Importing from USA – The journey so far…..

[leezor]

For those that have ever thought about importing their dream boat from the US, read on as this thread will be all about my experiences, some good and no doubt some not so good bringing my new baby home.

It all started early last year while browsing Ebay when I noticed the bang for buck available in the US used boat market. After many hours reading forums, asking hundreds of questions, night after night of research I decided what the hell, lets go for it!

Making my mind up to do it was the easy part, I then had to sell the idea to the boss. This was made much easier with the use of a bribe, I let her have a new Border Collie puppy I get a bigger boat, fair swap I reckon!

I really like the idea of having a walkaround style cabin, the fishing convienence of a centre console and the safety of a cabin, so I narrowed my choice down to either a Wellcraft, Proline, Keywest, Hydra Sports or Seaswirl walkaround.
Not being able to take any of these boats for a test run is one of the risks I had to take, so again I relied on other people’s experiences reading countless pages of US and Oz boating forums. Not to mention the help given by members of this site (Special thanks to Darren, aka Boatboy50).

My budget limited me to search in the sub $25,000usd price range, so unfortunately my choices were bound by lack of funds. Taking into consideration all the other costs involved $25k was it! (I will go into the other costs later)

After spending a couple of months sifting through the US boating classifieds I narrowed my choice down to several boats, a 23ft Proline, 24ft Wellcraft and a 2300 Seaswirl Striper.
I had set myself some other criteria to follow, the boat was to have been dry stored, didn’t want anything that had been moored or anti-fouled and I really wanted a hard top.

I made efforts to contact the sellers by email first, I was pleasantly surprised how helpful the brokers are over there. In most cases they went out of there way to help.

Anyway, offers were made, dollar figures were thrown around and a price was agreed on a 1999 Seaswirl Striper 2300, complete with hardtop, had been dry docked all her life and only 2 previous owners near Tampa in Florida.

Stay tuned for the next installment….. The Sea Trial...

[leezor]

Part 2

Now that I had decided on a boat, I had to make sure she was in reasonable shape. Brokers will always post the pictures they want you to see, so I engaged the services of an independent surveyor to check things out for me. Deposit was payed to the broker and contract signed pending the outcome of the survey.

I rang the surveyor and he was so helpful, spent 5 or 6 hours going over the boat, did moisture tests in the hull, gelcoat blister tests etc et, all up a 14 pages of the good and the not so good.

Expecting the worst I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome, besides a few lights and things not working the report came through ok. I also engaged a marine mechanic to go over the engine, checked the lower unit, made sure she reached Wot, and give the donk a general check over, compression test etc. At an additional $350usd this was money well spent simply for piece of mind. The 1999 Johnson two stroke also got the thumbs up from both the surveyor and mechanic.

I used the survey report as a bit of a lever and managed to knock $2000usd off the contract price, originally the deal included an aluminum trailer which I decided was going to be to much work to get up to scratch so the price was negotiated minus the trailer and the few minor things picked up by the surveyor.

Stay tuned for the next installment….. The New Trailer...

[Brumby]

Well done, she looks a beauty. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it and to a successful and happy landing in Aus.

Cheers

[leezor]

Part 3

Rather than spending $4000 back here getting the old aluminum trailer repaired and brakes upgraded I decided to search around for a new one over there.
I emailed countless manufactures and ended up getting a Loadmaster Aluminum I-Beam trailer complete with Stainless Steel Disc Brakes, Torsion Axles, Electric over Hydraulic system for $5700aud.
I found a contact through www.thehulltruth.com who deals directly with the Loadmaster factory and he has helped me out far more than I expected. He has also arranged to have the trailer setup and delivered to the Striper near Tampa.
All going to plan the trailer will be delivered and the boat loaded onto it later this week….

Watch this space for part 4.......The ocean freight costs...ouch!

[TCSunCoast]

Sounds great can't wait to hear more about it

When is she due?

[rubba]

nice boat what was the over all cost mate

[leezor]

I made numerous enquiries to both Australian and international ocean freight companies. Initially I was going to engage a shipping company to look after the ocean freight and a customs broker to take care of things at this end.
By the time I added up all additional costs, and the risks involved I opted to engage www.import-a-boat.com.au to take care of the lot. They take possession of the boat in Tampa and I pick it up in Brisbane…apparently
They are not the cheapest, but it’s nice to have some one locally taking care of everything.

Ok, so far I have outlayed around $30,000aud, and expect that to climb to around $50kaud by the time she gets to Brisbane:

Boat $17,5000usd
Trailer $5076usd
Ocean freight $14199usd
Marina fees in the US $500usd
Road Transport in the US $985usd
Australia port fees $1500aud
GST 10% of the total including all freight costs

There is no import taxes on boats made in the USA, so that was a bit of a bonus.

So, that’s where I am up to at the moment, I am $30k out of pocket and my boat is still on the other side of the globe. L
She leaves Savannah on February the 19th and will be at sea for approx 4 weeks. All going to plan ETA is just after Easter….

[leezor]

There is plenty of more detailed info I have if anyone is considering doing the same, just let me know what info you need and I will do my best to pass on what I have.

Lee

[sharkymark2]

Way to go . I have to say this that you got some guts to do it on the other side of the world. Its bad enough over here dealing with the shonks. I hope that she will give you the ride of your life

[DaMaGe]

Wow, you got some balls to do that from here; I would of assumed the shipping was a little dear judging by my own shipping of a 40FT container to Florida at a cost of about $4k, but a container is nice n square and easy to manoeuvre etc, well compared to a boat and trailer. I hope all goes well for you, it’s a damn nice looking boat, looks to be of awesome quality.

[charleville]

What a terrific story. Well done!

Is the whole enterprise insured just in case the ship hits a bad storm and loses a few containers over the side?

[PinHead]

well done..that is a pretty good freight cost...when I got my boat from the states 3 years back the freight then was just over 20k with all port costs etc...make sure they have the boat entirely wrapped in plastic...mine was and customs checked it was all secure and no one could have gotten on board..cleared in one hour..another boat in the same shipment..plastic was cut...customs took 4 days to completely inspect that one from top to bottom and it cost for each day it was sitting on the dock.

[ozscott]

Leezor - fantastic thread mate and congrats. How did you know how she would handle. I know that most US boats are beautifully finished inside and out (inside they have been gelcoating for decades!). But how do you know what she is like say in a following sea, or into nasty bay chop etc...were there reviews of this baby that you looked at. Did the surveyor have a view also?

Cheers

[ozscott]

just re-read you first post and pretty much answered my question...owners posts are one thing but any independent reviews like out Trailerboat Fisherman type mags?

[Spaniard_King]

Great thread Leezor,

should be some great fishin storries comin from that rig.