Galati History

Galati Yacht Sales began in 1970 as a dream and not much else. Michael Galati Sr. moved to Anna Maria Island in Florida with his wife and their five young children to support.

He purchased a tornado-devastated marina on Tampa Bay, with the dream of creating a service and boat dealership. “We’ll work hard and we’ll make it,” Michael would tell his wife, Anna Maria.

“My mom probably worked the hardest of any of us,” recalls Carmine, the second oldest.

Besides caring for her family, Anna Maria Galati also managed the marina store and handled all the billing and deliveries. “I remember I would be holding Chris in one arm and pumping gas for the customers in the other,” she says.

“It was a great place to be…to grow up,” remembers Mike, Jr. about living on the island. “We all started out working on the gas docks, washing boats and catching bait to sell.”

The young Galati’s would all get up early in the mornings to catch pin fish that they would turn around and sell for bait.

When Michael Galati Sr. passed away in l992, the company ownership passed to his children. The Galati siblings were thoroughly prepared to take on a new level of responsibility as they had been trained in all aspects of the business from the time they were children.

They have grown it into one of the largest privately held yacht dealerships in the world