is definitely one of those people.

Kind Regards,

I wanted to reach out to you and recognize Josh Johnson for making my last boat purchase such a pleasure. He helped explain the process to my wife and answer her many questions. He has made himself available and has been prompt in getting back to us with information.I know that we will enjoy the Catalina 350, and just wanted to say thanks to Josh and Little Yacht Sales.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much of a help Capt Rick has been through the process. He kept us centered and on point, and truly made the decision making process much easier. I appreciate how Capt Rick has gone out of his way to assist us, especially yesterday with helping us move the boat to our new slip. Thanks again sir, you’re the best.

My wife and I worked with Rusty Hightower when purchasing our sailboat. Unlike previous brokers who attempted to show us only the good characteristics of the boat (and sometimes attempted to hide problems!) he boarded vessels with us and and picked apart absolutely everything. Rusty made certain that we were aware of both the positive and negative aspects of whatever boat we looked at, and knew exactly what we were getting into. Rusty and the rest of the staff at Little Yacht Sales displayed an extreme amount of patience with a couple of newbies and made the purchase process fun and painless.

It is my absolute pleasure to recommend Rusty Hightower as a business partner in the high end marine industry. Rusty has proven himself to be highly knowledgeable, professional, and a pleasure to work with. Not only did he walk my wife and I through our first yacht purchase with extreme patience, He also made sure we were comfortable with all aspects of the transaction.In working with Rusty, I found him very personal with great communications skills. He made the overall process smooth and enjoyable. Rusty took the time to show us every inch of the boat and explain the systems and functions (sometimes twice) until we felt comfortable. After the sale Rusty made sure we were doing OK with regular follow up calls. Through the process of purchasing our boat from Little Yacht Sales, I feel a gained a friend in Rusty.

Rusty never tried to pressure us or push into a sale. This is where I think he really went above the typical role of a sales professional. As with a used boat purchase, some things have needed to be addressed. Rusty has come out to our boat on more than one occasion to help with issues and often to correct my self-inflicted user errors. Thank you Rusty.

Please feel free to contact me should you like to discuss Rusty professionalism and courtesy. I’m happy to expand on my recommendation.

Sincerely,

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Josh Johnson for the effort he put into our search for the perfect sail boat. We were referred to Josh from Craig Allison. We first met with Josh over a year ago. He was most patient in his determination to understand what our desires and needs were in a sailboat. We had just moved onto a canal in Bal Harbor and through his questions and showing us a variety of boats came to understand our desires.Months later we re contacted him saying we had narrowed it down some and raised our price range. After some discussion we made an appointment to see a few boats. While looking at a couple of boats, which he felt were in our window, he suggested we look at another boat which had just come on the market.

When he suggested the type of boat, we said that we had not been looking at that brand because we felt it would always be out of our price range he said it was an older boat but in perfect condition and in his opinion the perfect boat for our usage desires and budget.

After looking at Stardust, an Island Packet 31, we fell in love and it turned out to be the PERFECT boat for us.

Without Josh’s acumen we would never have found this boat. It is beautifully maintained and loaded with everything we could want.
Josh is extremely knowledgeable of all brands of boats and was able to help us compare the advantages and disadvantages of various boats.

I would recommend him to ANBODY looking for a personal fit for a boat.

He is patient, meticulous, knowledgeable, genteel and did I mention patient?

Even after the sale when I had questions he directed us to the right professionals and even contacted the sellers for information I needed.

I cannot say enough about his professionalism.

Plus which I made a new sailing friend.

I will be happy to recommend him to anyone if you have them call me.

Best Regards