Why are boats so much cheaper in Europe?

[John Holbrook]

For new European boats you can get them built for 110v and save shipping costs of 40k plus buying the boat in Europe and sailing it across yourself. Problem is you arrive with a secondhand boat, no issue if the boat is for you but an issue if you want to sell her.

Secondhand boats flow in and out of countries as their exchange rates and economies fluctuate. Politics sometimes play apart too, I was in Hong Kong before it was handed back to the Chinese and boats went cheap. Watch Venezuela.

Re exchange rates, for large sums you can do much better than what major banks offer you over the counter. Google.

Good luck do the sums for yourself and allow a fat margin.




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[gulfbreez]

I have owed powerboats in Florida, and now own a Sailboat or what they call ''yacht'' over here in the UK. I bought the Macwester 28 is good condition with a New beta marine 20 hp for £2,500

I think I did pretty good, the place where I moor the boat cost £160.00 per year, so over all it was a cheap find, the biggest cost is storing the boat at the yard where I bought the boat ....£20.00 per week,plus £90.00 to put in the water when its time to deliver it, so far its been in the yard for 2 months, hope to get the boat to its mooring in 2-3 weeks from now.

One thing I notice though in the UK, power boats in general are more expensive then in Florida, and you dont have so much variety. I have not seen any power boats here in the UK that trump what I had in Florida for the same price.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Lepke

It's never simple dealing with any government.

kind of makes you wonder why, when given an opportunity, people always choose to form one.

[Symphony]

I have bought and sold four boats in my life, and profited a small to large amount on each one. Doing this is not dependent on geography, but rather on finding a great boat at a good price where you can add value doing work yourself while using the boat.

It wont work as a business because the only way to remove risk from the business is to have a luxury of time, much like the only way to avoid bad weather when sailing is to not have a hard and fast schedule.

When you have a lluxury of time you can look at 100 boats before buying your next project - you can shop around for parts and equipment that need replacing or upgrading -you can set a profitable sale price and wait for the right buyer while using the boat and keeping her clean and beautiful.

But a business cannot wait. It must generate revenue on some kind of a time-dependent cycle that is enough to cover the overhead of life and business. Same whether flipping boats or houses or currencies, whatever. You must bring raw something in and produce something else that is valuable to someone else for some reason. Your work is then to make your turnover go quicker and quicker, or make your profit margin grow larger and larger, or both.

Buying, sailing, and flipping boats is wonderful. Do it where you live now. Not only can you make some money and sail interesting boats, you also do a service for the general boating culture and environment.
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[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by woodyapex

I'm in the uk we as you say use 220v but I'm also a joiner and on site we have to use 110 v so with a simple transformer you could have all the sockets at 110 v very easily .
But I think I'm in agreement with the most . Funnily enough I thought about sailing US boats over to the uk and selling them as you boats are cheaper then ours lol .
Oh and one more thing . England is about to have a referendum whether or not to stay in the eu . No one really knows the effect this is going to have on the euro either way but it could be dramatic !
Good luck

Sure you can change the voltage easy but what about the Hz?
Also, are the wires sized to accept the amps that go with 110v?
Does the fuse panel and such all need to be changed out?
Are there any onboard electrical devices that need 220v?

All of these issue can be addressed in various ways but we are talking about a boat that is presumably going to be permanently in 110V-60hz land. No one is going to want something cobbled together that kind of works.

If you are cruising for a year or so in a land of different voltage, a transformer can be a reasonable option if used with care but if I was buying a boat to be in the states permanently, I would discount the price based on the worst case scenario of having to replace the entire electrical system.