New or Old (ish)

[Courage65]

Hi, I have the age old question. I am planning towards a year cruising, maybe more. The big issue is: What boat? options I have are to buy an older predominately set up, sturdy 36 footer, eg SouthCoast 36 in Australia. Or to buy an ex charter Croatian yacht (Bavaria, Beneteau etc) do a refit in Europe for ocean crossing and sail it back to Australia, hopefully making a profit at the end. Any ideas/ thoughts/ comments all welcome.

Thanks
BT

[MarkSF]

"hopefully making a profit at the end"

lol

[robert sailor]

Well you are sort of answering your own question. Reading between the lines you seem to have a bias to buying a boat in the Med that you can make money from.
Maybe another question might be...where do you want to go cruising? Are you taking a family with you?
If you are taking a year off there is a huge difference to sailing to someplace in the South or North Pacific (closer to home) and taking it easy compared to heading to the Med buying a boat, having it properly outfitted for ocean travel and then spending your whole year sailing your ass off to get back home. Might be a lot of fun for you and a couple of buddies but my guess is that a family might not be enjoying it so much. That's a lot of sailing to do in one year.

[Courage65]

Thanks for the reply.
No its not a family adventure, its my mid life crisis, awareness of mortality kicking in. I have several mates interested in as crew for some or all of the trip.
So I am gathering info and heading towards my goal. (carefully). My fantastic little Aquarius just is not up for the blue water.
I can buy a more modern (year 2000 on) 36 - 40 ft production yacht in the Med for around $70k (oz) then refit for bluewater add approx $30k, (rigging, life raft, technology, spinnaker, provisions) plus paying GST back in Oz. (avoiding VAT in Eu). Sale price once back in Oz estimated $100 +. Many folk are sailing modern Bavaria's globally. Still a contentious issue on most forums.
In Oz I can get a solid kitted out boat, older for approx $60k, spend another $15, and have the advantage of trialling in my home waters, known repair shops etc. resale about the same as purchase price.
Both options have pitfalls.
Hence I am chasing opinions, anyone having done either of these options?

[Reefmagnet]

There's some excellent local bargains at the moment if you look around. If it were me, I'd much prefer to spend a year doing the loop around Oz and maybe a bit northwards as well then sailing halfway around the world on a new to me boat that may or may not be up to the job. Just remember what happened to those two blokes trying to sail back to Oz from the US recently!

Of course if the AUD keeps dropping like a brides nighty, it might make it worthwhile to buy the boat in Oz and sail it the other direction

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

"hopefully making a profit at the end"

lol

[sailorboy1]

I feel it is always going to be a safer bet to get a boat closer to home. The best answer is to get aboat that someone else recently thought to themselves "I can buy this boat over there and refit it and make money later". That gets you a recent refitted boat that someone else has finally come to realize didn't add much to the selling price.

Forget about any profit.

[crazyoldboatguy]

=== then refit for bluewater add approx $30k, (rigging, life raft, technology, spinnaker, provisions) ===


I need to know where this chandlery is.

[El Pinguino]

I see two choices here.... buy a local boat and join the 'Gunnas'... as in ' I'm gunna take her overseas one day'... or buy foreign and go sailing ( been there...done both...).
If you buy foreign there is a bit of an incentive to get moving and at the end of the day you don't have to import her into Oz, you can just shuffle around the South Pacific until you want to sell her and then , being tax free, you can sell her more cheaply and more easily.
I wouldn't look at making money buying and selling... just hope you don't lose too much....

A good boat shouldn't need too much money spent getting her ready for sea.... and they don't sell for all that much premium over a not so good boat.

MTBW
Ping

[El Pinguino]

Just re read the OP.... I think I would be looking beyond Croatia and ex charter.....

[grantmc]

A few years ago New Zealand journalist Steve Raea bought a boat in the US to take home to NZ under similar circumstances to what you are considering. And sure USA and Eastern Med are very different. But I thought Steve's excellent article about the trials and tribulations of finding and buying a foreign boat, and then getting ready for the trip 'home' might provide some insights.

The attached article is from NZ Trade A Boat Magazine. Steve has a significant cred as a sailor. As a kid I think I recall him occasionally winning against some guy called Russel Coutts in Optis.

[Courage65]

Thanks for the advice (and glad to have given a few chuckles)

I have seen a few Roberts 40' that seem to be touted as decent blue water cruisers, centre cockpit, and I can pick one up here with all mod cons just about with them for around $60k .
Why I like them so far:
3/4 keel.
Sturdy rudder set up
Lots of room,
Not to many fancy frilly things to go wrong
Good water and fuel storage.
Great price.

Not many are running spinnakers, not sure why.

12 months leave without pay is looking darned good.
Woohoo.

[El Pinguino]

My overseas buying experience...
Back in the pre-internet days I chanced upon an ad for a British flag yacht in Phuket. Phoned the Fremantle based broker... he sent me half a dozen photos... A month later I flew up to Thailand... arrived on the Friday.. stayed 3 nights aboard with the owners... went for a sail.. flew back to Australia on the Monday.
Negotiations lasted over a month due to slow comms... I'd told them it was my first and final offer as it was all the money I had... owners went deaf and dumb for a while...found out later broker had told them.. 'your boat has been listed for 8 months...not only is this your only serious offer it is also your only offer... not only is it your only offer he is the first person to have looked at your boat in 8 months' ... offer accepted subject to out of water survey. Flew back... boat was on the hard... transfered funds... sailed a week later for Oz..
That was an interesting delivery voyage ... an extra few weeks would have been well spent sorting her out.

These days with all the on line brokers it should be possible to do a fair bit of filtering before going for a looksee. Always good to know what you want. There are only 7 or 8 examples of the boat I would replace mine with on the market ... all in Europe... easy peasy to inspect all of them within a fortnight and an oz uk plane ticket isn't a big sum of money in the scheme of things. Fly home... get your self sorted re what needs doing then fly back, fix her and sail.

The secret is to know what you want and what its worth to you... just turning up on a broker's doorstep and saying 'I want to buy a boat' isn't going to work...

Things I would seriously look at before heading off would be rigging, sails and engine. The rest is mere detail.