Over the years we have seen and heard of many horror stories from boat and yacht importers, mainly from the inexperienced private importers.
The three common themes are
- Bad packing / Cradles
- Quarantine Issues
- Unexpected Charges
In containerized cargo bad packing and quarantine issues can come hand in hand. This has got to a stage where we have made our own black list of packers in the USA which we will not deal with due to risk of injury and damage to the boats, yachts and cars when unpacking their containers.
It is important to ensure you are dealing with reputable companies when purchasing any product from overseas especially high value products boats, yachts cars, motor bikes and jetskis. We offer an escrow / secure payment service in the USA to help importers reduce risk upon purchase.
We also recommend you always should arrange shipping with a local company in Australia and have the charges to be paid freight collect, (please note with large boats and yachts this may not be possible, but you should always ask!) we have seen and heard of several boats brokers throughout the world collecting freight money and not paying the freight to the shipping line forcing importers to pay the freight a 2nd time to the shipping line to gain release or be forced to pay expensive wharf storage charges. Paying freight collect reduces risk, as the company you are paying the freight too, is in Australia. It is a very hard process to take legal action on companies overseas.
We have designed our website to cover all of the risks with shipping as in many cases it may not be worthwhile, but in others it can be very beneficial if done correctly. Here are some of the horrors we have seen, included a spiders infectation, a boat without a cradle at all, colapsed cradle and a boat with a scratches and termites!
The most important thing about making an international purchase is making sure you know exactly what you are buying. We have a list of accredited marine surveyors listed in our find a surveyor page. This is the first and most important step before releasing funds to the boat or yacht seller.Marine insurance is void without a survey as well.
Below are photos of 40′ Sea ray which Quarantine found termites on arrival in Fremantle. The costs were approximately $12,000, cranes, transport to Quarantine for fumigation and transport back to the wharf, and that excludes any repairs on the boat. The importer refused a survey and paid the price.
