Australia - Pacific Crossing Notes: A Sailor's Guide to the Coconut Milk Run - page 453

What Sells
What type of boat sells well? What is the Australian market looking for? I asked Anita Far-
ine of Farine Yacht Sales in Brisbane, who speaks from fifteen years of experience. In gen-
eral, she says, the most sought-after boats are solid fiberglass monohulls in the thirty to
fifty foot range dating from the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s. Older vessels also sell, she
says, but for much lower prices. To illustrate the range of possibilities: Anita once sold a
fifty foot Halberg-Rassy for AUD$500,000 back to back with a Westsail thirty-two for
AUD$60,000. “If it's a boat,” she says, “I can sell it!”
What about multihulls? South African-built catamarans in the forty to fifty foot range get a
lot of attention, though many of them price beyond the reach of the average buyer. The
Australian market sees a lot of domestically built and homemade cats, whereas the popula-
tion relies more heavily on imports when it comes to cruising monohulls. Still, Anita
stressed, given a realistic asking price, just about any type of boat, rig, or hull material can
sell.
There seem to be two groups of buyers in Australia: the first are pleasure sailors, who ap-
preciate well-equipped cruising boats. Much of Australia's coast is rugged and exposed, so
they look for good sail inventory, safety equipment, and a full range of electronics. The
second group is primarily looking to save costs by living aboard. These are often people
who work in remote mining camps for several weeks at a time before returning to a home
base. For them, life rafts and watermakers are far less important than comfort and livability.
Price is obviously a major point for buyers, and it's a savvy market. Buyers will hunt
widely for good deals even if import fees mean that most boats list for higher prices in
Australia than they would in North America or Europe. Beware of pricing your boat signi-
ficantly higher than others in its class, citing extras like electronics, life rafts, and a wide
inventory of sails. These are highly negotiable points, and you don't want to price yourself
out of the market. With plenty of reasonably priced boats available, any vessel that seems
overpriced - regardless of how well-equipped it may be - is unlikely to attract a buyer.
Lesson number one: don't aim for the stars in an asking price. One boat we know that listed
at a very optimistic price languished in a marina berth for months before eventually selling
for nearly half the asking price. Reasonably-priced boats, on the other hand, attracted po-
tential buyers quickly and sold within two months. Of course, you don't want to list too
low, either. It seems that just about every buyer's first offer was AUD$10,000 or more be-