A yacht to sail to Australia and sell there

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BacktoBoats

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I met an Aussie couple on a boat in the Med. They had been planning their trip for many years, after looking in Australia they finally bought their 43' yacht in the Med, will sail around the Med and and then back to Australia where they will sell. They reckoned 2nd hand boat prices for used yachts around £100k tend to be up to double in Australia compared to Europe. Clearly there are import taxes, fees, commissions, exchange rates etc to pay but nevertheless this seems like an interesting opportunity. Buy a yacht in Europe, sail to Australia and sell up, and most if not all of your cost are potentially paid. Looking at online listings there does seem to be some models that are listed at substantially more than their European counterparts, but there is quite a variation.

Has anyone here ever done this? Does anyone here know the Aussie market and what yachts are in demand there and would sell well and at a premium over European prices?
 
BacktoBoats said:
I met an Aussie couple on a boat in the Med. They had been planning their trip for many years, after looking in Australia they finally bought their 43' yacht in the Med, will sail around the Med and and then back to Australia where they will sell. They reckoned 2nd hand boat prices for used yachts around £100k tend to be up to double in Australia compared to Europe. Clearly there are import taxes, fees, commissions, exchange rates etc to pay but nevertheless this seems like an interesting opportunity. Buy a yacht in Europe, sail to Australia and sell up, and most if not all of your cost are potentially paid. Looking at online listings there does seem to be some models that are listed at substantially more than their European counterparts, but there is quite a variation.

Has anyone here ever done this? Does anyone here know the Aussie market and what yachts are in demand there and would sell well and at a premium over European prices?
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It's an old idea, after WWII when one couldn't export cash, some people had the idea of buying big boats, sailing them to Australia and selling them on; like the Smeetons with ' Tzu Hang ' whose adventure led to the classic book ' Once is Enough '.

They also influenced their friend Nevil Shute's book ' Trustee From The Toolroom ' which involved incorporating valuables hidden in a safe in the keel...
 
A couple of members of the Countess Owners Association set off on a circumnavigation in their C37 but ended up selling the boat in Sydney and settling down there.
It's a few years ago now so their sail blog seems to have been deleted, so not much use to you, but does show I suppose that it does get done.

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/jksailing/#top

Edit - more here: http://jksailing.blogspot.co.uk/
 
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Steve_N said:
A couple of members of the Countess Owners Association set off on a circumnavigation in their C37 but ended up selling the boat in Sydney and settling down there.
It's a few years ago now so their sail blog seems to have been deleted, so not much use to you, but does show I suppose that it does get done.

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/jksailing/#top

Edit - more here: http://jksailing.blogspot.co.uk/
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I in fact helped them find the boat http://www.jryachts.com/2013/03/colvic-37.html

(It's Johnny and Kate who were often on these forums) they appear in SWMBO's book too. A really lovely (very young) couple, we also managed to meet in an anchorage in Martinique whilst they were on route.

It was some years ago now, but they are certainly still in Aus and have settled down very successfully and are now happily raising a family.

However I don't know what they sold for, but I know they thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.
 
Could be done, I suppose. But you would need to be very, very careful about the yacht you chose. Quite apart from the wear and tear and the safety aspects of getting a vehicle to take you round the world, the economic situation in Australia isn't what it was only a few years ago and only a highly desirable boat would sell at anything like a reasonable price. As for making a huge profit and using that as the basis to start a new life, fergeddit! You'd probably clear about what you paid for the boat, or maybe a bit extra, but don't forget that most of the big European manufacturers have agents in Australia and both new and secondhand versions of their products are readily available at prices dictated by the currency exchange rates rather than any fundamental discrepancy.

I certainly didn't notice that boats were expensive in Australia when I was looking - but I live in New Zealand, where boats are as cheap as chips and ocean-going cruisers are readily available from the "half-way-round, fed-up-with-this" market at knock-down prices.
 
I met a couple once in southern Australia who had sailed half way round the world, going westwards from the UK. They had left the UK 12 years earlier. Wear and tear, or depreciation, will knock a huge hole in your budgetted sale value.

If part of the idea is to find work in Australia then the easiest places to find employment are the big cities (and Australia has either big cities or quite small towns - with nothing in between) then housing prices will send a chill down your spine. The mining industry is suffering a rather large downturn at the moment - so its not the source of instant wealth it once was.

Remember you will need a visa for Australia :)

Jonathan
 
Bavarias are popular for this. A couple of posters on the Bavaria forum have done this, buying new in the Med, sailing around there for a couple of years and then going back home. Most decent sized (40'+) European boats are capable of making it, so the key thing is finding out what boats are most salable in Australia.
 
We have just sailed through Australia and I always keep an eye on the local market for boats in case we have to do something radical. Second hand prices for yachts seemed to be about the same as Europe to me. But you will get less as you have to pay the Ozzie customs a large fee when you import the boat. This fee is levied on import and you officially can not place the boat on the market until you have paid it. Although there is probably some wiggle room there. It's the taxes that have to be paid that make the prices look higher when in reality the amount of cash going into your pocket is less than you think.

We meet several Ozzie owned boats in the Pacific that had come from the Mediterranean or the Caribbean(now that is a place to pick up a Bargain yacht). They were heading to New Zealand to sell the boats as the Ozzie tax regime made it too expensive to sell them in Oz.
 
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Another consideration - many yachts are simply used to sail 'local' waters, Sydney Harbour, Moreton Bay and there is then little need, nor value, to water makers, 6 anchors, extra fuel or water tanks etc.
 
I sold my yacht in Australia three years ago, having sailed from UK. Australia was at that time experiencing an economic boom and the demand for yachts was high. Having a proven ocean-going yacht with the extra gear was a definite plus. I'm guessing I got about 33% more than I would have back here. The big bonus for me was that the yacht sold in 6 weeks, having had huge interest. (A friend trying to sell a similar yacht in the UK has waited 3 years).

Any 'profit' though was entirely eaten up by the costs associated with first entering Australia and then organizing importation, paying GST etc.

I can recommend the broker involved: David Bray Yachts, Princes Street Marina, Newport Beach, Sydney (on the Pittwater). David Bray seems to specialize in selling imported yachts and was extremely helpful throughout the process. Might be a good source of advice in your case. (Email: sales@dbyboatsales.com.au)

Since I sold there has been a downturn in the Australian economy and I understand this has hit yacht prices.
 
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I bought a used Beneteau in Winter 2013, left in Summer 2014 and arrived in NZ in October 2015 with the idea of selling in Oz/NZ.

I was unlucky in that both NZD and AUD significantly weakened from when I bought the boat to when I sold her, so I lost money. Looks like the rate is coming back up at the moment... unfortunately I couldn't sit on her and wait for things to improve, so just took the hit.

The Kiwis were very relaxed about me not paying import duty/GST up front and were gentle in their valuation.

So moral of the story - world economics are out of our control and while it would of course be nice to make a profit, you should be prepared to swallow a loss.
 
Fossil said:
Could be done, I suppose. But you would need to be very, very careful about the yacht you chose. Quite apart from the wear and tear and the safety aspects of getting a vehicle to take you round the world, the economic situation in Australia isn't what it was only a few years ago and only a highly desirable boat would sell at anything like a reasonable price. As for making a huge profit and using that as the basis to start a new life, fergeddit! You'd probably clear about what you paid for the boat, or maybe a bit extra, but don't forget that most of the big European manufacturers have agents in Australia and both new and secondhand versions of their products are readily available at prices dictated by the currency exchange rates rather than any fundamental discrepancy.

I certainly didn't notice that boats were expensive in Australia when I was looking - but I live in New Zealand, where boats are as cheap as chips and ocean-going cruisers are readily available from the "half-way-round, fed-up-with-this" market at knock-down prices.
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Got a website for these cheap as chips boats?
 
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alant said:
Got a website for these cheap as chips boats?
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Most Kiwis use the TradeMe.com website.

There are currently 1,153 yachts and 3,833 motorboats for sale. Note that while this is an auction site, so you can bid on anything you are interested in, it is also used as a classified ad publication, in which case you'd need to contact the advertiser. And of course, the usual caveats about buying anything sight unseen would apply here as with everywhere else in the world.

The URL for the "Cars, Bikes and Boats" section is: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors. Then you can set the parameters to search for the size/type/value of the vessel you are interested in. I found my own boat through this website, but did a lot of looking and visited Auckland to see it before making an offer.
 
Fossil said:
Most Kiwis use the TradeMe.com website.

There are currently 1,153 yachts and 3,833 motorboats for sale. Note that while this is an auction site, so you can bid on anything you are interested in, it is also used as a classified ad publication, in which case you'd need to contact the advertiser. And of course, the usual caveats about buying anything sight unseen would apply here as with everywhere else in the world.

The URL for the "Cars, Bikes and Boats" section is: http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors. Then you can set the parameters to search for the size/type/value of the vessel you are interested in. I found my own boat through this website, but did a lot of looking and visited Auckland to see it before making an offer.
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Seems like everthing with a sail, is a yacht, including optimist dinghies.
 
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