Cross the pond to sell a boat?

Any thoughts on sailing a boat on its own bottom to UK from the US to put up for sale?

I am thinking/wondering if the market is sufficiently strong there for a quality US build sailboat of modest size say a 38 or 40' and modest price ~100k USD.

Given the exchange rate, cost of the trip and trouble of selling in an unknown market, is there any sense to the ideal?
Obvious pitfalls I have missed?

The objective of course is to fetch a higher price for the vessel..

Today: 1 British pound sterling = 1.6201 US dollars

 

Pitfall #1: VAT

 

OK, VAT, and looking around I am seeing the need for a ce certificate as well?

 

You need to CE certify it. Also, there will be wear and tear in the equivalent of maybe five to ten years of normal use. Add the airfare and whatever your time and crew's is worth. Also, the food, fuel and other supplies. That is assuming nothing breaks. The insurance for offshore sailing is expensive too. Unless you have already sold it and delivery is included, it doesn't make sense. I just spent the last year and half in Europe and have an updated view of the market. They have a lot of boats for sale that are not moving.

 

The speed at which you can sell a boat and how much profit you make is all dependent on what you paid for it.

You should buy a boat as though you did'nt want it.

There is no other way.

 

CE certification is not an issue if you have a pedigree American built yacht.

You would be wise to seek the advice of a major European brokerage house when endeavouring to sell to European customers.

Also consider ... you may dream about surfing thru the Needles, the Solent , St Malo or Portofino, but the Caribbean and North America are the Fantasy cruising grounds for Europeans.

British or Europeans may well prefer to purchase a quality North American yacht that is already stationed in North American for their cruise.

The exchange rate difference on a 100k boat is chump change when calculating the the cost of fitting out, insuring and sailing a yacht across the Atlantic.

Speak to a well established European Yacht Broker before committing

 

CE is always an issue if you want to sell a boat in the EU. American businesses are notorious for not following international standards.

 

Let me change direction on this thread.

If using brokers:

I am wondering about how the brokers interest plays out in the value realized from the sale of a boat.

At first blush it seems that the sellers and brokers interests are one: a higher price realized nets the broker and seller a greater return.

I question this though.
A simple calculus tells that the broker is better served by volume of sales than price per unit.

If the broker can move 8 boats during a year at 100k, his profit is smaller than moving selling 10 of the same boats at 90k.

His incentive it seems will be to drop the price to the point of brisk sales.

In our case. Each individual sale at the lower price point is a loss of 10k for his boat to enable the broker to increase his profits for the year.

So how does one realize the market value for a vessel?

 

I don't understand your question

 

ya- reading my post I can't find one.
So...

Q: If using a broker to sell a vessel, how does one use the value set by the agent if this value may be influenced by the brokers willingness to trade quality of sale (higher price) for quantity of sales (his yearly profit)?

 

Who says he would want a fast turnover? why would he want that ,he does'nt own them, he does'nt pay for storage or deteriation infact the only overhead he has is the office --if they have one.

It costs nothing to keep it on the books,-- even better if he has an exclusive closed contract with you.

I would have thought that the huge marinas and the amount of boat in Us would make it very competitive and a good place to buy.

I have found that In Uk people think a 40 footer is big ocean going vessel.

I hate brokers anyway.

 

So if I understand correctly, you would buy boats in the USA and then find brokers in Europe to move them for you. If they sell them, you would sail the boats, at your expense, to Europe. Possible but hard. Unless the buyer and/or broker knows and trusts you, the risks are too high. That means that the price of the boat has to be super cheap for a buyer to take the risk.

 

Im not sure who you are addressing your question to Gonzo

 

bntii

 

Thanks all.

I am just muddling through yet another thing which I don't know much about..

Basically I am trying to get at the best options I face for selling a quality vessel given the natural bias of the seller, buyer and the agent of these two parties: the broker.