Buying in US to Sail in Australia

[our doug]

It seems they best value right now is to buy in America and sail to Australia.
I'm looking to visit Florida and find a 38-40' and sail back to Oz ( with a qualified skipper)
I would appreciate pointers on where to look for answer to the next few questions.
If I buy in USA. and export to Oz what is US tax position? do I pay sales tax in US and claim refund while I am there?Is it best to ask a broker there?
Any recommendations for surveyors Florida?
Any ideas on how much below advertised price boats are actually selling for?
web site to find skipper/crew for that area
Are there any pitfalls to look out for doing this??

[Jamel]

Originally Posted by our doug

It seems they best value right now is to buy in America and sail to Australia.
I'm looking to visit Florida and find a 38-40' and sail back to Oz ( with a qualified skipper)
I would appreciate pointers on where to look for answer to the next few questions.
If I buy in USA. and export to Oz what is US tax position? do I pay sales tax in US and claim refund while I am there?Is it best to ask a broker there?
Any recommendations for surveyors Florida?
Any ideas on how much below advertised price boats are actually selling for?
web site to find skipper/crew for that area
Are there any pitfalls to look out for doing this??

Let me point you to the search button above, click and type in...Importing a yacht into Australia you will have about 55 pages to sift through. Go for it!

[savoir]

There are also plenty of threads about US taxes on boats. They are state based and the states are all different. The basic idea is that you will be given time after purchase to get the boat out of the state or be taxed.

Hit the search button and go for it.

[our doug]

Yes. I have seen a few boats which appeal, I guess I will check on availability of a skipper and the weather for sailing from America to Oz around November, any thoughts?

[Jamel]

Originally Posted by our doug

Yes. I have seen a few boats which appeal, I guess I will check on availability of a skipper and the weather for sailing from America to Oz around November, any thoughts?

Also consider west coast of US and save yourself the expense of Panama transit and the time it takes!

[our doug]

Yes, the west coast is a definite option, I see plenty fir sale in CA, and this may be the best place to start. Do you think the actual selling prices are much different to the asking price at this time?

[Boracay]

I took the opportunity to walk round some of (its a huge place) Marina Del Rey a year or so ago. I also had a look round some of the marine areas near San Francisco.

I don't know if you've been there, but what struck me was just how hard it would be to buy a boat quickly. The brokers were all in different places, and so far apart it just about needed a jumbo jet to get from one to the other.

I thought there would be some sort of effort to push boats for sale, but honestly, on first impressions the Aussie brokers I've seen would have more stock and work harder. Maybe if you walked in offering twice their usual fee they might look up?

I probably walked past over a thousand boats and I would have rated fewer than half a dozed of those that I could see as real sail away cruising boats.

The few brokers listings that I saw looked expensive. There was no sign of any desperation to sell. I don't recall seeing a "for sale" sign on a single boat.

From what I saw, going to California to buy a boat without doing some very serious homework could be an expensive, tiring, frustrating exercise in futility.

So, before you even think about going do your home work. Yachtworld is a good start, but the local magazine classifieds looked interesting. Some of them are online.

[VirtualVagabond]

Originally Posted by Boracay

I took the opportunity to walk round some of (its a huge place) Marina Del Rey a year or so ago. I also had a look round some of the marine areas near San Francisco.

I don't know if you've been there, but what struck me was just how hard it would be to buy a boat quickly. The brokers were all in different places, and so far apart it just about needed a jumbo jet to get from one to the other.

I thought there would be some sort of effort to push boats for sale, but honestly, on first impressions the Aussie brokers I've seen would have more stock and work harder. Maybe if you walked in offering twice their usual fee they might look up?

I probably walked past over a thousand boats and I would have rated fewer than half a dozed of those that I could see as real sail away cruising boats.

The few brokers listings that I saw looked expensive. There was no sign of any desperation to sell. I don't recall seeing a "for sale" sign on a single boat.

From what I saw, going to California to buy a boat without doing some very serious homework could be an expensive, tiring, frustrating exercise in futility.

So, before you even think about going do your home work. Yachtworld is a good start, but the local magazine classifieds looked interesting. Some of them are online.

A very useful perspective. Thanks

[Jamel]

Originally Posted by Boracay

I took the opportunity to walk round some of (its a huge place) Marina Del Rey a year or so ago. I also had a look round some of the marine areas near San Francisco.

I don't know if you've been there, but what struck me was just how hard it would be to buy a boat quickly. The brokers were all in different places, and so far apart it just about needed a jumbo jet to get from one to the other.

I thought there would be some sort of effort to push boats for sale, but honestly, on first impressions the Aussie brokers I've seen would have more stock and work harder. Maybe if you walked in offering twice their usual fee they might look up?

I probably walked past over a thousand boats and I would have rated fewer than half a dozed of those that I could see as real sail away cruising boats.

The few brokers listings that I saw looked expensive. There was no sign of any desperation to sell. I don't recall seeing a "for sale" sign on a single boat.

From what I saw, going to California to buy a boat without doing some very serious homework could be an expensive, tiring, frustrating exercise in futility.

So, before you even think about going do your home work. Yachtworld is a good start, but the local magazine classifieds looked interesting. Some of them are online.

Refering to my much thumbed Cruising Helmsman dated Sept 08, and a great article by John Champion re buying overseas i.e. US West Coast, where he had bought a Hunter 40.( the CH had been inundated by readers to get John to write an article on Importing a yacht from US)
John gave a comprehensive rundown of the proceedures and way to go about things. The first was "Do your homework before you go"! I quote John " Simply jumping on a plane without a definite model of vessel would be folly. Know what you want, compile a shortlist of vessels and stick to it"!

My persnal experience on my 5 day visit was entirely positive, the Catalina 42 I bought in Marina Del Rey from Catalina Yacht Anchorage was excellent, even better than the internet photos and the after sales support from the broker has been and still is tremendous....and goes well beyond a typical broker selling a boat in my opinion! They have supervised the haulout and yard work to prepare the boat for sailing back to Australia...all in my absence. I fly back to LA on 19th Oct to begin the long enjoyable 11 month cruise home!

[Aussie_Sequoia]

I knew pretty much what I wanted before flying here... but in the end I saw more (and different) designs and makes that appealed to me. The shear number of boats for sale make it relatively easy to just stay in one place (say... San Fransico Bay Area... or San Diego) and you will have a hundred times more boats to look at than the east coast of Australia.

It's definitely a buyers market here.

[our doug]

some really good comments here and I'm encouraged that this is a do-able project!
If sailing back to OZ any comments re additional costs to fit a boat for the trip assuming the purchase is a cruising yacht, reasonably well equipped?
Pity the exchange rate has suffered lately but......what go's around etc...

[our doug]

Originally Posted by Jamel

Refering to my much thumbed Cruising Helmsman dated Sept 08, and a great article by John Champion re buying overseas i.e. US West Coast, where he had bought a Hunter 40.( the CH had been inundated by readers to get John to write an article on Importing a yacht from US)
John gave a comprehensive rundown of the proceedures and way to go about things. The first was "Do your homework before you go"! I quote John " Simply jumping on a plane without a definite model of vessel would be folly. Know what you want, compile a shortlist of vessels and stick to it"!

My persnal experience on my 5 day visit was entirely positive, the Catalina 42 I bought in Marina Del Rey from Catalina Yacht Anchorage was excellent, even better than the internet photos and the after sales support from the broker has been and still is tremendous....and goes well beyond a typical broker selling a boat in my opinion! They have supervised the haulout and yard work to prepare the boat for sailing back to Australia...all in my absence. I fly back to LA on 19th Oct to begin the long enjoyable 11 month cruise home!

Hi Jamel,
thanks for your comments, did you find the selling price to be close to the advertised price?
What is the tax position? did you pay sales tax in USA or can you leave US without paying this as an exporter?

[Jamel]

Originally Posted by our doug

Hi Jamel,
thanks for your comments, did you find the selling price to be close to the advertised price?
What is the tax position? did you pay sales tax in USA or can you leave US without paying this as an exporter?

Hi Doug, I have posted the exact details somewhere on here but can't think where just now.

In my case the final buying price agreed was about 10% below asking price.

The CA sales tax IS an issue, to get over that you need to have in the contract the words " offshore delivery"... you are exporting the vessel.

Aussie Sequoia on here has a link to his website re importing.

Get the back issue of CH. Sept 08... invaluable if you are serious about buying in US!

[Jamel]

Originally Posted by our doug

some really good comments here and I'm encouraged that this is a do-able project!
If sailing back to OZ any comments re additional costs to fit a boat for the trip assuming the purchase is a cruising yacht, reasonably well equipped?
Pity the exchange rate has suffered lately but......what go's around etc...

In my case I have onboard already....important to me, radar, I do like radar. A nice also onboard was watermaker, dinghy + outboard, all round cockpit enclosure, large inverter + portable generator.

So reasonably well equipped yacht, I have added SSB radio,AIS, liferaft, 200amp alternater to charge the huge 800AH battery bank, paper charts,spares for motor and spare water pumps, and very important to me....a spinnaker pole on mast track for days and days of glorious tradewind sailing back to australia! $$$$...about $20,000 on top, but it's what I want and in my experience worth having onboard!

[timjf]

Hi Doug ..good luck with your search but I found local buying a better option with regard to additional cost associated with the import and the sailing to Australia ...Best regards Tim Foster