Buying new boat: dealing with currency fluctuation during process

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by BlueBuddha

Ha. I offered to pay in Bitcoins because it's more stable than the Euro but they didn't think it was funny. Cheese, however, now we are talking!

BUT, as your posts clearly indicate you understand, if you truly believe Bitcoins as the more stable, and you think the Euro is headed downhill, you could have made a bundle if you were correct. The difficulty with all cheeses, aside from the wafting, except maybe Velveeta, is the possibility that appetite will consume the potential profit or exacerbate the potential loss, even if the consumer suffers a net gain in either event.

[mgallin]

If all one wants to do is hedge against future volatility in the exchange rate I would recommend buying shares of the Guggenheim CurrencyShares Euro Trust - ticker symbol FXE. It is an exchange traded fund that mimics the euro dollar exchange rate at relatively low cost. It is 100% liquid. We are picking up a new boat in France in July and did not want to be worrying about Euro volatility. It worked great for us.

[sailu2]

What ever you decide do not pay the builder in advance any more than you have to as they have a habit of going bust. It happened with me when Westerly went belly up in the UK.
Delay any payments as long as possible until you are happy with progress don't believe every thing that they tell you

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by sailu2

What ever you decide do not pay the builder in advance any more than you have to as they have a habit of going bust. It happened with me when Westerly went belly up in the UK.
Delay any payments as long as possible until you are happy with progress don't believe every thing that they tell you

Better advice than any of ours involving currency and hedges! Are escrow accounts available in your location?

[Seafari]

Originally Posted by Paul L

You want to win, but not allow the possibility to loose For that you need to pay someone else to take the risk. The exchange broker can give you the tradeoffs. You aren't hedging over a long period or with huge, in financial market terms, amount, so it should not be that expensive.

Perfect, I could not have said it any better!

[Telesail]

If faced with a similar situation, I would think about staging the payments to cover work done and then a hull transfer agreement that ensured that the partially completed vessel at any point in the build was not part of the assets of the yard if a receiver or liquidator were appointed.

That way, there would be no risk of a liquidator selling your asset and treating you as an unsecured creditor. I understand this works under French Law but suggest you do your own due diligence as I am not a lawyer.