Meet Our Staff
Atalo Abuchaibe
Yacht Broker
Colin R. Allen
Yacht Broker
Jaemeson "Eric" Barefield
Yacht Broker
Carrie Comanic
Administrative Assistant
Derrick DeForge
Yacht Broker
Jimmy Grullon
Yacht Broker
Shawn Johnson
Yacht Broker
Adrian Mir
Yacht Broker
Jared Neff
President, CEO
Bozana Ostojic
Yacht Broker
Rick Spooner
Yacht Broker
Michael Zaidan
Sales Manager/Yacht Broker
My name is Atalo Abuchaibe and I have been active in the marine industry for the last 10 years in the Miami and Ft Lauderdale area. I have over 30 years of experience as a fisherman, diver and boater. Since I was very young I have been on the water with my Father. He has taught me to safely enjoy the ocean. I speak fluent Spanish and English and love helping my clients. If you are looking for the boat of your dreams or simply want to sell your current boat, please give me the opportunity to serve you.
Mi nombre es Atalo Abuchaibe y he estado activo en la industria Marina durante los últimos 10 años. Siempre me he enfocado en el área de Ft. Lauderdale y Miami. Tengo mas de 30 años de experiencia en el mar como buzo, pescador y navegando. Desde muy pequeño siempre he estado en el mar con mi padre. Mi padre me ha enseñado a disfrutar del mar responsablemente. Soy bilingüe, hablo Español e Ingles, y siempre he disfrutado trabajar con mis clientes. Si esta buscando el barco de sus sueños o simplemente necesita ayuda vendiendo su bote, le pido me de la oportunidad de servirle.
Colin was born and raised in Portsmouth, England. It was as a boy that Colin first started sailing boats in Portsmouth harbor and on the Solent, with family and friends.
Colin eventually joined the British Merchant Navy and sailed as an Officer Engineer to many exotic places in the world. It was this experience that gave him the formal technical training to become a qualified marine engineer.
After immigrating to the USA in 1981, Colin decided to continue his career as a chief engineer working on Super & Mega Yachts and has had the privilege, and good fortune, to sail on some of the most iconic yachts in the world. During his career Colin has also been selected to be the build engineer on two super-yacht projects, which has allowed him to work closely alongside naval architects, yacht designers, and marine surveyors, while helping the owner's vision become a reality.
This combined experience has given Colin the unique talents to guide, and advise, a client through the challenging and technical issues that need to be considered when buying or selling a small or large yacht.
Because of his years of experience as an on-board chief engineer, Colin is able to communicate well with the yacht owner, his Captain, Chief Engineer and crew, and is able to advise the potential client if the yacht is well maintained and is a sound investment.
Colin enjoys playing squash and attending international squash tournaments, and is a keen enthusiast of Formula One motor racing.
Colin will be very happy to help you sell your current yacht and preview your next yacht, and will be pleased to offer his technical advice based on his thirty years of experience.
Eric Barefield was born in 66 and raised on the lower Chesapeake bay 200ft. from the waters edge. Learned to sail solo at age 6 and had first motorboat at age 10. Loves the water and boats of all types also enjoys fishing, cruising and being around people. Moved to South Florida in1986 due to the year round boating and warm climate. First job in Fort Lauderdale renting boats. After that employed at various marinas over the years. Sold new boats since 1995 and used boats since 1986, moving into larger boats and yachts. Likes to socialize and talk with people from different places and cultures. Enjoys the simple things in life and big on quality time with anyone else who likes the same in this sophisticated and demanding world. It takes hard work to live easy.
Carrie was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, FL where she grew up spending most of her time at the beach, on boats with her friends, air boating in the Everglades and going 4-wheeling. A true South Florida girl! Her biggest hobby besides boating is mud racing. She owns a lifted Chevy truck that is painted pink to support Breast Cancer Awareness. She is frequently featured in magazines with her truck and her efforts to help in the fight against cancer.
Carrie wears many hats here at Neff Yacht Sales, including handling closing documents, perfects all of our listings, answering the phones, greeting new clients, and keeping the office at Neff Yacht Sales organized. She is very kind, sweet, and hardworking and enjoys everything she does here at Neff Yacht Sales.
"I love what I do here at Neff Yacht Sales and growing with the company. I am glad to be a part of a great team that strives to make our clients happy by finding them their dream boats!"
Hello, my name is Derrick DeForge. I grew up in upstate New York. I have been on boats all my life, from boats 16 FT to 50 FT. I grew up on fresh water, fishing, waterskiing, snorkeling, and just cruising. Then I moved up to racing J-11 on one of the largest manmade lakes call Lake George. At that point I knew I liked the water and boats. I have been a broker since I moved to Florida 6 years ago. I sell all manufacturer of boat, Sizes 30 FT – 100 Ft. I find it great pleasure, to help Clients and customers find and sell their boats. I enjoy make people happy, and in return I get customer coming back year after year. I look forward to helping customer, find their dream on the water.
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Captain Jimmy grew up surrounded by water and boats. On August, 1993, he relocated to South Florida to pursue a career in the maritime industry, eventually attaining a 100-ton Master's license, STCW certified with over 15 years of experience and thousands of nautical miles traveled. He is fluent in two languages, English and
Spanish.
Having delivered many yachts around the world, Captain Jimmy has an in depth knowledge of every quality yacht on the market, including sportfish, small recreational boats and sailboats. He has been working at sea for over twenty years. Captain Jimmy is passionate about the ocean and meticulous at his job. As a captain, he leads and trains his crew to provide the highest level of service, same service that he provides to the people looking to buy a yacht, boat or sailboat from our boutique broker firm.
His personal and professional experience in the yacht industry has allowed him to provide his clients with an unrivaled customer service and knowledge.
Captain Jimmy is a friendly individual who will work aggressively on your behalf in an endeavor to sell, purchase, build or charter a yacht.
Captain Jimmy is based in our Fort Lauderdale, Florida office. Captain Jimmy is also a FAA Private Pilot and Scuba Diving Instructor. In his spare time he enjoys flying small airplanes, fishing and Scuba Diving.
Capitan Jimmy Grullon / Spanish Version.
Nacido en Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana, el Capitan Jimmy crecio rodeado de agua y botes. En el mes de Agosto del año 1993, Jimmy se mudo al Sur de la Florida en busca de una carrera profesional relacionada a la industria maritima, lo cual logro casi de inmediato al obtener su licencia de capitan para embarcaciones de hasta 100 toneladas. El Capitan Jimmy tiene sobre 15 años de experiencia como capitan de embarcaciones con miles de millas nauticas recorridas.
Gracias a su experiencia como Capitan a bordo de diferentes modelos y clases de botes, Jimmy ha adquirido un amplio conocimiento sobre todo tipo de embarcaciones, incluyendo yates de placer, lanchas de pesca, botes medianos y tambien veleros. Un apasionado por el mar y por las embarcaciones, Jimmy ha entrenado decenas de jovenes marineros para servir con honestidad, pasar a otros sus conocimientos y siempre mostrar una buena cara a sus clientes.
Su experiencia personal y profesional en la industria de venta de embarcaciones, sumado a la transparencia en el intercambio de informacion entre Jimmy y sus clientes, ha dado como resultado la creacion de fuertes e inquebrantables lazos afectivos entre ambas partes.
Jimmy es una persona amistosa que siempre trabajara a favor de sus clientes y amigos durante el proceso de venta, compra, construccion o alquiler del yate, bote o velero de su preferencia.
Jimmy habla perfectamente dos idiomas, Ingles y Español. Su oficina esta localizada en la ciudad de Fort Lauderdale en la Florida.
El Capitan Jimmy es tambien piloto privado e instructor de buceo y disfruta practicando ambas actividades en su tiempo libre, al igual que la pesca deportiva.
Shawn grew up in Wisconsin where he boated and water-skied practically every weekend in the summer months on the surrounding lakes. This passion for boating continued as he relocated to South Florida. Shawn is still the avid water enthusiast, certified diver and was a personal captain of his own vessel, a 63 foot Hatteras Cockpit Motor Yacht.
Dealing primarily in real estate for the last 15 years, in both the development of luxury high rise condominiums as well as being a licensed realtor, transitioning into the Yacht Brokerage business was a perfect fit. Utilizing his lifetime love of boating experience, including both power and motor yacht ownership and helping buyers and sellers with luxury real estate, he is in a unique position to help you market your current vessel and/or find your new one whether moving up in size, downsizing or just starting out.
Reach out to Shawn and discover how he can help you experience fair winds and following seas as you navigate your way through your yachting needs.
At the age of 1 years old, Adrian was relocated to Ft. Lauderdale FL by his Father and Mother from Allentown PA where his parents pursued a career as a yacht interior designers in 1977. For 7 years of his life as a child, Adrian lived aboard a 57ft 1962 Trumpy Flushdeck yacht on the New River of Downtown Ft. Lauderdale in 1981 and traveled the water ways. That's when his first official Deck Duty was to fill the water tank. Through out the years came more responsibilities, he has now obtained his 100 ton Captain License, managed and maintained numerous vessels, including engineering, refinishing. Adrian's passion for Sportfishing and Yachting has brought him throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coast, from Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay, down to Key West and all the Islands of the Bahamas.
With over 35 years of Boating and Yachting, Adrian has now expanded his professional experience to Yacht Sales at NEFF to assist clients in finding their next Adventure on the Open Water.
Jared Neff has been around yachts since he was a child. His family spent their summers yachting on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Jared was hooked. He got his start in the marine industry working with the family of Frank Denison, the founder of Broward Yachts. Jared quickly became the highest selling broker of all time with that firm before leaving to start a new firm, Neff Yacht Sales.
He has sold everything from small boats to mega yachts and everything in-between. Notable sales include 2 very large Feadship sales, a nearly new 100' Azimut and countless others. Under Jared's leadership, Neff Yacht Sales has current listings totaling just over $150,000,000. Jared Neff is a licensed, full service, boutique broker. He is very experience in global sales, able to source, survey and close on a yacht anywhere in the World. He is there with his clients from the very first step to the very last. From compiling market reports and searching through over 100,000 available yachts; to making the selection, to closing, Neff does it all with you. He is loved by both first time buyers and seasoned Yachtsman, with an extremely impressive sales record to show for it, in the top 10% of all Yacht Brokers World-Wide.
Bozana speaks 4 languages including English, Russian, Italian, and Serbian. She has a B.A. in Economics and loves Yachts, Yachting and pretty much any other water related sport. Having previously sold quite a few boats including a 50m Power Yacht, Bozana knows her way around a boat! She is happy to help her clients with either listing or selling their dream yacht. Having cultivated relationships with many new Yacht manufacturers around the World, Bozana is ideally suited for discussing new builds as well as brokerage and pre-owned yachts.
She is also quite the athlete! She is the current World record holder in Scuba diving (air) with a world depth record of 126.8 m (unbeaten). She has won many other sports awards, including; Underwater hockey: Bronze, European Championships 2004, Underwater hockey: multiple Yugoslav and Serbian champion; Fin swimming: multiple Yugoslav and Serbian champion, European Championships; Underwater orienteering: World Cup Event winner (11x); multiple national champion; Handball: Yugoslav 1st division (1986-1989); Athletics: 100m sprint Yugoslav national team (1985-1988), Bosnian champion 1984. International Top Athlete status in Yugoslavia & Serbia recognized for over 20 years Bozana is also a member of Sport & Environment Commission in International Olympic Committee and member of Executive Board of National Olympic Committee.
Having been born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale Florida Captain Rick's passion has always been associated around water, boating and fishing since a boy. Rick started in the marine industry at the age of 18 and quickly moved from owning a yacht management company to a water sport business to Private captain and since has been a yacht broker for the past 20 years. My father having been a car dealer in Ft. Lauderdale for over 30 years taught me early on that honesty and service to your clients are the most important qualities you can have. Rick enjoys meeting clients and finding out what their wants and needs are in purchasing or selling their vessels.
Michael grew up on Cass Lake, outside of Detroit, Michigan, where he began boating with his father, who was an avid fisherman. His passion for boating and fishing was installed at a young age, and only intensified when Michael moved to South Florida in 1995, where he instantly got hooked on scuba diving and spear fishing. Michael has over 15 years' experience in the sales field and enjoys creating and maintaining long term relationships with his clients. With his ability to connect with clients, and passion for boating, Michael sought out a career in yacht sales, where could put his professional and personal experiences together. In his 6 years with Neff Yacht Sales he has sold over fifty yachts, making him the top broker and Sales Manager. Michaels' qualities of honesty and ethical behavior combined with his superior negotiating skills will make you feel confident every step of the way.
He can assist you with a free complete market report or offer sold boat data on any Yacht. If you don't see what you're looking for just give him a call or an email and he can find it for you quickly.