Possible, but as indicated the dollar drop has an effect.
So the process shortly put is:
Pick a
boat lets call it the
Caribbean 42- say it cost 100k US, That is A Obviously you then need to asses if it needs any
work to make the trip to Aus, if so thats +B (say for the purpose of discussion $10k US), then their is the cost of getting it here, thats +C (say agin for the purpose of discussion, 10K US) thats variable depending if you want a fast slow trip, through the
Panama or not etc etc. So then that A+B+C is for arguments sake $120,000 US, which is at todays exchange rate for
buying currency about $140K AUS. On arrival you have some clear in costs Say $1000, lets call it D. Then you need to pay duty of 5% on A+B+C if its a French or South African
boat, which is the most likely, or indeed any country that doesn't have a free
trade agreement with
Australia. Some will suggest you dont have to ad B into that equation, so lets for the sake of argument say its A+C best case scenario or a+b+c worst case. .
So in Australian dollar terms that A+B+C equal 135,000 AUS dollars. Duty would be $6750 worst case or $6150 best so lets use $6000k and call it E. So thats $142,000 all up so far. Then you have to pay GST on A+C+E which is $14120 - lets call that F.
Running total is $156,120. Then there are some refrigerant and gas
certification issues, and maybe 240 volt changes etc. Lets call that $5000 and name it G, running total is $161,120.
Now take that boat and
research the market and see what the mythical Caribbean 42 is selling for, if after that
research you think you can get better than $160K Australian, then you are going okay, subject to the few allowances for things like trip prep and
passage to here being at or under
budget. If they are well under
budget then you have more opportunity for a win
Short story is that it is a long story. It certainly had more chance of success when the Dollar was high, less so as the Aus dollar drops.
If you approach it as an opportunity for a free holiday then that can increase the desirability for you and reduce the risk. It can
work and has worked for some I kn ow, but like all things in life, just spend some time researching. eg if you decide that the Caribbean 42 is getting around $175K Aus, then you can work back and know what has to be your top offer
price for the deal to work for you.