importing from croatia?

contessaman

contessaman

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The idea seems simple. I'm looking at an ex charter yacht for sale in croatia. PSP will load it onto a ship in split and off load it at southampton for £10K leaving the mast up. VAT will obviously have to be paid on whatever I paid for it.

What else is there to think of? what of RCA and de-registering etc? has anyone out there done it? can anyone give me a dummies guide to importing a yacht?

finally, anybody got their fingers burned doing this...?

thanks in advance
 
contessaman said:
The idea seems simple. I'm looking at an ex charter yacht for sale in croatia. PSP will load it onto a ship in split and off load it at southampton for £10K leaving the mast up. VAT will obviously have to be paid on whatever I paid for it.

What else is there to think of? what of RCA and de-registering etc? has anyone out there done it? can anyone give me a dummies guide to importing a yacht?

finally, anybody got their fingers burned doing this...?

thanks in advance
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VAT on the costs incurred getting it here as well, so 17.5% of £10k and also on the insurance and agents costs!!
Stu
 
Go on the RYA site and you will get chapter and verse on importing a yacht from outside the EU. In addition to VAT you will also need a CE mark if it is a modern boat. Although all recent European boats will normally meet the requirements for a CE mark they will not necessarily have one because the manufacturers do not provide the declaration for a yacht exported outside the EU.

I would look very carefully at the economics. £10k shipping +VAT on the boat and all costs is likely to make the boat uncompetitive compared with buying an EU spec boat in the UK. The best place to buy ex charter yachts is probably Greece as they will be CE marked and paying VAT in Greece is straightforward (even if the rate at 21% is higher than in the UK). From my experience it is not normally viable to buy a boat there and return to the UK as the on costs wipe out any savings in initial purchase price. BTW there are much cheaper ways of shipping back to the UK than you have been quoted.

It is, of course attractive to buy a yacht in Croatia if you intend keeping it outside the EU, although some of the asking prices I have seen there are unrealistic compared with a VAT paid and CE marked UK/EU boat.

I expect there is a simple process for de-registering in Croatia, but you may have to go through a lawyer. It cost me 800 Euros to de-register my boat in Greece when I took it off the Greek charter register. Re-registering in UK is simple if you use the SSR.

I am in the process of bringing my ex-charter yacht back from Greece to UK, so feel free to PM me if you want any more information or advice.
 
skipper_stu said:
When you import, you pay duty and then vat on the TOTAL costs, including shipping, agents fees, shipping insurance etc, you actually pay vat on the duty!
Stu
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oh s@*t!
thats awful. tax on tax!
Im very much of the frame of mind that it probably won't end up being much cheaper. Its as much to do with availability as costing. The boat I want is an elan 40. there are 2 in the uk at the moment, but it will be next year by the time i've sold my current boat and raised sufficient funds, so they will doubtless be sold. There always seems to be a handful for sale in croatia, hence my exploring the viability of it all.
they seem to go for about £90K here. about £60k in croatia. so what, 10k for shipping = 70k plus VAT = 84K. plus flying out there to view it, surveys, faff etc? in all, probably at least as expensive. and thats for a charter boat thats probably been hammered...

Re: what somebody said on here about RCA or CE marking im pretty sure the elan will be okay on that front.

Its a shame none of the brokers here will take part ex on my current boat becuase I could just get a marine mortgage for the rest. hey ho.
 
contessaman said:
Re: what somebody said on here about RCA or CE marking im pretty sure the elan will be okay on that front.

Its a shame none of the brokers here will take part ex on my current boat becuase I could just get a marine mortgage for the rest. hey ho.
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The Elan will almost certainly comply, however it may not have a certificate issued by the builder. They tend not to issue certificates for non-EU boats to prevent people buying them and importing into the EU! However, they may be co-operative in providing the necessary information to enable you to get a CE mark. RYA and CE Proof can advise on this subject.

Reason brokers won't take your boat in part exchange is simple. By definition, brokers are agents for owners so generally they don't own the boats they are offering (unlike, say, second hand car dealers. Sometimes the importers will take part exchanges against new boats if they have a ready market for off loading your old one.
 
Tranona said:
The Elan will almost certainly comply, however it may not have a certificate issued by the builder. They tend not to issue certificates for non-EU boats to prevent people buying them and importing into the EU! However, they may be co-operative in providing the necessary information to enable you to get a CE mark. RYA and CE Proof can advise on this subject.

Reason brokers won't take your boat in part exchange is simple. By definition, brokers are agents for owners so generally they don't own the boats they are offering (unlike, say, second hand car dealers. Sometimes the importers will take part exchanges against new boats if they have a ready market for off loading your old one.
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Right. I think they can do it if I buy a new boat but not against a second hand one. Have been reading the stuff on the RYA website, thanks for that. Good info. I cant believe its so complicated! its a secondhand plastic boat, I couldn't care less if it had a CE mark but somebody obviously does.
Did you have to contend with all that when you bought your boat from greece or was it already CE marked as it was in the EU?
 
contessaman said:
Right. I think they can do it if I buy a new boat but not against a second hand one. Have been reading the stuff on the RYA website, thanks for that. Good info. I cant believe its so complicated! its a secondhand plastic boat, I couldn't care less if it had a CE mark but somebody obviously does.
Did you have to contend with all that when you bought your boat from greece or was it already CE marked as it was in the EU?
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Just to confuse even more, it is not illegal to use a non-CE marked boat in EU, but to "put it on the market" ie sell it. Then it is a criminal offence! However, enforcement is by Trading Standards so unlikely to be top of their agenda. But with a boat worth £100k in UK definitely good to have everything in order otherwise buyers will be suspicious.

I bought my boat in 2001 under a charter management scheme from the Bavaria dealer in Greece. It was formally registered in their name and "owned" by their operating company. At the end of the contract formal ownership was transferred to me and I paid VAT on the contract value. I have the original EU CE declaration from Bavaria, formal transfer documents from the Greek Registry and a VAT receipt so all Honky Dory.

If you buy direct from a Greek charter company you should get the same documents. However, you are unlikely to get an Elan as they are not used by any charter co I know of. But you will get a good choice of Bennies, Jennies, Bavs and Dufours. As I said, not normally economic to buy and ship to UK, partly because of the exchange rate, but also the shipping costs - £6-8k depending on how you go about it. On the other hand if you want a Med spec boat for use out there, there is a lot going for it. Much cheaper than buying a N European boat, kitting out for Med use and getting it out there - unless the getting out bit is a key part of the project.
 
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