Importing a boat from America

[Ant]

Hello I'm new to this 'forum' stuff!

Has anyone out there personally imported a boat from Florida recently?.......what problems did you encounter.......did you get a good deal.......how did you get on with CE & RCD..........so many questions..any replies would be really helpful..
Thanks

 

[mainshiptom]

I have not but would like to import a Mainship 40 or 400 ?

Tom

 

[Ant]

Thanks Tom............I'm looking for someone that we can talk to that will be happy to be featured in a news story piece we are putting together on US boat imports...

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Why are you asking these questions when you're involved with a company thats supposed to know the answers?
Btw, have you any experience of importing bigger boats in the 40-50' range?

 

[tcm]

hm, mission accomplished

looks like a small provisional bite from Deleted User!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: hm, mission accomplished

Umm, no, not really but the apparent savings on European 40-50 footers like £100k+ make it worth at least taking a look at the feasibility of re-importing but I've got a feeling that the costs of shipment + VAT + duties + CE marking + voltage changeover + unknown depreciation might wipe out any saving

 

[tcm]

Re: hm, mission accomplished

worth a look tho and gettim to sort all that. Anyway, wotcha gonna do for spring and early summer hols eh? Florida hol with semi-excuse of boathunting cd be qwite nice AND cheap...

 

[Kevin]

Hi

so really your just doing a bit of free advertising of your company then on the forum

Your prices are very high on your boats IMVHO ( I have imported countless times) especially with current dollar value and the prices of boats over there

ce plating, importing, transport, is easy to do and shouldnt put people off personal imports and is not as expensive as most people think

Florida boat prices, since the storms, are expensive and few decent boats about and they are far from being competitvely priced- not the best deals, at the moment they are expensive compared to places such as NJ, Texas etc where the hours on the boats are normally also less, they are atleast 10% cheaper than Florida plus further deals can be done this time of year

what annoys me, if I can just say, is that by importing yet charging basically full UK prices ( give or take 10%) is just holding up the inflated boat prices here in the UK. Personally importing you can often take the UK price of a particluar boat and get it here for about 60% of the UK value (all in)

I know this is an opinionated post but as you posted on an open forum I feel ok to be more blunt, no offence meant

Kevin

 

[Ant]

Thanks all for your replies.

Just to clarify, no I'm not after free ads, and isn’t the intention of my post!

Yes we are in the business of importing boats. We have been approached by a magazine that wants some independent stories of people that have already imported boats from the States.

They want to write an 'unbiased' piece all about boat imports, and form a view that would be worthwhile to 'jo public' who may be considering doing this.

We can of course supply them with our own success stories, but that's not what they want, and hence my thoughts of trying to find some real life stories on here of people that have previously completed the task of importing and their experiences.

Thanks again and any apologies if any offence caused.

Regards

Ant

 

[gjgm]

Re: Kevin

importing seems to come up as a topic fairly often, and maybe you have already put up an example. But perhaps you could give an example/estimate of how the costs would run, as you have been through the process-transport,CE,vat etc. take a round $100k (sorry if thats too small!), so we can see where we end up ?

 

[Whitelighter]

Re: Kevin

I know this post is a bit old now but:

I imported a 1997 Chris Craft 260 Crowne from Baltimore last summer. I chose to bring it across as I had lived in the states and as it happens new the boat by an indirect means (friend of a friend of a friend etc). I liked the boat as a Lake boat and couldnt find any in the UK. I paid $22500 (about £13000 at the time) for the boat, shipping with Peters cost £1800 + Vat and import tax and VAT came to 19.2%. Total imported cost came to about £17390.00.

I looked arond for someone to do the CE marking (after struggling to find out what it was) and after asking CEProof who quoted £3500.00 found a chap called David Greening who does the CE certs for a few small builders. His website is www.yachtsurvey.biz by the way. This cost £1000.00, and is well worth having done as there have been a couple of cases this year of importers being prosecuted after accidents involving non CE marked boats. Add sundries and the whole boat cost me about £19000.00 including the CE marking. This compares to the cheapest 260 on brokerage going for £29950.00 (less a bit of haggling of course).

As with all small boats it turned out not to be quite big enough so I traded it in January for my lovely shiney new Bayliner 285. If I had not had it CE marked, no broker would have touched it. But as it was CE marked, and it had a certificate of comformaty I was able to trade it to Essex boatyards.

 

[Whitelighter]

Re: Kevin

By the way, if you are still looking for articles for the magasine I would be happy to contribute!!!

 

[Alrob]

Re: Kevin

Kevin
hope you dont mind me asking - how did you find dealing with essex boats as I am interested in trading my rinker 232 for a bayliner 285.

thanks
Alan

 

[MedDreamer]

Re: hm, mission accomplished

Why look as far away as the States, with all the VAT, duty & CE issues? I keep being told, by people who have done it, that Italy is the place to look, good discounts available, no import charges or issues, easier to get too for weekend reccies and, I would have thought, cheaper methods of transport if you want to move the boat.

I've looked at Florida Boats and there idea of significant saving obviously differs to mine.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: hm, mission accomplished

I looked in Italy when I bought my present boat and advertised prices were no less than anywhere else although I dont know if its acceptable to negotiate a big discount. I travel to Italy regularly and I would'nt have a problem buying from there but I dont see any particular advantage. On the other hand, due to the weakness of the dollar (OK its a bit stronger now), advertised prices in the US do seem a lot less but then you have to add VAT, transport and CE marking, etc. I do agree though that the savings advertised by import companies such as Florida Boats dont seem all that attractive. I think I'd be looking at a 25% or more saving to make the hassle worthwile and reflect the lower resale value

 

[ronnameexists]

Hi Kev, so tell us what's involved with importing a boat ... !

Thanks

Ron

 

[Strake]

Re: Kevin

Jez,

You're normally onto these a bit quicker.. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This is about the fifth first time poster in the last few days with the " Oooh, I'm new here, tell me about importing from Florida..etc..etc.."

I don't really care if they advertise or not..I just don't want them to think we're dumb enough not to realise....

 

[Thomas8861]

I appreciate that this is probably a recurring theme but can anyone tell me specifically what the VAT or other tax scenario is likely to be if I buy second hand from USA and bring a boat back to Southampton - either by shipping it or by employing a delivery crew / skipper? Who does one ask? All the best

 

[Whitelighter]

You pay VAT at 17.5% on the invoice value of the boat AND the shipping cost. You also pay import tax of 1.7% on the invoice value of the boat ONLY.

 

[MapisM]

Resale value

Why should it be lower?
I mean, assuming that the initial expense (all in) is significantly lower, surely the loss when reselling will be smaller anyway in absolute terms, which is what really matter at the end of the day.