Time to Support Australian Manufacturers

[Sabbatical II]

With the Sydney Boat Show coming up at the end of this week, I thought it a good chance to encourage Aussies to Buy Australian. At first glance I think that there's only Seawind, Jarkan, Bluewater & Halvorsen exhibiting Australian built cruising boats. Yes, the Australian yachts are more expensive than the European production yachts and worth every cent because of their far superior build quality. Have a look at the resale price of a 10 year old Buizan, Bluewater or Halvorsen and you'll see that the Aussie yachts though dearer initially, hold their value. If we want to be able to buy quality custom built yachts in the future the industry needs to be supported now. I have chosen to pay a few extra dollars for the Australian product because I believe in the long run it is far better value (i.e. cheaper) with lower maintenance costs, better resale price and it will actually do what it purports to do without having to be significantly upgraded from standard spec before setting out on a long cruise.

C'mon Aussies!

Greg

[salticrak]

my friend i must disagree with you on the idea that aussie built boats are superior to any international ones.i speak more specifically from the point of view of build quality and standard fittings in fishing and power boats up to six meters.often the aussie boats will have crap plastic fittings,where an american boat of the same price range will have stainless steel.the result is that a lot more american boats are being imported and bought by australians who have imho being paying top dollar for second best.
cheers paul.

[Johnathon123]

Good call Greg, however we need to realise and accept that as long as our govt (on both sides) continue to open the barn doors and allow so many FTA countries to send inferior products to Australia without supporting the local in some manner, whilst continuing to artificially inflate wages they force Australian producers to pay for the same product resulting in massive disparity in costs charged to the end user.

Good on you for supporting a local, and i believe they do good work but the consumer would normally be driven by price.

The govt needs to change its policy to allow the ordinary bloke to implement that which you are obviously fortunate enough to be in a position to do.

I am not trying to be political, it is a bipartisan problem, but soon they will all be gone because no govt has the policy guts to make our gadgets reasonably priced. But thats ok, we have a mining boom, that should last for ever, shouldnt it?

[beneteau-500]

wrong wrong wrong Yes i am a proud Aussie but James you are wrong to blame the govt for inferior products being imported into oz Australia has some of the biggest supplies in the world of natural resources but it chooses to export all these instead of providing a end product to sell to the world market instead it chooses to re import a finished product
and i only have to see this from where i use to live in Gippsland Victoria

[salticrak]

south africa went the same way with gold back in the day they sold it on and craftsmen in italy and india value added.would it not be better to have imported skilled artisans to teach locals ? australia surely can do better than being chinas quarry,or am i missing something here?

[Johnathon123]

Originally Posted by beneteau-500

wrong wrong wrong Yes i am a proud Aussie but James you are wrong to blame the govt for inferior products being imported into oz Australia has some of the biggest supplies in the world of natural resources but it chooses to export all these instead of providing a end product to sell to the world market instead it chooses to re import a finished product
and i only have to see this from where i use to live in Gippsland Victoria

But that is my point, we, do this because of the ridiculous cost of one of the major ingredients, wages!

How ridiculous is it that it is cheaper to ship it half way around the world AND back than make it right here.

[Sabbatical II]

Originally Posted by Johnathon123

But that is my point, we, do this because of the ridiculous cost of one of the major ingredients, wages!

How ridiculous is it that it is cheaper to ship it half way around the world AND back than make it right here.

There's an old saying: "You get what you pay for". If you pay for cheap labour rates, then in the long run you don't save that much money because of the problems associated with cheap labour. Few products deserve government subsidies because it promotes inefficiencies, rather than innovation. What I'm advocating is that Aussies buy the quality Australian products and look at long term value rather than simply the cheap prices of the imported boats. There will be hundreds of boats sold at the show so someone must be buying them. It's just not whole boats though. For example, Selden brings in spars by the hundred to fit to the imported boats. There is a fabulous Aussie spar manufacturer with (my opinion, I know) a superior product, at a competitive price, but how many even know their name? They'll be at the show and you can talk to the guys who will be on the workshop floor making the product. If this company disappears how long will it take to get a mast sent from Europe? (or will it be China ????)

Greg

[MarkJ]

As our dollar goes up the books can begin to ballance in favour of an Aussie factory.

However the cost of shipping a boat from Australia to another market is so high that we will never have an export market. Thats probably why they will never be able to build enough to make them as low cost as the imports.

I sailed in Buizen 48 about 12 years ago for a few months and there was nothing wrong with the boat at all. But it was certainly not a bulid for the average cruiser. Premium would be closest to the truth. Into the mix of Oysters etc.