Boat prices in Australia taking a tumble

Discussion in 'Powerboats' started by sabahcat, Feb 5, 2012.

  1. whitepointer23

    whitepointer23 Previous Member

    i sold both my houses in the boom, i hate to imagine what would happen if the economy collapsed and i was still paying $5000 a month in mortgages.
     
  2. sabahcat
    Joined: Dec 2008
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    Location: australia

    sabahcat Senior Member

    Like I said, Australia is uncompetitive
    We have priced ourselves out of the marketplace.

    America was in the same boat, but things changed and now even CHINA is looking at buying businesses there now that wages have dropped to a level that makes production viable again.

    The workers are getting jobs again
     
  3. michael pierzga
    Joined: Dec 2008
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    Location: spain

    michael pierzga Senior Member

    The reality on Boat Design net is that most folks are home builders. Its a shame that young workers overvalue their labour because they miss an important eduction. Home builders are also earning while they are learning.

    If I were Cat , building a big project, I think Id recruit one of the many young guys from the various boat building schools and put one on a small salary for the duration of project .
    In Spain a contractor...van , workshop with relevant skills charges out at 45 euros per hour. His take home pay if all goes well is about 20 per hour .

    A cup of coffee just cost me 2 euros. A one quart pack of awlgrip costs 200 euros. Its not cheap
     
  4. DavidWaters
    Joined: Jan 2012
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    Location: Vancouver

    DavidWaters Junior Member

    It does seem to be a buyers market in most places.
     
  5. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    I've been doing high end custom wood work for about 35 years, my wage was up around $65 an hour when I was up in Aspen Glenwood area for about 10 years but then fell to less than half that as the economy went bust. I'm not sure I'll ever be making that again but what I'm doing these days is the most difficult stuff I've ever done. Its pretty frustrating. And thats when I can find work.

    What really bakes my noodle is that I'm exploring a shift is business to water main repairs. Lame as it sounds I know a plumber who makes more money than our other friend who's a doctor.

    I've been looking into it and as long as I'm not sweating pipes inside what is intended to be an enclosed wall I'm not a plumber. What I need is a safety certificate from, get this, the fire dep. to dig the damn hole.

    So I'm thinking of specializing in only water mains, residential only. Might be a very lucrative move. Might not, but it beats sitting on my ***, and hanging out with you guys :p:p:D:p:p:D
     
  6. sabahcat
    Joined: Dec 2008
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    Location: australia

    sabahcat Senior Member

    Cant see it working here
    Various rules and regulations would make it a legal minefield plus the feker's still want an arm and a leg in wages ( best priced "skilled" youngster was $22 an hour and he didnt come back after his lunch break) and can't work fast enough to keep up with me

    Seeing as its all pretty straight I really think shes just going to get the square pad/random orbital fairing job (smooth but ripply) and some colour hosed on her.
    The hulls have already been done this way and looked acceptable when wet and she'll look fine from 50m away.

    Interior will be resin soaked ply structural members in place (no doors, mouldings paint or cloth) mostly done now. Basic electrical and basic plumbing.
    Get her out of the country as a working shell asap and get the interior and any changes to it sorted overseas somewhere like PSS-Satun where labour is $20 a day, not $30-$40 an hour. I can have several guys on it at that rate.
    When she is due for a repaint, get some more effort put into fairing then.
     
  7. Willallison
    Joined: Oct 2001
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    Location: Australia

    Willallison Senior Member

    There is a 5% import duty on boats - new or 2nd hand, which is payable on the total cost of the vessel, landed in Oz. GST is payable on top of that.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2012
  8. Mr Efficiency
    Joined: Oct 2010
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    Location: Australia

    Mr Efficiency Senior Member

    Import Duty & G.S.T
    If boat is NZ or USA made you will NOT pay Import Duty but you have to pay G.S.T
    (NZ as per C.E.R agreement signed between former prime ministers Muldoon and Frasier)
    Or America under Free Trade Agreement signed off by Bush and Howard

    All other countries You will have to pay Australian Import Duty and G.S.T.

    Australian Import Duty is 5 % on vessels / boats under 150 m/t Gross Construction Weight
    Over 150 m/t Gross Construction Weight DUTY FREE
     
  9. Willallison
    Joined: Oct 2001
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    Location: Australia

    Willallison Senior Member

    Apologies... yes you are correct... it's 5 not 12%.
    But it's important to note that goods imported from US, but made elsewhare do attract the duty
     
  10. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
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    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    If you want to make money, there are a few, very reliable ways. One of my favorites was described to me by a quite successful businessman, I knew as a young man. Verbalize this with a really crusty voice, of an old man with a very slight German accent. "Paul, if you want to make money; you have to sell toilet paper. Not just any toilet paper, but monogrammed toilet paper. This way when they're done wiping their asses, they have to come back to you, because you're the guy with the custom monogram plates." The obvious logic is to sell or offer a consumable product, just custom enough that the prospective client will need to pay new setup fees, if they go someplace else. They eventually have to run out and order again. Of course 'ol Bob the German, also offered warehousing for overstock. He'd give you a really good deal, if you ordered much more then your current needs. He'd warehouse this stock for you and ship it to your door when you asked, naturally for a nominal fee. Being the guy that actually produced the toilet paper himself, it was far cheaper for him to run two or three times the quantities you originally requested, further adding to his margin. I've always valued the lessons I gathered from 'ol Bob and use several of them to this day.

    Another lesson he taught me was the "bate and switch", which I now know is a Dale Carnegie tactic, but didn't when I saw Bob use it the first time. Bob ran a substantial business of which I was a vender, renting space under his roof. Jim was his trusted, 20 year foreman and a good man. He got it done for Bob and Bob knew it. He also knew Jim was looking for a raise, so Bob had been brushing him off for a few weeks, not wanting to have the conversation. Well Jim had had it and decided to march up the hall and find Bob for this discussion "one way or the other". Bob saw him in the hallway, noticed the expression on his face and quickly said "Hay Joe, can I talk with you for a second?"

    Naturally, the aggression in Jim's face disappeared, as he now was defending his given name, placing Bob in the controlling position. Bob repeatedly and profusely apologized to Jim for the mistake, but was able to wiggle away as his "few minutes" had worn through. Jim came back to his office, adjacent to mine a bit befuddled, wondering how the "old man" could forget what his name was. A few days later, Bob did give Jim the raise plus a little, without Jim asking. Bob averted the conversation and the aggression, by switching it back, by placing Jim on the defense of his name, all the while remaining in control of the situation. Shortly thereafter, I read the book and saw where he got that one from.

    Making money isn't especially hard, unless you only want to do one thing your whole life, aren't willing to change, adapt or keep up with industry trends. I've seen the transition from slide rule to pocket calculator to PC. Hand drawing skills give way to ever increasingly complex computer packages. Countless persons that haven't been able to flow and adapt to these changes, are still just bitching about how things used to be, but not working as a result. Making money is precisely the same. I know very few that got "caught" when the housing bubble burst, as they all knew the jig was up, unless they had their heads in the sand (an American tradition BTW). The stock market was also itching for a huge "adjustment" too, though many didn't think it would drop 50%, but by the end of that year, it had recovered 85% of the lose. The rookies and novices bailed, good for them, as it's a lesson you have to learn. I bought AXP (at that time) at about $11 a share and waited. I sold at $52 late last year. Naturally, I was paying attention, which is the only way you'll make money, unless slaving under a time clock is your way of doing things. Personally, I think this method has as many flaws and pieces falling off, as a leper on a pogo stick.
     
  11. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    Oh yeah!!! ive seen a few movies about plumbers and what they get up to fixing leaking washers in lonely housewifes houses. Its not the plumbing your after is it!

    Ive had a bit of that in my younger days as a mechanic on break down of cars that wont start but start when I get there --Oh come and have a cup of tea, " ahem sorry Maam I must get back.

    And the teacher that would come in with a Volvo sports and say there was smoke coming from under the dash board but would not get out of the car, she expected you to stick your head down between her legs, we let Felix the Irish guy do that one, she was about his age bracket.
     
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  12. PAR
    Joined: Nov 2003
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    Location: Eustis, FL

    PAR Yacht Designer/Builder

    When I was living on Marco Island a buddy of mine, the owner of a plumbing company, was standing in a 5' deep ditch, the precise width of the backhoe bucket that just dug it out. I rolled up and asked what's up, to which he said a clogged 6" main line. I smiled and went in the 18 story condo complex. I returned to the parking lot after 20 minutes for a beer run and he was now in waders up to his knees in the contents of the 6" line that had clogged on the second floor (with 16 floors of the most lovely smelling stuff backed up above it). I can only imagine the hourly rate it must take to get a man to stand at the business end of a 6" waste line that has a 200' head of steam behind it, because you got to know what happened when the snake unclogged that pipe. Yep, a damned lot of money to get me in that pit, knowing what flows downhill. Buy a pipe wrench Dan.
     
  13. WestVanHan
    Joined: Aug 2009
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    Location: Vancouver

    WestVanHan Not a Senior Member

    Sounds like the CUBs that I met in Aus last year.
     
  14. Squidly-Diddly
    Joined: Sep 2007
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    Location: SF bay

    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    Any money to be made mothballing these boats?

    Here is CA and epicenter of housing melt-down, I see ads for Real Estate 'preservation crews' all the time to do basic landscape, lock change outs, etc on all the vacant houses.

    Only problem is they all give you some story about needing to wait 4 weeks or more for payment, and that is AFTER they approve what you did. Sounds too fishy to me.

    Anyways, wouldn't there be a healthy market for similar "preservation" work for these White Whales, both to keep them all working good AND to haul them out on temp, not long distance, trailers of some sort to store them on land, and thus keep them from needing more work and slip fees?

    Make oversized simple cheap trailers and haul them out and to some nearby storage yard at 3am when there is no traffic and you can get approval to haul oversized loads.
     

  15. philSweet
    Joined: May 2008
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    Location: Beaufort, SC and H'ville, NC

    philSweet Senior Member

    Regarding those repo maint jobs- thats a tough business. Two repos next to my parents. The yard crew does 3700 residential repos. Five guys and one gal. Do the math on that one. They average 8 minutes on site with a two man crew. Typical 1/6 acre lots.

    I seriously looked at trucking wrecked boats from Katrina up to northern Mississippi where I could buy land for 1000 an acre with no restrictions. I figured knackering boats in the winter and maybe restoring one or two a year would work. Then I checked out half a dozen salvagers and they were already flooded and I just didn't think repairing boats wholseale made sense in this economy. There are still 1000s too many boats in the US. The banks won't take them. I had access to a brand new flats boat that had been purchased by an old electrician for retirement. A week later his wife got cancer and she died a few months later. The economy tanked and he hadn't been paying attention and he ended up declaring bankruptcy a year later. Bank wouldn't take the boat. Took every other damn thing including 12 year old rustbucket vans, but not the boat. Finally, the accountant who was handling the bankruptcy had me tow it to the bank parking lot on the morning of the final bankruptcy hearing. The bank pretended they didn't know who it belonged to and had it impounded- their own bloody boat!!! Everybody in town knew the story of that boat. It was basically available on the down low for a year.
     
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