Importing Second Hand Yacht

[dunrudin]

Greetings.

Anyone have experience of importing a second hand yacht into Thailand? I was thinking around 25 ft.

[LeungKen]

Greetings.

Anyone have experience of importing a second hand yacht into Thailand? I was thinking around 25 ft.

Can't wait to see the answer on this one.

But after my small dealings with Thai Customs officials ..--..Forget It

Perhaps I'm wrong ?

[Goshawk]

What a great question, and Chiang Mai being the the centre of Thailand's yachting world, you can expect a flood of answers to come sailing in. Well, Possibly..

[Mid]

the boss of this company is a good guy , your questions are one's he is familiar with .

www.latitude8yachts.com/cats.html

there's a phone # on the web site

best

mid

[Donnyboy]

What a great question, and Chiang Mai being the the centre of Thailand's yachting world, you can expect a flood of answers to come sailing in. Well, Possibly..

I heard that the Chiang Mai Royal Sailing Club is entering the next Americas Cup

[wimpy]

No duty is assessed on imported boats, new or used. You do have to pay the VAT. This is thanks to a Taksin law, designed to promote the boating industry. Haven't actually done it, but have researched it fully. Seems pretty straight forward.

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

I really don't know anything about importing boats, but according to the Customs database there's a 35% statutory ad valorem rate on sailing boats (category 8903.91.00), however when clicking through to see the details, most importer categories are listed as being exempted, which probably fits right in with what wimpy's saying above.

Search the tariffs yourself here: http://igtf.customs.go.th/igtf/viewerImpor...do?param=langEn

[cloudhopper]

Wimpy has it right. I believe the current VAT is 7% of the assessed value of the boat.

[jumnien]

Shouldn't be difficult and yes you will have to pay the 7% VAT. Currently, I'm importing a new 25' Crownline bowrider from the USA. Airplanes and boats are actually some of the easier and cheaper (taxwise) things to import into Thailand.

[p1p]

I am moving this to General a it has no relation with Chiang Mai whatsoever

[Dakhar]

I don't think it will be worth the effort or costs. You can find that type of boat here already, and probably for the same costs for the trouble you will be going through. I looked at haveing a custom power boat buitl. 30 ft or so, the cost was around 70K, but finding a marina that was not ourtrageously priced was the problem.

[Hog Head]

I am bringing my boat here, but am registering it in Canada so as to avoid the VAT, but will will need to post a bond.

Be aware that you will need a Thai Cptn Certificate to operate a Thai boat.

Note that it is assessed value for VAT. Be prepared to document the cost

[steveromagnino]

I have done exactly what you are proposing, and will outline exactly what is involved.

Taxes and charges:

- 1% duty for registration as a Thai vessel

- 7% VAT calculated on value of the vessel plus shipping to get it here

- various customs handling fees such as inspection, overtime, container management, delivery - exactly as you would get if you shipped something anyway, although the costs compared to say USA or NZ will be in total rather lower - port handling charges in some countries are bordering on robbery LOL

You are allowed to own a boat of this size outright no problem. You do not need any additional paperwork unless you intend to formally run the boat as a charter boat (which I assume the Canadian approach is designed to bypass) - at 25 feet I have doubt you could charter it at all unless it is a 4KSB of the utmost Macgregor type spec. VAT on assessed value - I suggest you have some paperwork of any sort - even a pro forma invoice - to support how you came up with the value; I don't see the point in trying to scam out of 7%; 7% is far less than most other countries anyway; easiest to just use what you paid for it and be done.

IF you bring the boat in, bring everything in at once; the 35% duty applies to various parts and fittings, but the boat in its entirety gets 0% duty. By way of example, I am bringing in a set of kevlar sails (monster square top main oh yes) and that will theoretically attract 35% duty; however if I had been smart enough to send it over with my boat as a second set of sails, then it would be 0%. Outboard ditto. I DID bring in a ton of extra sheets and pulleys etc, no problem at all...trailer no issue. I can state the sail thing as fact; my boat has 4 jibs, 2 kites - no problem at all there in getting 0% on the lot.

So...if you end up with a boat, but then decide you do want to bring in that code zero, or to flick on a Doyle Statris main or increase the gennie by 50% with a new prod, then you have to go through code by code for individual parts for the boat, some are 35% some have recently reduced in 2006; such as spars, which are now 10%; however you have to go through carefully; a carbon mast for instance can be a tube or it can be a mast or a marine accessory, I think the rates are 5%, 10% or 15% depending on which one you choose!

The spreadsheet links sent through is theoretical for the customs, but there is a large book that has the listings of all alterations which does not tie up directly at least not to the english version for parts just at a guess:

and then there are excemptions....

'7 Parts and accessories of aircrafts or vessels including materials imported to be used for repair or construction of aircrafts or vessels or parts of the said aircrafts or vessels. Note : The duty exemption and goods to be exempted in this heading have to be under rules and conditions specified by the Director General of Customs with approval of the Minister of Finance. '

What sort of boat are you bringing in and from where? Please PM me, I might be willing to share costs of shipping to plonk some other stuff into the container......

I can strongly recommend keeping a boat on a trailer here; there are lots of nasty organisms in the water, it only takes a few days to get a sea of growth on the hull even with antifoul; trailering for a 25 foot sailboat makes more sense and is cheaper. Trailer per month should be in the realm of 3500-4000b a month; marina for the same size boat might be double or triple that. I keep mine at OM, a few options in Phuket, some ways presumably to look after the boat in Samui and Koh Chang; can you tell me what sort of boat this is? Will you race it as well? Where will you keep it?

There are other options for buying new locally, but it ISN"T a power boat, and most of the well priced boats built locally are stinkboats. There are some 8m or so cats built locally such as the Prescott from Lat 8 linked by Mid, and the double masted beast from Samui area which is supposed to be a high speed beast; the Phuket 8 which is a mighty nice machine (in fact the fastest one for sale available now for about $27k USD) but retails for about 2m baht and is on par with a Farr 40 almost; a couple of second hand sportboats in Pattaya about 400-600,000b for the Thompsons and then there are the Platus which are a foul little slow boat but have good OD racing and a great rating in IRC/SBR. Alternatively, the Shaw 650s which will beat most of the boats in Thailand except the P8 and a few of the cats will be about 800,000b brand new locally built complete.

All depends on the type of boat you are bringing in though as to whether there is something local that is similar. For monohulls at least, anything slower than the Platus will be mighty painful to race; so all those rubbish USA boats like J22s, J27s, J24s and other horrid little 4KSBs...you are wasting your time if you want to race it, as you will be still sailing long after most of the other boats are back home. For interior, well something like an Elliot 7.4 or similar would be to me the perfect boat to own here; fast enough to race, interior for cruising for 4 people, airy and probably good resale if you ever decided to sell it. Plus trailerable so you can keep it out of the water.

Anyway, I am pleased to share what i know about this; have already helped a couple of other people doing the same thing....

Edited October 15, 2007 by steveromagnino

[dunrudin]

Many thanks boaties. Goshawk, you have egg on your face. Donnyboy, aren't your mob playing rugby against the Cook Island ladies fifteen?

I take the point especially about stocking up with spares, sails etc. I was thinking of sailing the beast whatever it turns out to be, from Australia and leaving it on a trailer in Krabi. I can whizz down for holidays. I had not thought iof chartering. That's a whole different can of worms. After 40 years of sailing and three years of abstinence, I'm getting twitchy!

[steveromagnino]

Many thanks boaties. Goshawk, you have egg on your face. Donnyboy, aren't your mob playing rugby against the Cook Island ladies fifteen?

I take the point especially about stocking up with spares, sails etc. I was thinking of sailing the beast whatever it turns out to be, from Australia and leaving it on a trailer in Krabi. I can whizz down for holidays. I had not thought iof chartering. That's a whole different can of worms. After 40 years of sailing and three years of abstinence, I'm getting twitchy!

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Loser Loser Loser!

How does it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel?

This is about the time I claim I am not a choking Kiwi, and play my Thai nationality Anyway, suffice to say you lot will be competing with the Cook Islands ladies 15 right after we finish with them :-)

The type of trailerable boat you would want in Krabi is not some 4KSB, you want something with some pace that trailers as well. I would strongly recommend a reasonably well ballasted trailerable like:

Elliot 7m; Elliot 770; Elliot 780; Elliot 7.4

or

Ross 780

or

Young 780

I am not sure any of these would be suitable for sailing up from Australia!!!

The type of boat for ocean sailing (and 25 feet is pretty small!) would be a bit of a dog to sail around Krabi plus probably not trailerable anyway; the winds aren't that strong ya know!

Another alternative would be a trailerable Farrier F24/Corsair 24; these would be quick and safe. Still would not sail it from Aussie to Thailand though. not sure why you want to buy in Aussie, presumably you are an Australian; FYI Aussie dollar is sky high plus Australia is expensive for boats anyway, and most of the Aussie boats are sh1tters anyway the Kiwi boats are cheaper and most of the same designs anyway; after all most of the decent boats in the world are Farrs, Youngs, Shaws, Elliots, Rosses, Dibleys, Thompsons or BBW. All Kiwis mate.

I do have one other idea; there is a boat in New Zealand called Custard Truck that has your name written all over it. 7m, stacking frames, 4 trapezes and a 80kg bulb. That would be ideal for sailing up here.