I've noticed several listings of damaged boats on auction sites on the East
coast and because of the greater chance of finding what I want there than
here in Australia I would be interested in advice you people may have on the
problems I could run into.
I have the general idea on re-registering the vesel and import duty in
Australia etc. but I'm having trouble with the concept of finding the right
boat, bidding, then finding somewhere to store it 'till repaired. All
without having personaly inspected it. I can get a USA visitor visa for 3
months (plus maybe another 3 months). Is there a way this sort of thing is
done?
I'd be grateful for any help.

JohnM wrote:
I've noticed several listings of damaged boats on auction sites on the East
coast and because of the greater chance of finding what I want there than
here in Australia I would be interested in advice you people may have on the
problems I could run into.
I have the general idea on re-registering the vesel and import duty in
Australia etc. but I'm having trouble with the concept of finding the right
boat, bidding, then finding somewhere to store it 'till repaired. All
without having personaly inspected it. I can get a USA visitor visa for 3
months (plus maybe another 3 months). Is there a way this sort of thing is
done?

Your distance from these boats is a big difficulty, as you can see.
You can arrange with local surveyors to look at boats for you,
determine the extent of damage and give you an ideal of work required
to fix it, but that'll cost several hundred per boat. The surveyors
would also be able give advice on yards to work in, sources of
materials, good contractors, etc.

If you want a project, I'll suggest looking for boats abandoned in
marinas in your neck of the woods. Initial cost may be higher than a
hurricane boat on eBay, but your costs to get it into the water could
be a lot less.

Good luck with that,

Tim

Thanks for the input Tim.
I don't mind flying to the States to pickup and repair the boat. I plan to
cruise the Bahamas for a year to give it a good test before crossing the
Pacific anyway. The problem is selecting the right boat. As you say
contracting a surveyer may be the answer, although that may prove expensive.
Or maybe not.
Do people abandon boats in marinas? I havn't heard of that here.

Cheers
JohnM
wrote in message
ups.com...
Your distance from these boats is a big difficulty, as you can see.
You can arrange with local surveyors to look at boats for you,
determine the extent of damage and give you an ideal of work required
to fix it, but that'll cost several hundred per boat. The surveyors
would also be able give advice on yards to work in, sources of
materials, good contractors, etc.

If you want a project, I'll suggest looking for boats abandoned in
marinas in your neck of the woods. Initial cost may be higher than a
hurricane boat on eBay, but your costs to get it into the water could
be a lot less.

Good luck with that,

Tim

JohnM wrote:
Thanks for the input Tim.
I don't mind flying to the States to pickup and repair the boat. I plan to
cruise the Bahamas for a year to give it a good test before crossing the
Pacific anyway. The problem is selecting the right boat. As you say
contracting a surveyer may be the answer, although that may prove expensive.
Or maybe not.
Do people abandon boats in marinas? I havn't heard of that here.

I've been in Salt Creek Marina for 2.5 years now. In that time I've
seen lots of stuff...

There was, about a year ago, a destruction of 5 boats which had been
abandoned and on which title was procured by the owner of the yard.

In the year since, I've also seen him acquire another 5 boats which
were suited to rehabilitate, which he uses his yard help to do in slack
times. Others await either the bulldozer/crane or foreclosure.

So, to your question, for many reasons, yes, boats get abandoned in
yards. One such here, with a lien/mortgage of 130k, has been surveyed
as worth nearly 300 as it sits - which it's done for the last 3+ years
with no payments. Couple bought it with little or no experience, got
in a storm, got off, terrified, and haven't been back, nor
communicated, since.

Unfortunately, finding such deals and pursuing them isn't easily done
long-distance, because in most cases you'd have to get friendly with
the yard owner or manager, get the info on the boats in such a state,
and pursue the viability of both acquisition and current condition to
make it happen. Making things just that much more challenging, unless
you were interested in doing it as a business (acquire, rehab, sell),
unless you know that the boat type is right for you, you're buying not
only a pig in a poke (US colloquialism if you're not familiar with the
term), you're buying something which might not suit you (I went on more
than 200 boats before settling on the Morgan 46 as our appropriate
type).

Had I known our type to start with, and was willing to be patient
(well, I am, but Lydia's the queen of instant gratification), I could
have bought several M46 very inexpensively. There's even a potential
right in this yard, though they have paid their bills, so that's not by
any means certain.

Good luck in your search. If you're near any boatyards/marinas, drop
in on them and pose questions like you see above. You might find many
possibilities. OTOH, if what you want is a cruise in the Bahamas and
*then* a Pacific cruise and crossing, buying an inexpensive coastal
cruiser in good nick somewhere in the Ft. Lauderdale (Miami to North
Palm) area, then selling it after the Bahamas when you bring it back,
would avoid the time and cost of rehab for that part, and you could
find the boat to sail home on the California coast...

L8R

Skip, still refurbishing his non-"project" boat, but floating instead
of on stands

I've heard storys from the Whitsundays ( queensland coast islands) that go
like this: Husband buys boat so he and wife can go cruising. After a week of
no elbow room in the galley, no hair dryer, spa bath or level surfaces her
temper flares, which starts his temper. They sell the boat for half its
value (for a quick sale) and head of to the guidance councillor.
But to just walk away from a $300k boat is weird. I must ask around at the
local yards to see if it happens here.
A deal like that would be good but to cut through the red tape in less than
3 months may be tricky. Thanks for your input.
An M 41 is one of those on my short list.

JohnM

Skip Gundlach" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've been in Salt Creek Marina for 2.5 years now. In that time I've
seen lots of stuff...

There was, about a year ago, a destruction of 5 boats which had been
abandoned and on which title was procured by the owner of the yard.

In the year since, I've also seen him acquire another 5 boats which
were suited to rehabilitate, which he uses his yard help to do in slack
times. Others await either the bulldozer/crane or foreclosure.

So, to your question, for many reasons, yes, boats get abandoned in
yards. One such here, with a lien/mortgage of 130k, has been surveyed
as worth nearly 300 as it sits - which it's done for the last 3+ years
with no payments. Couple bought it with little or no experience, got
in a storm, got off, terrified, and haven't been back, nor
communicated, since.

Unfortunately, finding such deals and pursuing them isn't easily done
long-distance, because in most cases you'd have to get friendly with
the yard owner or manager, get the info on the boats in such a state,
and pursue the viability of both acquisition and current condition to
make it happen. Making things just that much more challenging, unless
you were interested in doing it as a business (acquire, rehab, sell),
unless you know that the boat type is right for you, you're buying not
only a pig in a poke (US colloquialism if you're not familiar with the
term), you're buying something which might not suit you (I went on more
than 200 boats before settling on the Morgan 46 as our appropriate
type).

Had I known our type to start with, and was willing to be patient
(well, I am, but Lydia's the queen of instant gratification), I could
have bought several M46 very inexpensively. There's even a potential
right in this yard, though they have paid their bills, so that's not by
any means certain.

Good luck in your search. If you're near any boatyards/marinas, drop
in on them and pose questions like you see above. You might find many
possibilities. OTOH, if what you want is a cruise in the Bahamas and
*then* a Pacific cruise and crossing, buying an inexpensive coastal
cruiser in good nick somewhere in the Ft. Lauderdale (Miami to North
Palm) area, then selling it after the Bahamas when you bring it back,
would avoid the time and cost of rehab for that part, and you could
find the boat to sail home on the California coast...

L8R

Skip, still refurbishing his non-"project" boat, but floating instead
of on stands

JohnM wrote:
I've noticed several listings of damaged boats on auction sites on the East
coast and because of the greater chance of finding what I want there than
here in Australia I would be interested in advice you people may have on the
problems I could run into.
I have the general idea on re-registering the vesel and import duty in
Australia etc. but I'm having trouble with the concept of finding the right
boat, bidding, then finding somewhere to store it 'till repaired. All
without having personaly inspected it. I can get a USA visitor visa for 3
months (plus maybe another 3 months). Is there a way this sort of thing is
done?
I'd be grateful for any help.


The problem is that the US is large so travel to various candidates is
difficult. Also you can't buy from a description / pix with any
confidence. Boats always seem different in person including damage.

I'd suggest you see if you can locate a US agent for the purposes of
finding candidates. This person, perhaps a retired or semi-retired
surveyor, would find good candidates, compile a full report to you so
you'd have something worthwhile to travel to the US to look at.

I suppose the other way is for you to come here, spend your time hiring
a car and looking about - if you have the time to do this. Storage,
repairs etc are easy to arrange at any port.

I'm somewhat skeptical that you CAN find a boat worth repairing if you
need to hire pros to do the work. All the salvage boats I've seen
require owner sweat to make them pay.

Hi John,
I sort of went through this excercise in the last couple of months.
The intention was to just buy it, stick it on a boat & ship it out to
Sydney & then do any repair work required.
I engaged a broker in Oz who did all the negotiating with the broker in
the US & it worked well until the results of the survey were known,
which in short read "I can't tell the extent of hull damage until I
take to it with an angle grinder!!!"
So this spooked me a little & I have canned the idea for the moment.
I don't believe the selling broker was up front as to the extent of
damage and from the photos on boats.com the boat looked OK & it was
floating (at the time the photos were taken & still was when the survey
took place)
Survey & Haul out added up to about $A1300.00
If I was to do this excercise again, I would engage the Oz broker
again, but deal within his trusted network of dealers in the US that he
deals with on a regular basis.
Let me know if you would like any further details.

I have plenty of the skills and sweat to make it pay Paul and to drive
around 'till I find an appropriate boat is a good idea. Trouble is I may run
out of time and have to leave the US on an un-prepared boat. Finding a US
agent looks the best bet so far. If someone asked me to check out a damaged
boat in this state and take some photos etc. I'd do it. There must be
someone in the US who would do the same for me.

JohnM

"Paul Cassel" wrote in message
...
The problem is that the US is large so travel to various candidates is
difficult. Also you can't buy from a description / pix with any
confidence. Boats always seem different in person including damage.

I'd suggest you see if you can locate a US agent for the purposes of
finding candidates. This person, perhaps a retired or semi-retired
surveyor, would find good candidates, compile a full report to you so
you'd have something worthwhile to travel to the US to look at.

I suppose the other way is for you to come here, spend your time hiring
a car and looking about - if you have the time to do this. Storage,
repairs etc are easy to arrange at any port.

I'm somewhat skeptical that you CAN find a boat worth repairing if you
need to hire pros to do the work. All the salvage boats I've seen
require owner sweat to make them pay.

JohnM wrote:
I have plenty of the skills and sweat to make it pay Paul and to drive
around 'till I find an appropriate boat is a good idea. Trouble is I may run
out of time and have to leave the US on an un-prepared boat. Finding a US
agent looks the best bet so far. If someone asked me to check out a damaged
boat in this state and take some photos etc. I'd do it. There must be
someone in the US who would do the same for me.

I would suggest you do a search on surveyors. Gen a list of them in
various locales so you can have a cadre of local guys who know what they
are looking for. It will cost you a few dollars per boat, but the
overall cost won't be crushing.

I would also be optimistic about a visa extension if it came to that.

-paul

Yes apparently if you front up in Sydney in person and explain your need you
can get 6 months visitor visa without too much trouble.

JohnM

"Paul Cassel" wrote in message
. ..
I would suggest you do a search on surveyors. Gen a list of them in
various locales so you can have a cadre of local guys who know what they
are looking for. It will cost you a few dollars per boat, but the
overall cost won't be crushing.

I would also be optimistic about a visa extension if it came to that.

-paul