Apollo
18-02-2012, 12:37 PM
I have been requested by a few members to post this up. This is a bit lengthy, but so was the process.
Part1
Having gone through the process of recently buying a boat to bring back from the US, I thought it was worth sharing a few thoughts with you about how I went about it, what I did right and wrong, what challenges I faced, who I used, what were the costs and what was the end result.
The comments and thoughts below are base from my experience and isn't meant to be a how to do it the best way report, but rather a how I did it report.
The research:
Knowing I was after a glass cente/side console fishing boat that I could use in creeks, dams, the bay/straits and on a good day, poke out the front, I set myself a size of 17-19' and motor range of 90-115hp four stroke. When trolling through the different US websites for boats, I found that their market is frightenly big with many different brands/models that I have never had experience with or in some case heard of, so the first challenge was to start classifying these brands as to quality, options and performance. Google is a great tool, but I came across a US website www.thehulltruth.com (http://www.thehulltruth.com/). These boys (read a hell of a lot of members) have an opinion on everything and a lot of knowledge. They also don't pull too many punches, so are a great source of information as to where a brand is any good in build quality, ride, historical issues, manufacturer history, motor performance, etc, etc. I did a lot of reading and once I started to narrow it down a bit, I asked a few questions which were answered with many opinions, including differing. It is worth Pming a few of the members who you feel have sound knowledge (real (ownership or plenty of times aboard) instead of 'I saw one once') and they are usually happier to elaborate further privately. A couple of other cultural differences is the size of boats we travel offshore in and how far we travel offshore. When describing my intended use in a question, they pretty much thought I was a manic wanting to travel offshore in a 17-19' boat. They are use to using much bigger boats (24'+) to do the same, but if you keep asking, you will find a few that already do the same there in similar size boats and can give you good feedback as to how they cope with that intended use. Also, they love the ponies (who doesn't), so will often urge you to go the max hp.The US have different (wider) trailering width rules than here and also a much more relaxed attitude to trailering weights, etc. In the words of one broker 'if it rolls down the road here, it is legal' Do your research on these as a lot of their boats are too wide to trail here or need a permit to do so. Also they have a lot of boats that within our limits but sit on very wide trailers meaning modifications would be difficult.
Several of the US boats are also sold new here through importers/dealers and have local reports done on them. Brands like Scout, Hewes, KeyWest, Triumph, etc.
Once I had it down to two or three options, I started the search for a boat.
The search:
With either a Scout 175 Sportfish or KeyWest 176 BayReef as the main target with several other possibilities, the search was on. Both these boat have good reputations over in the US with some strengths and weaknesses when compared to each other. The Key West was very well regarded by a lot of the yank owners and also by those that use them a fair bit. The scout was perceived as being a great boat but of recent had some issues, so the older ones were regarded better, but have an issue of taking water through the scuppers when fitted with a big four stroke. Both are consider very safe boats and have fully foam positive floatation. Both can be bought here new from Australian reps and the reports from those here that have them indicate they they handle our conditons very well and ride exceptionally well in comparison to most local boats.
For searching, the internet is a great bit of kit. I used google a bit, but found two sites that churned out a lot of boats. One was 'search tempest' and the other was 'boat trader'. The first gave predominatley private boats and the later broker/dealer boats. You can try US ebay and a few others as well. I also found a couple of sites from dealers that were given positive reviews from members on thehulltruth, so these were searched as well. Getting information in general from the yank sellers was frustrating at times. Some were great, but they must have a different email culture to us for a majority. In general expect 20% of your emails to be answered and only 20% of the questions asked in your email to answered. The amount of times, I would ask a dozen questions about the boat and motors in an email, only to get a response 'Thanks for your enquiry, the boat is in great condition and checks out. If you have any further questions please contact XYZ'. Anyway, I kept bashing away gaining extra information on boats to either shortlist them or rule them out. One trick that is worth mentioning here that certainly increased the response rate was to NOT mention in your opening emails that you were from Australia as the thought of scammers or dealing with the export process certainly turned some of the people off. The brokers/dealers that are use to selling boats to Australia are much better at replying to emails. A few people suggested just ringing them, which I did in some circumstances, but found it frustrating to ring at an approriate time to continually get an answering service, so stuck to emails first to weed my way through the possibles then a call to for a probable. Yamahas certainly take the loin's share of the market there and a majority of boats sported one (2s or 4s). A lot of boats that seems like a good deal initally fell by the wayside once questions were asked and extra photos supplied. Some things I found to watch out for is the amount of trailered boats that are kept in the water during summer and wrapped away for winter. This lead to boats with very little hours on them, but also trailer sized boats that had antifoul paint applied to the hull (they refer to it as bottom paint). When considering the trailer under the boat, I found some would be an very easy modification to get it registered here with the main items being adding brakes (few of theirs do have brakes), change of and addition of lights and the coupling changed from their 2" to our 50mm. Where the trailer mod was not that practical, then there are numerous manufacturers there that build Aust spec trailers in gal or aluminium for a lot less than here, but getting one built/moded here from a favourite manufacturer would be reasonable option and sell the existing trailer there and bring your boat back in a cradle. If you end up buying through a broker, then often they will trade in the existing one and replace it with a new Aust spec one with compliance VIN plate. Now a word of warning - remember the above mentioned 'if it rolls down the road, it is legal' attitude, well this applies to their trailer capacities as well. I had the issue where the trailer that was to go under my boat was questionably within limit and even using their optimistic weight calculations put it right on the limit as this 'close enough' attitude would be fine there but no so here. Put it down to a cultural difference, but definitely something to be mindful of when checking the existing or new trailer of any boat you are to bring back. There are rules, procedures and fees to bring a trailer into Australia. A search on the internet will revell the process, but this must be done earlier to get the permit. Alternatively the shipper/broker may organise this on your behalf.
Part1
Having gone through the process of recently buying a boat to bring back from the US, I thought it was worth sharing a few thoughts with you about how I went about it, what I did right and wrong, what challenges I faced, who I used, what were the costs and what was the end result.
The comments and thoughts below are base from my experience and isn't meant to be a how to do it the best way report, but rather a how I did it report.
The research:
Knowing I was after a glass cente/side console fishing boat that I could use in creeks, dams, the bay/straits and on a good day, poke out the front, I set myself a size of 17-19' and motor range of 90-115hp four stroke. When trolling through the different US websites for boats, I found that their market is frightenly big with many different brands/models that I have never had experience with or in some case heard of, so the first challenge was to start classifying these brands as to quality, options and performance. Google is a great tool, but I came across a US website www.thehulltruth.com (http://www.thehulltruth.com/). These boys (read a hell of a lot of members) have an opinion on everything and a lot of knowledge. They also don't pull too many punches, so are a great source of information as to where a brand is any good in build quality, ride, historical issues, manufacturer history, motor performance, etc, etc. I did a lot of reading and once I started to narrow it down a bit, I asked a few questions which were answered with many opinions, including differing. It is worth Pming a few of the members who you feel have sound knowledge (real (ownership or plenty of times aboard) instead of 'I saw one once') and they are usually happier to elaborate further privately. A couple of other cultural differences is the size of boats we travel offshore in and how far we travel offshore. When describing my intended use in a question, they pretty much thought I was a manic wanting to travel offshore in a 17-19' boat. They are use to using much bigger boats (24'+) to do the same, but if you keep asking, you will find a few that already do the same there in similar size boats and can give you good feedback as to how they cope with that intended use. Also, they love the ponies (who doesn't), so will often urge you to go the max hp.The US have different (wider) trailering width rules than here and also a much more relaxed attitude to trailering weights, etc. In the words of one broker 'if it rolls down the road here, it is legal' Do your research on these as a lot of their boats are too wide to trail here or need a permit to do so. Also they have a lot of boats that within our limits but sit on very wide trailers meaning modifications would be difficult.
Several of the US boats are also sold new here through importers/dealers and have local reports done on them. Brands like Scout, Hewes, KeyWest, Triumph, etc.
Once I had it down to two or three options, I started the search for a boat.
The search:
With either a Scout 175 Sportfish or KeyWest 176 BayReef as the main target with several other possibilities, the search was on. Both these boat have good reputations over in the US with some strengths and weaknesses when compared to each other. The Key West was very well regarded by a lot of the yank owners and also by those that use them a fair bit. The scout was perceived as being a great boat but of recent had some issues, so the older ones were regarded better, but have an issue of taking water through the scuppers when fitted with a big four stroke. Both are consider very safe boats and have fully foam positive floatation. Both can be bought here new from Australian reps and the reports from those here that have them indicate they they handle our conditons very well and ride exceptionally well in comparison to most local boats.
For searching, the internet is a great bit of kit. I used google a bit, but found two sites that churned out a lot of boats. One was 'search tempest' and the other was 'boat trader'. The first gave predominatley private boats and the later broker/dealer boats. You can try US ebay and a few others as well. I also found a couple of sites from dealers that were given positive reviews from members on thehulltruth, so these were searched as well. Getting information in general from the yank sellers was frustrating at times. Some were great, but they must have a different email culture to us for a majority. In general expect 20% of your emails to be answered and only 20% of the questions asked in your email to answered. The amount of times, I would ask a dozen questions about the boat and motors in an email, only to get a response 'Thanks for your enquiry, the boat is in great condition and checks out. If you have any further questions please contact XYZ'. Anyway, I kept bashing away gaining extra information on boats to either shortlist them or rule them out. One trick that is worth mentioning here that certainly increased the response rate was to NOT mention in your opening emails that you were from Australia as the thought of scammers or dealing with the export process certainly turned some of the people off. The brokers/dealers that are use to selling boats to Australia are much better at replying to emails. A few people suggested just ringing them, which I did in some circumstances, but found it frustrating to ring at an approriate time to continually get an answering service, so stuck to emails first to weed my way through the possibles then a call to for a probable. Yamahas certainly take the loin's share of the market there and a majority of boats sported one (2s or 4s). A lot of boats that seems like a good deal initally fell by the wayside once questions were asked and extra photos supplied. Some things I found to watch out for is the amount of trailered boats that are kept in the water during summer and wrapped away for winter. This lead to boats with very little hours on them, but also trailer sized boats that had antifoul paint applied to the hull (they refer to it as bottom paint). When considering the trailer under the boat, I found some would be an very easy modification to get it registered here with the main items being adding brakes (few of theirs do have brakes), change of and addition of lights and the coupling changed from their 2" to our 50mm. Where the trailer mod was not that practical, then there are numerous manufacturers there that build Aust spec trailers in gal or aluminium for a lot less than here, but getting one built/moded here from a favourite manufacturer would be reasonable option and sell the existing trailer there and bring your boat back in a cradle. If you end up buying through a broker, then often they will trade in the existing one and replace it with a new Aust spec one with compliance VIN plate. Now a word of warning - remember the above mentioned 'if it rolls down the road, it is legal' attitude, well this applies to their trailer capacities as well. I had the issue where the trailer that was to go under my boat was questionably within limit and even using their optimistic weight calculations put it right on the limit as this 'close enough' attitude would be fine there but no so here. Put it down to a cultural difference, but definitely something to be mindful of when checking the existing or new trailer of any boat you are to bring back. There are rules, procedures and fees to bring a trailer into Australia. A search on the internet will revell the process, but this must be done earlier to get the permit. Alternatively the shipper/broker may organise this on your behalf.