Real estate agents long ago discovered that a good way to make a house more appealing was to bake chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen before potential buyers arrived. I’m told that this is now such an obvious ploy that many have shifted to the understated gambit (albeit with more carbs) of baking bread.

It’s clear that aroma has much to do with our appreciation of product value. The nose can distinguish among 10,000 different odors, and companies like McDonald’s work hard to make sure that every Big Mac smells exactly like every other Big Mac worldwide. Our sense of smell runs directly to the region of our brain that regulates emotions and memory. Freshly mown grass may bring back positive memories of childhood picnics, while pine scent is a Christmas tree. “Nose,” to a wine aficionado, is the difference between a fine vintage and salad dressing.

We buy far more cars than houses. “New car smell” is such an important part of the decision-making process (and our happiness afterward) that car companies expend huge amounts of money and talent on creating just the right fragrance.

For the technically minded, new car smell is the result of off-
gassing, where volatile organic compounds release chemicals with discernible odors. At Ford, car components are heated at three temperatures: 73 degrees Fahrenheit (room temp); 104 degrees Fahrenheit (humid air); and 176 degrees Fahrenheit (hot car in the sun). Every piece that goes into the passenger compartment—carpet, dash, door panels, leather, vinyl—gets tested by the team, which allows no smokers among its trained noses.

At Audi, they have a Nose Team that tunes new car smell to different countries: more leathery for Italy, utilitarian vinyl for China. When new car smell fades, you can even buy New Car Air Freshener to replace the aroma after a few months, although I’d be more tempted by the Fresh Glazed Doughnut fragrance.

I’m just coming off the Palm Beach International Boat Show as I write this. As I wandered through all the boats, I was struck by one thing: smell. Aroma. You might even call it bouquet. Every boat, every one of them, had a distinctive aroma.

In my younger years, boats had two fragrances. There was eau de wood and essence de varnish. Today, it’s more parfum d’acetone or balm of resin.

An important point to consider with these aromas is that these were all new boats. Nobody had dropped a full oil filter into the bilge or broken the hose from the toilet or left foulies in a locker with an aromatic crust of salt.

As I mused on the subject of aroma, I realized that boat dealers and builders are missing a sure bet to turn visitors into buyers. Like the car companies, boatbuilders need to invest in “nose engineering.” Most boatbuilders don’t even think about the fragrance of a new boat. They vacuum up the fiberglass dust, sweep away any loose bits of flooring, and that’s it. Ship the hull to the boat show.

The builder of one boat, a 50ish-foot trawler, didn’t have enough time to finish the boat at the factory, so it had a work crew scurrying about at the show. On the galley counter were an open can of spar varnish and a new Purdy badger brush. It was an intoxicating redolence that brought back years of laying on syrupy layers with a cold beer nearby and a gentle breeze blowing. Show me the contract. I’ll sign on the dotted line.

Many builders and brokers hire interior designers to style a yacht before a boat show, with perfect (and perfectly useless) pillows for a dash of color and a pretty book on a shelf. (Really? A history of Louis Vuitton suitcases?) None of that means diddly to a serious skipper.

Instead, sellers can easily bring home the essence of a cruising yacht with a small cloth dampened with WD-40, left in an ashtray as though someone just cured that squeaky hatch. Perhaps a plate with slightly damp teak plugs, tossing their earthy fragrance into a cabin devoid of wood. Or an open container of Coppertone as a reminder of warm days on the bridge. Add just a hint of margaritas to the cockpit, a tang of coffee in the galley, and a cedar aroma to a hanging locker.

I promise, this will turn new boat smell into new boat sales.

This article was originally published in the July/August 2024 issue.