Rossynant
Well-Known Member
There is no requirement for beacon to be water activated - on some wet boats it better not be 
EPIRBS Why are they half UK price in Australia?
- Thread starter Norman_E
- Start date
pvb
Well-Known Member
So? The point is that water-activated EPIRBs are available on the Australian market, contrary to the claim made earlier.
pvb
Well-Known Member
There is no requirement for beacon to be water activated - on some wet boats it better not be
You have to read the specs carefully. Most of the "water activated" ones are only activated if you've first manually removed them from their storage brackets.
JONDAVIS
Well-Known Member
Yes I believe we are being ripped of in this country especially anything with MARINE IN ITS DESCRIPTION!I had purchased my Epirb while in american and had it reprogramed by Ocean Safety it has then been regitered at Falmouth and Falmouth would contact rescue service that is when I replace battery after five years (thats also another B----y Rip off!
wotayottie
Well-Known Member
If you were selling an item costing £350 from your shop would you be happy with a gross margin of less than £100? I wouldnt.
Look at Fortress anchors and you will see the same thing.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Two reasons for the low price. First the market in OZ is vastly bigger than the tiny leisure market in UK. Second it is compulsory to fit one on an offshore boat and very common for land users who go outside VHH range. So not surprising that competition keeps the prices down.
Rossynant
Well-Known Member
Yes, and this denies the idea really. Category I Epirb must be self-deploying, with hydrostatic release. Such is required for offshore vessels... but on yachts only if commercial.
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John the kiwi
Well-Known Member
I too have been looking at prices from a New Zealand perspective
Fastfind PLB from USA NZ$234
Cheapest shop price in NZ for same item $699 !!!!
Its not just the UK that gets ripped off.
I too have been looking at Australian units.
At least one australian manufactured recodes for NZ. Maybe they would recode for the UK if there was a demand and you asked them.
Fastfind PLB from USA NZ$234
Cheapest shop price in NZ for same item $699 !!!!
Its not just the UK that gets ripped off.
I too have been looking at Australian units.
At least one australian manufactured recodes for NZ. Maybe they would recode for the UK if there was a demand and you asked them.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
Unlikely to code for another country. That is what they have agents for. Selling direct would undermine the agent. Recoding is no big deal. I had mine changed from Greece to UK including test for around 50 pounds.b
junkrig
New Member
Oh Hoorah, there is one thing that is cheaper in Australia!! makes a nice change.....check out the difference in prices on AIS, VHF, chartplotters etc etc.
You wont get much if any change from $1000 for the simplest AIS here.
As said above they were made compulsory a couple of years ago, so im guessing they arent selling many now (you had to wait 3 or 4 months on retailers waiting lists when they brought in the new regulation), so the price comes down.
https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?cat=144&item=74530&intAbsolutePage=1
Not a bad deal!
BTW optional water activated ones are three times that price, & ones with an optional integrated GPS are also more expensive than the basic unit,
cheers
ffiill
Well-Known Member
Must be one of the few things that are cheap in Australia-thats why my daughter who lives in Queensland has been buying baby stuff from Tesco.com et al with free delivery to Oz over £50.
Then there was the saga of her boyfriends lycra running shorts-designer labeled by an Oz firm;made in Sri Lanka and sold by John Lewis in the UK for £30 a pair or a snip at £60 if you bought them in Oz?
One of the best deals for me is if I buy tax free from the US;send it to my daughter who has a duty free/sales tax free import allowance of almost £1000;then bring it back with me to UK!
Then there was the saga of her boyfriends lycra running shorts-designer labeled by an Oz firm;made in Sri Lanka and sold by John Lewis in the UK for £30 a pair or a snip at £60 if you bought them in Oz?
One of the best deals for me is if I buy tax free from the US;send it to my daughter who has a duty free/sales tax free import allowance of almost £1000;then bring it back with me to UK!
oldsaltoz
Well-Known Member
G'day Tranona,
I'm confused, here is Oz there are only 22 million people in total, I think that must be close to the population of London alone.
You had 53,013,000 in 2011, so based on say 1% of people who sail I would imagine the UK has a lot more people involved is sailing.
I have spent most of my life sailing and spent only a fraction of that living in or near any of the state capital cities, The boat has plotter, radar, EPIRB (water activated) and I have a GPS in the car, used mostly for my business to find addresses of clients and distance, so I can advise them of a reasonable ETA, some are hundreds of Km away.
I only know 2 people who use a personal hand held GPS, they do a lot of bush walking and metal detecting. so not as many as you might think in total use hand held devices.
Good luck and fair winds.
Tranona
Well-Known Member
G'day Tranona,
I'm confused, here is Oz there are only 22 million people in total, I think that must be close to the population of London alone.
You had 53,013,000 in 2011, so based on say 1% of people who sail I would imagine the UK has a lot more people involved is sailing.
I have spent most of my life sailing and spent only a fraction of that living in or near any of the state capital cities, The boat has plotter, radar, EPIRB (water activated) and I have a GPS in the car, used mostly for my business to find addresses of clients and distance, so I can advise them of a reasonable ETA, some are hundreds of Km away.
I only know 2 people who use a personal hand held GPS, they do a lot of bush walking and metal detecting. so not as many as you might think in total use hand held devices.
Good luck and fair winds.
Despite what you might think very few yachts in UK or Europe have EPIRBs because few sail out of VHF range. Most that are fitted to boats where it is compulsory such as charter boats. Prices are therefore kept high.
If you look at the pattern of activations, the biggest single category is land based mostly in Australia, then light aircraft, then marine, of which leisure is very small and mostly oceanic rather than coastal. The number of activations in European coastal waters is tiny, reflecting the importance of VHF communications.
So sales to leisure users are constrained by the high price for little real benefit. However PLBs are getting popular because they do something that VHF can't, and they are relatively cheap.
pathfinderstu
Well-Known Member
Simple answer to all this they are more expensive in the uk as a brit is worth twice as much as an aussie..basic logic
nimbusgb
Well-Known Member
Which helps to explain the continued rise of online shopping.
It's tough for an ever budget pressured customer base to think '30% of this price is just so I can see it on a shelf' ( I'm not justifying that thought process just commenting on it )
John the kiwi
Well-Known Member
Simple answer to all this they are more expensive in the uk as a brit is worth twice as much as an aussie..basic logic
Looking for a witty and insightful response I hit google. (After all in NZ we figure that a dead pom is worth 2 dead aussies, according to standard bounty hunter scales anyway!
) Average household net worth UK 2009 = 204,000squids or whatever you call them while australia has Average household net worth=477,000 squids converted.
So it would seem that an Australian is worth 2 and a bit times a pom.
NZ average houshold net worth is a dismal 193,000 squids.(but it is the best country in the world as far as we know.
)Could explain why more Kiwis go to Australia to live and work than VV.
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alant
Well-Known Member
Presumably, if your in the water off Oz, its probably more likely that the local aquatic wildlife might find you first.
PS
Are the Oz ones specifically for marine use, or also outback?
alant
Well-Known Member
There is no requirement for beacon to be water activated - on some wet boats it better not be
When I last spoke to McMurdo on a stand at SIBS, about their PLB's, they said that the regulations stated, they were not allowed to have them 'water activated', had to be manual.
pathfinderstu
Well-Known Member
Agreed !!
Also a lot of shop retailers would be happy to make that kind of mark up on their goods,
this chap must be in the chandlery trade. !
dingo
New Member
Presumably, if your in the water off Oz, its probably more likely that the local aquatic wildlife might find you first.
PS
Are the Oz ones specifically for marine use, or also outback?
I recently bought an Australian EPIRB for a ferry from Spain to Oz on a boat with UK (SSR) reg.
As more than half the voyage is in the Indian Ocean (in the Australian area of responsibility for SAR) I thought it would make more sense to have an EPIRB with an Australian Hex ID.
Here's what transpired when I tried to register it:
From the Australian Authority:
I acknowledge receipt of your 406 MHz Distress Beacon Registration form received at the Australian Distress Beacon Register recently. I note that although you are not an Australian resident you have purchased a beacon coded with the Australian country code. I recommend that your beacon be reprogrammed with the country code of your residence. The beacon should then be registered with your National SAR Authority.
And from the UK Authority:
I have decoded the Hex ID specified on your registration form, and it shows this beacon to be coded for registration in Australia (Country MID code of 503). We cannot register beacons that do not have a UK Country MID Code. The country MID code indicates the country of registration of the beacon.
We are therefore unable to register your beacon.
I have yet to get an email response from the Australians, though when speaking with one of their representatives at the last Sydney Boat Show, he could see no reason why they should not register it.
I suspect it remains filed in the too-hard basket.....