Boat For Sale - UK £10,500; USA $8000

[mark_turner]

As currently being advertised for MacGregor 26C's on the web.

Why???

But apart from this, if this is 'just the way things are', what is to stop me buying an American boat and shipping it back here? Clearly there will be some substantial costs involved but surely no where near £6000 worth.

If you have done this and could provide any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

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[chriscallender]

I'm no expert but I know VAT and possibly also import duty needs to be paid on it, as well shipping costs which would be considerable - so you won't end up saving too much for the amount of hassle. Recreational Craft Directive also springs to mind, again I am no expert but I believe that EU legislation means that you have to get it tested and marked as belonging to a certain seaworthiness category which could cost some $$$$, do a search its been discussed before here in the past. This is true even if it is a 2nd hand boat. You might end up saving something but it will be nothing like the difference between £10.5k and $8k!

A similar example I recently saw JRC1500 radar at the equivalent of £550 in the US, costs something like £995 in UK. However I concluded that with international shipping, insurance, import duty and VAT you'd spend somewhere in the region of £800. I think the radar you get still doesn't have a CE mark so could be stopped from being imported by customs and what happens if it breaks down or you need any aftersales support? Although it seems to me the whole thing is a big con, designed to stop international competition on prices, it works unfortunately.

Chris

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[tony_brighton]

One worth watching - the trade import tarrifs on US goods (aka steel trade wars) will be imposed on yachts amongst all the other things - jeans etc if it gets that far. Rumoured to be 30% to match the US's steel import tarrif.

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[jhr]

I'd want to be paid more than ten grand to take over ownership of a M*cgr*g*r....

)

There's been a lot of discussion about this on Mobo chat, so try a search.

In (very) brief:

Plusses: Price, choice, likelihood that boat's been sailed in calm azure waters rather than storm tossed sewer outfalls.

Minuses: Danger of being ripped off, CE compliance, import duties, shipping costs.

Seems to be feasible if approached with caution and using a reputable supplier at the US end.

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[Birdseye]

Re: Boat For Sale - UK ?10,500; USA $8000

interestingly, a quick google on import duties elicited the fact that sea going sailing yachts (category 8903911000) are duty free. so the costs of importing into the uk would be the transport, customs clearance, and vat at 17.5%. so $8000 add $1000 for transport by container, a guess at £200 for customs clearance and you would land it in the uk for maybe $12000. (very rough guess - you need to do some proper investigating)

there should be no great problem with rcd since macgregor could make sure the boat you bought in the us would be ec compliant. mind you, to protect their uk distributor, macgregor might well charge you the uk price in $ for an ec compliant boat.

worth having a proper look i guess. there has to be some compensation for sailing in something quite as ugly as that! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

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[roni]

Dear Cris
In the year 2000 we bought Jrc radar 1500 from WEST MARINE. after time it look that the radar is blind.When pasing tanker 100000 ton not always it appear on the radar lcd screen.The service is in SEATEL WS USA. Noservice at all.
For your informatin. roni

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[webcraft]

Re: Boat For Sale - UK ?10,500; USA $8000

$1000 for transport by container - a 26 ft yacht? I think not . . .

A couple of years ago I shipped a Microlight aircraft to the US - a VERY much smaller package, done as cheap as chips thorugh a friend who owns a shipping company - and that was over £600.

Of course, if it was a sensible vessel you caould sail it back. Fancy going for first Macgregor 26 across the pond? It'll have to be singlehanded of course, no-one will come with you.

- N

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[BrendanS]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ybw.com/cgi-bin/forums/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=mby&Number=423878&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1>click here for a useful thread</A> which will answer some questions, but will also raise some issues, not least of which is getting the boat CE marked.

<hr width=100% size=1>For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three

 

[zefender]

Re: Radar

I bought a new JRC 1500 from the States at about the price you mention. I can't remember exactly what the import duty and freight was but I think it was about £90. The kit is CE marked and has a worldwide JRC warranty. It arrived within 4 days. So I saved about £300, a discount of about 33% on the UK price. Worth doing I'd say.

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[aod]

The answer is easy !

Because over here we are ripped off blind at every turn or corner. It was the same with cars a few years ago but that now sems to have balanced out a bit. I guess yotties don't have the same collective clout as the motor trade!

I have bought loads through West Marine and have been really happy with their service. A few years ago I reserved some steel Harken runner blocks in New York. I flew to New York to collect them had three days holiday and flew back for the same cost as buying them in the UK.

I bought a water maker from them as well although I had that shipped and still saved about £400 on UK prices.

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[Birdseye]

Re: Boat For Sale - UK ?10,500; USA $8000

as a matter of curiosity (and bearing in mind you are anonymous on here) did you have to pay import duty and vat on them, and were they still cheaper after that?

cars are now marginally cheaper here than on the continent following recent xchange rate movements. and when i was in business, there were periods when us prices were significantly higher than uk ones, again depending in part on the xchange rate.

i would expect a us made boat like macgregor to be more in the uk than over there. the question is how much more. going back over the calculation i made earlier, and correcting the transport i built in

ex factory 8000
delivery to docks, packing and fob charges 500
sea freight to uk 1500
vat 1750
convert to sterling £7000
unpacking/ transport from docks etc £ 350
dealer mark up £2000
total £ 9350

its a very crude calculation, but it begins to add up. Dealers mark up is an outright guess, but I cant see it being much less than that since it has to cover such things as marketing, brochures, boat shows, demos, guarantee work, insurance, boat prep.....

All speculation. Would be really interesting if anybody on the forum actually knew????

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[jonjo]

> I flew to New York to collect

Don't shout about it. If you failed to declare the goods then you were guilty of smuggling, even nice people get criminal records for smuggling.

Evading import duty is not a legitimate form of political protest about "rip off" Britain. The whole rip-off Britain debate is tiresome it ebbs and flows in sync with exchange rate fluctuations.



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[stevebirch2002]

Hi Mark

By the time you pay for the boat to be shipped to the UK (about £4000) then paid the VAT in the UK (17.5% of the value of the boat and possibly on the transport) you will see that the price is getting to be comparable. On top of this you would have to fly over to the USA, survey the boat (remember they are kept in warm salty water - possible osmosis). I think the price of secondhand classic boats are not too bad in this country.

Kind Regards Steve Birch

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[stevebirch2002]

Re: Boat For Sale - UK ?10,500; USA $8000

Totally agree. At least a secondhand Vega should make it across!

<hr width=100% size=1>Albin Vega "Southern Comfort" V1703

 

[aod]

Really !!! I thought it ebbed and ebbed......................haven't yet experienced much flowing !

And before you jump to conclusions bright spark where did I state that I didn't pay the duty?

I merely said that it cost the same as it did to buy them in the UK because it did!

Cars, second hand boats, chandlery, marinas etc etc etc are all cheaper

For me including duty it was still cost effective and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from there again or indeed go over there and buy a boat and import and pay the VAT in Portugal where it's AGAIN much cheaper than here.

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