Show us ya BOAT bling!

[Emo]

Originally Posted by CK

EMO, why not talk us through that exercise?
I'm sure it'd make good reading.
How'd ya find it?
What research ya did?
How'd ya get it checked out and shipped?
Was it what you expected when it arrived?
Ya get the drift.

For those who may be interested here is a rundown on how I went about getting a boat from the states into my garage from start to finish.

Once I decided to go down the path to importing a boat I discovered a web site called 'Boat Export USA.com'
https://www.boatexportusa.com/ This is a USA based business.
I started searching for boat in my budget and requirements. This site lists purchase prices in USD. The process is to make an offer or request a shipping quote. I requested shipping quotes on a number of boats and actually decided to proceed with a few but they we all sold by the time I could purchase. I think this website has old listings still active and hence it can be a bit of a time waster.

After some frustration I found out about a company called import usa boat
https://import-usa-boat.com.au/
This is an Aussie business.
Ian Mcindoe runs the business. They can help find the boat you want and do all the import stuff.
I tried to secure a number of boats that I found myself using the US based boat sales websites and dealership ads, however I was still finding lots of the boats advertised were already sold. Ian also had a list of boat models and my budget and was actively sending me links to boats he found online himself.

After some time I decided to search facebook marketplace (by changing my location to a US based location). This is where I found my boat and I made an offer to see if he would drop his price to into my budget, he agreed to a price and I handed over the details to Ian who took over from there.
I did not get the boat inspected or anything (risky I guess).
At the same time Ian provides a shipping price to me so I can see the whole cost of the purchase (but not everything)....

The process from there was Ians contacts in the states negotiated with the seller without letting him know the boat is being bought for someone else. The seller assumed they were just a normal local buyer. Once they negotiated the price (which was reported as higher than what I had negotiated but I think the business puts some margin on the sale price to pay for their service).
Next step is to pay the money for the boat into an account which gets sent to the USA for the guy who collects the boat.
Once the money is in they went to the sellers house and paid for it and collected the boat (dunno who they are but Ian has contacts who do this for him). They then transport it to the Port where it will be shipped from.

After this it is a matter of waiting for about 6 weeks for it to get to Aus.

There's some boring paperwork required during the shipping time.

Once it arrived at Port Melbourne I had to pay GST on the boat, also a Port fee and then an AQIS inspection fee and subsequent cleaning fee.

Once this was all paid and the cleaning /AQIS inspection completed I went and collected it.

The next steps are to register it at Vicroads which isn't too hard. (I had to make the trailer compliant by fitting brakes and new lights).

The total cost of all this came to around $10k AU. (not including purchase price of the boat).

So with todays USD/AUD conversion doing this might not be a cheap way of getting a bass boat compared to buying locally but for the type of boat I wanted I didn't have an alternative as I couldn't find this style fish/ski bass boat in Australia.

Hope that helps understand what's involved. I would add that Ian from Import USA Boat (he has a facebook and website) was very good to deal with and was very reassuring along the way, he dealt with all the logistics and made it easy and relatively stress free.

[TheChief]

Originally Posted by Emo

For those who may be interested here is a rundown on how I went about getting a boat from the states into my garage from start to finish.

Once I decided to go down the path to importing a boat I discovered a web site called 'Boat Export USA.com'
https://www.boatexportusa.com/ This is a USA based business.
I started searching for boat in my budget and requirements. This site lists purchase prices in USD. The process is to make an offer or request a shipping quote. I requested shipping quotes on a number of boats and actually decided to proceed with a few but they we all sold by the time I could purchase. I think this website has old listings still active and hence it can be a bit of a time waster.

After some frustration I found out about a company called import usa boat
https://import-usa-boat.com.au/
This is an Aussie business.
Ian Mcindoe runs the business. They can help find the boat you want and do all the import stuff.
I tried to secure a number of boats that I found myself using the US based boat sales websites and dealership ads, however I was still finding lots of the boats advertised were already sold. Ian also had a list of boat models and my budget and was actively sending me links to boats he found online himself.

After some time I decided to search facebook marketplace (by changing my location to a US based location). This is where I found my boat and I made an offer to see if he would drop his price to into my budget, he agreed to a price and I handed over the details to Ian who took over from there.
I did not get the boat inspected or anything (risky I guess).
At the same time Ian provides a shipping price to me so I can see the whole cost of the purchase (but not everything)....

The process from there was Ians contacts in the states negotiated with the seller without letting him know the boat is being bought for someone else. The seller assumed they were just a normal local buyer. Once they negotiated the price (which was reported as higher than what I had negotiated but I think the business puts some margin on the sale price to pay for their service).
Next step is to pay the money for the boat into an account which gets sent to the USA for the guy who collects the boat.
Once the money is in they went to the sellers house and paid for it and collected the boat (dunno who they are but Ian has contacts who do this for him). They then transport it to the Port where it will be shipped from.

After this it is a matter of waiting for about 6 weeks for it to get to Aus.

There's some boring paperwork required during the shipping time.

Once it arrived at Port Melbourne I had to pay GST on the boat, also a Port fee and then an AQIS inspection fee and subsequent cleaning fee.

Once this was all paid and the cleaning /AQIS inspection completed I went and collected it.

The next steps are to register it at Vicroads which isn't too hard. (I had to make the trailer compliant by fitting brakes and new lights).

The total cost of all this came to around $10k AU. (not including purchase price of the boat).

So with todays USD/AUD conversion doing this might not be a cheap way of getting a bass boat compared to buying locally but for the type of boat I wanted I didn't have an alternative as I couldn't find this style fish/ski bass boat in Australia.

Hope that helps understand what's involved. I would add that Ian from Import USA Boat (he has a facebook and website) was very good to deal with and was very reassuring along the way, he dealt with all the logistics and made it easy and relatively stress free.

Thanks for putting the effort in to post all that info!

[HB tragic]

^^^ What he said +1. Interesting read. Regards, HBt.

[Emo]

Originally Posted by TheChief

Thanks for putting the effort in to post all that info!

Originally Posted by HB tragic

^^^ What he said +1. Interesting read. Regards, HBt.

No worries guys, I don’t post much here these days but remember how good it was back in the day and would love to see the site bounce back, so I might make an effort to post more.

[HB tragic]

Not boat bling as such but my latest purchase will allow me to 'walk on water' in some of the local systems down the track. . Regards, HBt.

[CK]

Originally Posted by Emo

No worries guys, I don’t post much here these days but remember how good it was back in the day and would love to see the site bounce back, so I might make an effort to post more.

You are not an island there mate.
Many of us remember how good it was and feel that we have lost something.
We are ALL to blame for its demise if that's the right word to use. I say right word because it's still here and has a pulse.
I'm sure we can ALL put in a little effort and help to resurrect BM to its former glory!
EMO, that's a REALY useful post and one that I'm will have many searching the links on a "what if" scenario.
Well done on a very useful post

[yellow door 1]

Yeah good onya Emo. Interesting read👍

[IceManDude]

Originally Posted by Emo

Cheers Chief, We don't really have a locally made boat that ticks the same boxes down here do we?
Most fish Ski's are deeper V, bowrider and open space at the stern. The US ones like this have better casting decks, higher power outboards, and live wells etc.

It's Not as fish-able as a Bass boat but a pretty good compromise, just wish it had the ability to store rods better than it does.

You should've built one mate...lol

[Emo]

Originally Posted by IceManDude

You should've built one mate...lol

I wouldn’t have the patience for that, I’d get it to floating point and then start using it

[IceManDude]

Originally Posted by Emo

I wouldn’t have the patience for that, I’d get it to floating point and then start using it

I totally understand... i'm at that point but i know i have soooooo much more to do.