Boat Magnate Turns Down $400 Million Sale, Pledges Profits to Charity Instead

Eddie Smith, owner of Grady-White Boats, declined a nine-figure acquisition offer after his only heir died, opting to reroute future company profits to charitable causes in a move modeled on Patagonia's ownership structure.

Eddie Smith, owner of Greenville, North Carolina-based Grady-White Boats, was offered approximately $400 million for the company.
Smith declined the sale following the death of his sole heir.
Future profits from the company will instead be directed to charitable organizations.
Smith cited Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard's 2022 charitable ownership transfer as his model.
Grady-White, founded in 1959, manufactures offshore and inshore sport-fishing boats retailing from roughly $30,000 to over $400,000.

Eddie Smith, the owner of Grady-White Boats, had a buyer and a number: approximately $400 million. He said no.

Smith's decision, reported by The New York Times on July 25, 2026, followed the death of his only heir. With no family succession in place, a straightforward sale was the obvious move. Smith declined it and instead pledged the company's future profits to charity.

His stated model was Patagonia, where founder Yvon Chouinard transferred ownership to a nonprofit trust and a charitable organization in 2022, forgoing a conventional sale estimated at around $3 billion.

Grady-White, headquartered in Greenville, North Carolina, has been building sport-fishing boats since 1959. Current models range from a 17-foot center console to a 37-foot offshore boat; list prices run from the low thirties into the mid-six figures depending on configuration.

Smith has not publicly named the charitable beneficiaries or detailed the governance structure that will hold the company going forward. The $400 million figure represents the offer on the table, not a formal valuation entered into any public record.

The company's flagship 307 Freedom, fully rigged, lists at $409,995 — roughly one one-thousandth of the check Smith left on the table.