Buying a New Boat in South Africa

[Nordic cat]

There have been a few questions regarding buying a boat in SA. I have done a bit of research on this and found the South African Boat Builders council,

See: South African Boatbuilders Business Council (SABBC) (S.A.B.B.C.) (ID: 60680) - Maritime Companies, Sites and Services CATALOGUE

This council regulates the local industry and does not accept members until they have and maintain a good tack record, be it towards customers or suppliers.
I'm not sure but I thinkl they need to build more than one boat per year as well.

So no "fly by night" operators get approved. There are certain advantages when a company is approved, like availability of better financing, lower interest rates for export boats etc.

As a matter of interest, the company building Fastcats that is often promoted here, is not a member, but they don't build more than one a year, so that might be the reason.

Hope this information is helpful.

Regards

Alan

[fastcat435]

Hallo Alan you are not very well informed , we are one of the first company,s to be accredited and are full members of the SABBC

SABBEX | South African Boatbuilders Export Council

We presently have 4 FastCat,s under production so the info you spread is not true.
I do not know why you do this but I am sure you do.

Before spreading nonsense just ask me and I will answer you.

Greetings

Gideon

[David M]

Careful here, both of you. This thread will be locked or deleted if it goes in the wrong direction.

Play nice.

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by David M

Careful here, both of you. This thread will be locked or deleted if it goes in the wrong direction.

Play nice.

I thought I was nice about it ?

I was under the impression that lies where not to be told >

Gideon

[David M]

Gideon,
You were nice about it and you made a correction to what appears to be an inaccuracy which of course is a good thing. I think you know though where not to take this thread.

Nordic,
Its fine to bring up what you think are negatives...once. Dwelling on perceived negatives in not acceptable. Not that you were going to do this, this is just a forewarning.

I'm putting to rest what has the potential of becoming a big discussion or argument about a vendors line of boats.

If you want to learn more about the company that Gideon represents then there are plenty of discussions in the archives or you can go online to their website.

[Nordic cat]

That is a completely different organisation!!!! The link you posted is to the export council that is open to all comers.
It is not the Builders council even though the names are similar.

The export council is to help sell boats abroad and a way for you builders to get the DTI to cover travel expenses and help pay for booths at the international boat shows

So Gideon, show us that you are a member of the builders council.

Gideon, you ask why I do this. There have been several questions about building a boat in South Africa, and we have all heard the Bumfuzzle story. and stories about other badly built boats from South Africa.

It is a shame that these bad cases have had negative effects on many really good builders. The Boatbuilding council has been working hard on damage control for the whole industry based on a few bad builders. They want to try and ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again if you use approved builders.

As I am in the process of starting a build in South Africa, I think the subject is relevant.

Sounds like a very sensible thing way to go about it IMO

Apparently they evaluate the different boatbuilding companies, on how they go about their business, quality, keeping delivery times, customer satisfaction etc.

I will get some more specific information tomorrow hopefully.

Reagrds

Alan

P.S. Gideon, in another thread you claimed 7 boats on order, prior to that it was sold out for 2 years with 7 or more boats per year. Now it's 4 boats on order. What is the truth? How many on order to clients, and how many demoboats? If you choose to post this kind of information, and the figures are all over the place, then expect to be challenged.

As you say, ask me and I will answer. So please answer the above 2 questions.

[David M]

That's a fair enough question.

[freetime]

Nordic Cat and Gideon:

Is it much more expensive to build in latvia, estonia or poland? For eu costumers this must be better or.....?

Nordic Cat:
Is it the boat you showed us on this forum you plan to build or do you have even bigger plans? Build it to yourself or for me to?

Gideon:
Tell us one time how many boats you have sold and how many you have on order? Then people don´t ask anymore....
Fastcat 435 hull # 1 (Andreas, settingsail2009)
?
Fastcat 445 hull # ? (Butterfly)
?
?
regards,

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by Nordic cat

That is a completely different organisation!!!! The link you posted is to the export council that is open to all comers.
It is not the Builders council even though the names are similar.

The export council is to help sell boats abroad and a way for you builders to get the DTI to cover travel expenses and help pay for booths at the international boat shows

So Gideon, show us that you are a member of the builders council.

Gideon, you ask why I do this. There have been several questions about building a boat in South Africa, and we have all heard the Bumfuzzle story. and stories about other badly built boats from South Africa.

It is a shame that these bad cases have had negative effects on many really good builders. The Boatbuilding council has been working hard on damage control for the whole industry based on a few bad builders. They want to try and ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again if you use approved builders.

As I am in the process of starting a build in South Africa, I think the subject is relevant.

Sounds like a very sensible thing way to go about it IMO

Apparently they evaluate the different boatbuilding companies, on how they go about their business, quality, keeping delivery times, customer satisfaction etc.

I will get some more specific information tomorrow hopefully.

Reagrds

Alan

P.S. Gideon, in another thread you claimed 7 boats on order, prior to that it was sold out for 2 years with 7 or more boats per year. Now it's 4 boats on order. What is the truth? How many on order to clients, and how many demoboats? If you choose to post this kind of information, and the figures are all over the place, then expect to be challenged.

As you say, ask me and I will answer. So please answer the above 2 questions.

Hallo Alan

there is only one boat builders organization that I am aware of and it only accepts members that are investigated , building processes need to be in order finance needs to be in order and the company needs to be impeccable in handling customers and customers complaints.
You have difficulty reading I think ! we presently have 4 boats under production and are sold out up to hull number 19 excluding company boats.
Yes we are still sold out for almost 2 years , I hope to bring that back to 18 months by increasing production but we sell only quality so it will take time .

Please get me a link to your boat builders counsel since the link you posted earlier doers not work at all !!!

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by freetime

Nordic Cat and Gideon:

Is it much more expensive to build in latvia, estonia or poland? For eu costumers this must be better or.....?

Nordic Cat:
Is it the boat you showed us on this forum you plan to build or do you have even bigger plans? Build it to yourself or for me to?

Gideon:
Tell us one time how many boats you have sold and how many you have on order? Then people don´t ask anymore....
Fastcat 435 hull # 1 (Andreas, settingsail2009)
?
Fastcat 445 hull # ? (Butterfly)
?
?
regards,

Hallo Freetime

the next available slot will be ready in the middle of 2010 and the slot number is 20 so if you hurry !!!

[freetime]

Originally Posted by fastcat435

Hallo Freetime

the next available slot will be ready in the middle of 2010 and the slot number is 20 so if you hurry !!!

Is it ok if i send you the money after the delivery?

(i had to do little good business before i can sign for one)

[Nordic cat]

Originally Posted by freetime

Poland produces about 40% of all boats manufactured in the EU. Primarily smaller motor and sail boats bu also several high end luxury boats in polyester as well as aluminium.

Latvia does have a couple of multihull builders, and Estonia builds some Arkona (monos) probably others as well.

I did look at Poland, but didn't find a builder I would trust with high-end, lightweight building, and using infusion. But they do have a reasonable supplier infrastructure in place.

Latvia and Estonia: I found communication was also difficult here (same as Poland), as well as the lack of a good supplier base and build method knowledge.

The only advantage of building there would be distance to you, as there would be no difference in the VAT compared to a SA built boat.

Building a high end boat that needs to be kept light is a challenge at the best of times, but there are several builders in SA who have done this and do it on a regular basis.
Gunboat also placed their factory there after the first couple of boats were built in another yard there.

Yes it is the bi-rig 49 ft cat i plan to build there. Sure we can build one for you If you can make a fast decision, we can build them consecutively, I'm sure we could both save some money, buying 2 of everything and building them one after the other would save alot of build time. Should I ask the yard if they have an available build slot?

I'm signing the contract this week......

Actually I have recieved a couple of pretty serious requests, so maybe there will be more than one of these boats in the future, would be great.

Regards

Alan

[fastcat435]

Originally Posted by freetime

Is it ok if i send you the money after the delivery?

(i had to do little good business before i can sign for one)

After delivery of the contract will be fine

Greetings

Gideon

[Nordic cat]

[quote=fastcat435;200590]

we presently have 4 boats under production and are sold out up to hull number 19 excluding company boats.
Yes we are still sold out for almost 2 years , I hope to bring that back to 18 months by increasing production but we sell only quality so it will take time .

If I understand this correctly, you have orders for 15 Fastcats to be delivered between now and the middle of 2010? So 15 boats in less than 24 months, that is one every 7 weeks on average. This is excluding demo/test boats like the one you are doing in Basalt fibre that you posted on another thread.

Can you confirm this?

Looking forward to hear about the launchings, the next one must be due quite soon.

Hopefully they won't be as delayed and fraught with problems as these poor people have had to go through: of Butterfly and Barnacle


regards

Alan

[freetime]

Originally Posted by Nordic cat

Yes it is the bi-rig 49 ft cat i plan to build there. Sure we can build one for you If you can make a fast decision, we can build them consecutively, I'm sure we could both save some money, buying 2 of everything and building them one after the other would save alot of build time. Should I ask the yard if they have an available build slot?

I'm signing the contract this week......

Actually I have recieved a couple of pretty serious requests, so maybe there will be more than one of these boats in the future, would be great.

Regards

Alan

I had to read your thread about it again! I like the bi-rig and your ideas...
And then it´s atleast 2 bi-rig catamaran builders on this forum.


(I can´t buy it right now but later?)