Aussie Hoping to Live the Mediterranean Dream...

[Amorphous]

G'day all,

My name is Steve, I'm Australian and I stumbled across these forums while looking for information that may help me with my next travel plans.

Two or three years ago I was sitting around with my mates, drinking beer and I said to them, "Before we all turn 30 we should buy a yacht and spend a year sailing around the world. We all earn good money, we'll just throw in $100,000 each and off we go". I was bombarded with practicalities like, "my girl friend doesn't like water", "I've got a mortgage", "we don't know how to sail"... all valid points, so I put the idea to rest.

Two months ago I got back from 9 months of backpacking, mainly Europe, plus a few interesting sidetracks into Morocco, Trans-Siberian Railway through Mongolia to China, and more. I loved my time in Mallorca and unfortunately didn't get a chance to visit any other islands in the Mediterranean.

My next bulk travel will be in the Mediterranean. I have a good level of savings and plan to work hard for the next 12 months so I can afford to buy a yacht in the Mediterranean and comfortably travel for another 12 months without the need to work during my travels.

I've had a quick look around this forum and there seems to be a great wealth of knowledge here. I also see some people already realising this same dream.

There's plenty more to read here before I ask too many questions. Here are a couple on my mind at the moment. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great.

How realistic are the prices I'm seeing on websites like Yachtworld, Is it really possible to buy a 40 something foot yacht, from a country like France or Croatia, built in the 2000's for $100,000 Euro? Or am I missing something...?

EU VAT. A lot of boats on that page are listed as "Tax Not Paid". As a non EU resident is it possible to buy a boat from an EU country have the ownership transferred into my name and not pay VAT? If I am liable for this tax, how much is it?

After living onboard my own yacht in the Med for 12 months is it then possible to bring the Yacht back to Australia? Am I liable for Customs Duty and GST once I hit Aussie water?

Thanks in advance. Hope you can help.

Cheers,
Steve

[Boracay]

Hi Steve and welcome to the Forum.
Compared to Oz prices do look too good to be true, but Turkey's a long way from Oz.
Other members with more experience than me will hopefully comment on what the real prices and condition are.

[Amorphous]

Thanks for that. This gives me more hope of everything going ahead. At least I know I can afford to buy the boat! Now I just need to save so I can take the time off work and keep researching taxes and registrations...

[beneteau-500]

hi Steve from a fellow Aussie , well yacht prices now are pretty good in greece due to the economic climate and greek yacht owners have been hit with taxes and for too long a lot of greek owners have owned there yachts and declared them as charter yachts which allows them virtually pay no costs they pay very low marina fees etc and have not paid vat . but now the greek goverment for the past 12 months have been demanding that they pay the vat and taxes , if you where to buy a yacht in greece you will find that a yacht with no vat paid will have to be paid prior to the completion of sale the the owner and then you will have to have the yacht exported out and flag de registered which costs around 700 euros now plus there is the bill of sale cost's which will amount to around another 700 euros then you will have marina fees which are rising

I have had my yacht in Alimos Athens for past 5 months having a refit and it has cost me 750 euros a month to keep it there .

but be warned if you buy a yacht in greece dont hand over a single penny untill you are sure that every thing is in order by 200 %

Dale

[Amorphous]

Thanks Dale,

Do you have any links with info on the EU VAT?

It's a shame that I will have to pay VAT in EU and then GST+Duty if I ever bring it back to Aus. Euro de-registration and Aus registration fees on top of that sounds reasonable but is another hidden cost.

You mentioned Marina fees. Is there a requirement to wait in port for an extended period of time while reg and tax issues are sorted out? Or is this purely related to your re-fit?

Cheers,
Steve

[beneteau-500]

steve you will find that if it was a ex charter yacht you will find that the owner will have to pay the vat and not you as you are exporting the boat out of the eu although you can keep the yacht in eu for another 18 months if under aussie flag and you can leave port any time you have all the paper work done plus your insurance paper work must be in both greek and english and you will also have to purchase a transit permit there is plenty of info on here in various threads and any threads written by goboating is spot on in regards to eu regs

[boatman61]

Hi... how about this one....lol
www.allatsea.net and open the magazine... scan down to PEAKE Yacht Services and you'll find a 1998 Bavaria46 for just 60K....
Can't beat the Caribean for prices...
Then sail to the Med....

[Amorphous]

beneteau-500 Thanks for the info!

boatman61. Sounds good. A bit too early for me though. I've only been home for less than two months after the last journey. It's a bit early to be setting out again.

Cheers,
Steve

[boatman61]

Hey... No sweat..
Just showing you other places to look that maybe you were not aware of...

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and good luck on following your dream. I'm certain you'll find lots of good advice here.
kind regards,

[DannySt]

Hey Steve,

Lots of cheep boats in Greece, we got ours there for $40k (a 36' greek made apolo dromor) and you can find them for much less. VAT was not included. If you only plan to travel the Med, a boat like that would be great and the VAT is usually by the purchase price.
BTW, if you plan to cruise the med and you don't have much experience sailing Greece is a great place to start, its sheltered, short legs, fun places.

[s/v Moondancer]

Much less red tape and no taxes in most of Caribbean..and just as nice to sail. Lots of reasonable ex-charter boats.
Easy to get back to OZ too. Panama and a little trans-Pacific trip!