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Old 15-11-2011, 08:46   #1
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pirate Buying a Boat in the US

Hi everybody

Me and a group of friends have been planning a year long sailing trip in the Pacific for some time now. As we are planning to set sail in December 2012 things are getting close enough to start some more serious research. I have a load of questions and hope to get some answers here.

1. We are based in Norway and do not know the American pre owned market. But through people who have imported pre-owned sailing boats from the US to Norway we have been told that pre-owned listing prices on line are usually a lot higher than the actual selling price of the Boats. Is this accurate?

2. We are fairly flexible as to where to buy in the US. Where in the US do you find the best buying market for pre owned sailingboats?

3. We are planning on ending the trip in Austrailia and selling the boat after the year is up. Our intention is not making money of the boat but hopefully not losing much of it either. Is that realistic? And in that respect what kind of boat would be easiest to sell in AUS?

4. As we dont know the market well enough to operate alone we plan on establishing contact with a broker before hand and have some prospects to look at before we cross the pond. We are planning to have a month in the US for the buying process is this enough?

5. How much will it cost to use a Broker and surveyer in the buying process?

I have a lot more questions but this will have to do for now. Feel free to give your thoughts on stuff I havent dealt with if you think it might be relevant.

We are thinking of a boat with 8-10 berths Probably 50' ish a cat might be nice but seems like a very limited selection.
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Old 15-11-2011, 09:23   #2
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Re: Buying a Boat in the US

Both the US west coast and east coast have thriving boat markets. My impression is that prices on the east coast can be a bit lower. But the west coast is a bit handier for the pacific, presumably?

I would focus on finding a suitable boat, and aiming to pay a reasonable price. Asking prices vary wildly from bargain to unrealistic.

On question 5, the seller pays the broker's fees. You would have to pay for haulout and the surveyor. Here on the west coast, that would be $10 a foot for the haulout and the same for the surveyor.

My question is, where are you registering the boat? As a foreign citizen you can't "document" the boat in the US which is a way of registering it with the coastguard. The alternative is state registration. I believe you need a US driving license to do that. Buying a state registered boat and transferring it to yourself is straightforward and quick. Buying a documented boat and transferring it to state registration is not, neither is the reverse.

The alternative is to place it under a Norwegian flag. I know nothing about doing this
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Old 15-11-2011, 10:11   #3
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Re: Buying a Boat in the US

Thanks for the input.

As I understand it, it doesnt seem to be a big problem registering a boat under Norwegian flag as long as you can document length of between 7 and 15 meters (manufacurers papers is enough) the only problem might be that it needs to be CE- documented. It will run us approx $ 480.
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Old 15-11-2011, 10:16   #4
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Re: Buying a Boat in the US

1. Cash is king. Make an offer. A 50' cat will cost you at least $300,000. Probably alot more. Plan for it.
2. So. Fla has more boats than just about anywhere. Ft. Lauderdale is the center of the Catamaran universe. Winter is high seson for boating so the best deals might be in the summer hurricane season. Conversely winter is low season in the northeast US so good deals might be found then and there.
3. http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...alia-3346.html Seems like a hassle to me. You might want to look at panamanian registration. No idea how that would affect OZ.
4. & 5. The biggest cat dealers in the world are both in Ft. Lauderdale.
Catamarans for Sale
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Even if you use a different broker than the listing broker the sales commision which is paid out of the sellers proceeds will be split between the 2 brokers. Technically you don't pay a thing. You may be able to get a better deal on a boat that isn't listed because there won't be a 10% commission off the top. That's a maybe not a hard rule. Good Luck Bob
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Old 15-11-2011, 10:30   #5
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Re: Buying a Boat in the US

Thanks

We wont be buying a 50' cat, the Boat needs to have at least 8 berths prefreably 10. So a mono-hull probably needs to be 45-50'. But we could probably get more space in a shorter cat. Although it seems you just get a lot more toilets in a 40 ish cat compared to a standard Lagoon 37 or whatnot. Why you want a head pr cabin beats me but seems to be the layout of a lot of the boats I've looked at.

We would like to keep the boat expences around 150-200K so a cat might be out of the question?
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Old 15-11-2011, 11:36   #6
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Re: Buying a Boat in the US

More than 50% of all cats are built for charter and that's why they have 4 heads. Everyone one wants their own bathroom when they're on vacation, right? 4 heads might not be a bad thing if you have 10 people on board. You can get a smaller cat for $200k if you look hard. Lots of Leopards, Lagoons, FPs and others come out of charter every year. Some are good and some are not so good. Good luck BOB
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