Buying a yacht in the USA

[yachtie8]

Only a brief look at any brokerage site for yachts in the USA shows how much cheaper yachts are in the USA regardless of the exchange rate.
Has anybody any experience of importing a yacht from the USA- what are the problems difficulties? Apart from the fact the yacht is 3000 miles away!
I would be importing to Jersey so VAT would not need to be payed.

 

[Lizzie_B]

Depends which state your buying in. Have done it twice and have friend who has done it. If you would like to PM me happy to chat. Don't know what the rules for Jersey are, but can't be any more prohibitive than the EU. You would also be exempt RCD compliance as well as VAT.

 

[asj1]

If you are exempt from RCD compliance and VAT then it strikes me that it's only the transport you need to be concerned about. However I suppose taht when you came to sell in due course the lacck of RCD compliance would be an issue unless sold to another Non-EU purchaser.
Shipping costs are bound to be high which makes it less attractive the smaller and cheaper them boat is

 

[Blueboatman]

At the risk of stating the obvious,just make sure you are comparing 'like for like'when viewing USA spec yachts-..The engines,sails and hardware vary a lot. There are also many US marques that produce quite large 'coastal' vessels-ie the manufacturers can price 'low',fully fully aware that the boats will be very comfortable but rarely exposed to ocean sailing.
Then there are eg Pacific Seacraft,Cabo Rico and Island Packet etc which really are very good indeed.

 

[Freebee]

A search will provide all your answers.

 

[kandoma]

shipping cost are not high if done correct. Ask around for a shipping line, transporting uneven things, like trucks. If you just go to a large company like P&O, they will charge you the equivalent of the number of containers they miss. At $4000 per container across the atlantic, that summs up to at least $16 k. Thats, where the $20k you may have heard, is comming from ! An "uneven things" shipping company will quote you $ per m3. 7 years ago it was at +- $50 per m3 worldwide. Add at least $2000 for the stevendors (sp?).

As an example, the japanese company, importing yachts from Northshore to Japan paid -+ $5000 for UK - Kobe. (excluding loading/unloading )

When I unloaded at Barry from Geest Bay, I did not pay anything and the ship crew even stepped the mast with the anchor windlass for free.

The (missing) CE branding may stop you from buiing US.

Peter

 

[pbs]

I bought one in Florida this spring and it was a fairly straightforward process. You need to get out of the USA pretty quickly if you want to avoid local sales tax (6% in Florida), and you'll almost certainly need to get it deregistered there and reregistered in the UK before you leave for insurance purposes.

It's certainly cheaper over there but of course you'll have to factor in the time it takes to find one and how to get it home. The cheapest way is to sail it back yourself, which I did this July, dodging hurricanes for the first half of the trip...

Do make sure you have all the documentation with you - France was my first landfall after Florida and I was boarded by French customs outside Brest. They proved to be extremely thorough and spent 3 hours going through all the paperwork and checking every nook and cranny for drugs and illegal immigrants, but were very friendly and professional. The lack of a VAT certificate was no problem and they just reminded me to get it when I got home to the UK.

I have yet to tackle the RCD issue but was advised by the MCA that it's probably not worth worrying about as a private importer of a second-hand boat for my own use.

Whether or not it's worth it financially depends on many factors, all I can say is that it was a fantastic experience and I've ended up with the boat of my dreams for a lot less than it would have cost over here.

 

[Sailfree]

Interested in your experience and some questions come to mind

Setting aside the resale/RCD issues what do you think you have saved.

Having sailed many times to France and never yet been boarded do you think they were waiting for you knowing where you had come from?

I note you are from Poole . We are members of Parkstone YC where will you be keeping the boat?

 

[pbs]

[ QUOTE ]
Interested in your experience and some questions come to mind


[/ QUOTE ]
It's very hard to say how much I've saved as I haven't had the boat valued over here yet, but I would think it's more than enough to have paid for the 9 months I took off work to do it. However the main point, and my reason for doing it, is that according to my research larger yachts are proportionally cheaper in the USA than here, so I've traded up from a 34-footer to a 50-footer which I certainly couldn't have done by buying in the UK.

Maybe it's something to do with land being cheaper there, so mooring fees are much less and people don't worry so much about having bigger boats.

As for my visit from the French customs, I doubt they were looking for me in particular. I'd already been in France for two weeks after crossing the Atlantic, so I suspect it was just a random check. In eight years of sailing my previous boat to France I was never boarded by either French or UK customs, so I must admit it's actually quite nice to see that they are doing their job, and very thoroughly too.

Now that I'm back in Poole the boat is out of the water for the winter, and will probably be on a swinging mooring somewhere in the harbour next year as marinas are prohibitively expensive over here. Parkstone YC would be great but I've heard the waiting list for marina berths is horrendous (someone said 8-10 years!), do you know if they have any swinging moorings?

If you're interested in my trip I kept a blog and took lots of pictures which you can see on my website:

www.monkeysausage.com