Bargain boats: hurricane-damaged, long-forgotten, what have you

[heavyworks]

I am looking for boats in Florida, mainly in the Tampa Bay region, that are priced well below average. They can be damaged in a hurricane, or be rarely used and now long-forgotten in a marina slip somewhere, or they can have their own reasons for being low-priced. I don’t mind. I would like to buy them, ship them over to Turkey, have them refitted there, and sell them in the local market there.

1) Does anybody have or know of such boats? Where and how can I find them?

2) Do you think this is straight out madness or possibly a viable business idea?

[PaulCrawhorn]

madness for sure

Even if you have hundreds of workaholic skilled craftsmen working for peanuts.

Shipping yachts any distance at all is very very difficult and expensive

[Oeanda]

Originally Posted by heavyworks

…. ship them over to Turkey…

There go the potential profits, if they ever potentially existed, which seems very unlikely.

[heavyworks]

Originally Posted by PaulCrawhorn

madness for sure

Even if you have hundreds of workaholic skilled craftsmen working for peanuts.

Shipping yachts any distance at all is very very difficult and expensive

I appreciate the concern and the input. Let’s say it is theoretically viable. Where would I find such boats?

[heavyworks]

Originally Posted by Oeanda

There go the potential profits, if they ever potentially existed, which seems very unlikely.

Haha. I understand shipping a boat overseas is quite expensive, but couldn’t the selling price after the refit make up go it and leave a small margin at least? That is why I am considering bargain boats.

[ohdrinkboy]

I think you need to better articulate the brands, years, lengths you are considering. Shipping a 1982 Endeavour to Turkey for a refit is a losing proposition. If you look at the spaghetti charts, hurricanes rarely hit Tampa.

[Nekton73]

Panama

[JPA Cate]

There are a couple of men here who do buy fixer-uppers, re-hab them and sell at a profit. You have to know what to fix and what to not fix. And it is a lot of work, unless you pick the candidate boats really carefully.

If you're looking at only slightly damaged boats for this project, look right after the hurricanes...the easy fixer-uppers will be the first to go.

It is only an opinion, but I think the shipping costs alone will make it unprofitable. The guys here pick carefully, and have the knowledge, the tools, the time, and the space to do the necessary work themselves.

Ann

[marcjsmith]

Why limit your search to tamps. Plenty of marinas up and down the east coast. I’d also focus on the Chesapeake bay. Close to major shipping port as well.

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by heavyworks

Haha. I understand shipping a boat overseas is quite expensive, but couldn’t the selling price after the refit make up go it and leave a small margin at least? That is why I am considering bargain boats.

Have you already exhausted the supply of derelict boats throughout the Med?

[Jim Cate]

It seems that you are fatally underestimating the costs of shipping, as well as not understanding how difficult it is to estimate in advance the costs of refitting to a standard that will attract a high selling price. Ask any experienced refitter about how costs blow out beyond initial estimates... I suspect you will be surprised at the magnitude of the discrepancy. With such uncertainty in the outcome, investing the very considerable costs of purchase plus shipping up front would be madness IMO

My suspicion is that even if the subject vessel was free to you there would be no reliable profit to enrich you.

So to answer your question, no, this does not seem like a viable business model.

Jim

[heavyworks]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

I think you need to better articulate the brands, years, lengths you are considering. Shipping a 1982 Endeavour to Turkey for a refit is a losing proposition. If you look at the spaghetti charts, hurricanes rarely hit Tampa.

You are absolutely right. Thank you for the constructive input. I will specify the criteria better and make a new post.

I am not limiting myself to Tampa btw. They can be anywhere in Florida, or even the US for that matter.

[heavyworks]

Originally Posted by Nekton73

Panama

Is there an abundance of such boats in Panama due to being the flag country of many boats?

[MikeHoncho]

Hey, if he wants to ship all of our derilique boats to Turkey and clean up our marinas I’m all for it! I’d hit up every marina and ask for auction boats. My marina has probably 6-10 right now.

[Fore and Aft]

heavyworks 20 years ago I had a client importing damaged boats from Japan and getting them repaired here in Australia. He did very well until others got in the game and the costs went up. The biggest advantage that my client had was that he had business links in the Japanese used car industry and they helped him find the bargains. I still remember him bringing outboards into Australia that were in vehicle's he was importing. Saved on shipping.
Cheers