Boatshed and selling Caribbean vs UK?

[RJJ]

Hi everyone

We are currently in the Caribbean, living aboard for two more months, then wishing to sell the boat either around here or (post-shipping) back in UK. We have paid a deposit on the ship.

It would be more convenient to sell here as when we return to house/work/school etc I don't need the bills and distractions. Equally, I am not sure I want to leave herunattended in Caribeean in event that sale takes months.

Boatshed promises they can introduce me to reasonable insurance...

Any views welcomed, please, on
- sale prices UK vs Caribbean
- references for Boatshed
- advisability of leaving a boat unattended in the hands of a yard 5000 miles away.

What else should I consider? Many thanks indeed.

 

[Bobc]

Hi everyone

We are currently in the Caribbean, living aboard for two more months, then wishing to sell the boat either around here or (post-shipping) back in UK. We have paid a deposit on the ship.

It would be more convenient to sell here as when we return to house/work/school etc I don't need the bills and distractions. Equally, I am not sure I want to leave herunattended in Caribeean in event that sale takes months.

Boatshed promises they can introduce me to reasonable insurance...

Any views welcomed, please, on
- sale prices UK vs Caribbean
- references for Boatshed
- advisability of leaving a boat unattended in the hands of a yard 5000 miles away.

What else should I consider? Many thanks indeed.

My gut feeling would be that your boat will probably be worth more in the UK than in the Caribbean (depending on what it is of course), and the extra you would get would, I expect, cover the shipping cost.

The trouble with leaving a boat in a distant location for sale, is that you are totally dependent on the broker, and I recently had to help a chap out who had done exactly this, and the broker had basically not tried to sell it (happy to just take the storage fees), and left the boat to rot. He ended up losing a lot of money over it.

Bring it back, would be my advice.

 

[emnick]

My gut feeling would be that your boat will probably be worth more in the UK than in the Caribbean (depending on what it is of course), and the extra you would get would, I expect, cover the shipping cost.

The trouble with leaving a boat in a distant location for sale, is that you are totally dependent on the broker, and I recently had to help a chap out who had done exactly this, and the broker had basically not tried to sell it (happy to just take the storage fees), and left the boat to rot. He ended up losing a lot of money over it.

Bring it back, would be my advice.

We recently went through the same decision. (1) Difficult to get insurance now for named storms in Caribbean, even Trinidad (2) We looked at sailing back, our boat has been there throughout Covid and liferaft, flares etc all need doing, with weather routing, satellite comms, diesel etc I estimated that it would cost around £4k to sail it home (not inc wear and tear or any repairs) So shipping could be the way to go. (£10k) our boat is 36ft . We have found Grenada Marine pretty fair and thankfully hurricane free since we crossed in 2017. Our boat is more built for Scandinavia and IMHO would be hard to sell in Caribbean also its on the small side compared to most boats over there.

Hi everyone

We are currently in the Caribbean, living aboard for two more months, then wishing to sell the boat either around here or (post-shipping) back in UK. We have paid a deposit on the ship.

It would be more convenient to sell here as when we return to house/work/school etc I don't need the bills and distractions. Equally, I am not sure I want to leave herunattended in Caribeean in event that sale takes months.

Boatshed promises they can introduce me to reasonable insurance...

Any views welcomed, please, on
- sale prices UK vs Caribbean
- references for Boatshed
- advisability of leaving a boat unattended in the hands of a yard 5000 miles away.

What else should I consider? Many thanks indeed.

We recently went through the same decision. (1) Difficult to get insurance now for named storms in Caribbean, even Trinidad (2) We looked at sailing back, our boat has been there throughout Covid and liferaft, flares etc all need doing, with weather routing, satellite comms, diesel etc I estimated that it would cost around £4k to sail it home (not inc wear and tear or any repairs) So shipping could be the way to go. (£10k) our boat is 36ft . We have found Grenada Marine pretty fair and thankfully hurricane free since we crossed in 2017. Our boat is more built for Scandinavia and IMHO would be hard to sell in Caribbean also its on the small side compared to most boats over there.

Hi everyone

We are currently in the Caribbean, living aboard for two more months, then wishing to sell the boat either around here or (post-shipping) back in UK. We have paid a deposit on the ship.

It would be more convenient to sell here as when we return to house/work/school etc I don't need the bills and distractions. Equally, I am not sure I want to leave herunattended in Caribeean in event that sale takes months.

Boatshed promises they can introduce me to reasonable insurance...

Any views welcomed, please, on
- sale prices UK vs Caribbean
- references for Boatshed
- advisability of leaving a boat unattended in the hands of a yard 5000 miles away.

What else should I consider? Many thanks indeed.

We recently went through the same decision. (1) Difficult to get insurance now for named storms in Caribbean, even Trinidad (2) We looked at sailing back, our boat has been there throughout Covid and liferaft, flares etc all need doing, with weather routing, satellite comms, diesel etc I estimated that it would cost around £4k to sail it home (not inc wear and tear or any repairs) So shipping could be the way to go. (£10k) our boat is 36ft . We have found Grenada Marine pretty fair and thankfully hurricane free since we crossed in 2017. Our boat is more built for Scandinavia and IMHO would be hard to sell in Caribbean also its on the small side compared to most boats over there.

 

[Tranona]

Definitely ship it back. UK market is still strong, but importantly the boat will be where you can look after it. The problem with selling where is, whether it be Caribbean, Med or Far East is that your potential buyers are non residents and particularly in these volatile times unlikely there will be many looking to travel and buy. If you follow the brokers (like Boatshed) who have local operations you see boats stuck on the market for far longer than in the UK. The £10k is a small amount to pay for the security of having your boat under your control and your net proceeds when you eventually sell will almost certainly be higher in the UK. I had exactly the same dilemma 10 or more years ago with my boat in Corfu. Cost over £6k to get it back but well worth it.

Boatshed as an organisation is fine, but it is a franchise so depends very much on the person running the local office. Their reach for promotion is good.

 

[SailingDog]

Another consideration for your list of pros and cons: is the broker open all year in the Caribbean, you don't say where abouts you are. The season for sailing and visitors is quite defined on some islands, this is reflected in brokers closing for several weeks.
A couple more months in the Caribbean will put you at the beginning of the season in Uk if you can get the boat back swiftly.

 

[RJJ]

Thanks folks. I think you are validating my instinct to bring her home and keep under my control. I was also worried about things that buyers/brokers/surveyors might "find" and "suggest I pay for" using "the local yard" where I would have no relationships, no eyes on and no second opinions.

 

[Concerto]

If you are bringing your boat back, you should consider where you would like to berth it until sold. Many South Coast marinas have limited space despite being the most expensive. Staying just outside the Solent area should still mean the majority of buyers will travel to compared to say the north of Scotland.

Also if you advise what boat and its age, you may get better advice on where to sell compared to Boatshed.

 

[Petronella]

If you are still around for another couple of months you lose nothing by trying to sell her privately in the Caribbean at a fair price. We have friends in Panama that have just sold their boat in super quick time with buyers queuing up. She actually went for more than the asking price. Nothing to lose surely?

 

[Rafiki]

Hi everyone

We are currently in the Caribbean, living aboard for two more months, then wishing to sell the boat either around here or (post-shipping) back in UK. We have paid a deposit on the ship.

It would be more convenient to sell here as when we return to house/work/school etc I don't need the bills and distractions. Equally, I am not sure I want to leave herunattended in Caribeean in event that sale takes months.

Boatshed promises they can introduce me to reasonable insurance...

Any views welcomed, please, on
- sale prices UK vs Caribbean
- references for Boatshed
- advisability of leaving a boat unattended in the hands of a yard 5000 miles away.

What else should I consider? Many thanks indeed.

You also need to consider taxation. if you temporarily exported the boat from the UK, then providing you fill in the right paperwork you can presumably bring it back to the UK without paying VAT. If you sell it in the Caribbean then the new owner may well have to pay VAT if he brought it back to the UK after a couple of years in the caribbean, so he would take that into account in how much he would pay.
From what I've seen on adverts my feeling is prices in the carribean are about 20% lower than the UK.