Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When to List and Where to Sell
We were hardly halfway across the Pacific before the issues of when to list a boat and
where in Australia to sell cropped up as discussion topics in beach potlucks. While it's
helpful to make contact with a broker as early as your departure from North America, it
only really makes sense to list a boat once you reach Fiji, a few months prior to your arrival
in Australia. That's close enough for the Australian buyer to conceive of the boat as being
nearly there. Some buyers, of course, will travel offshore to see a boat. One Jeanneau we
know of attracted an Australian buyer and signed a contract before they even left New
Caledonia. We nearly had a buyer come visit us in Vanuatu, though he eventually pulled
out to buy a Sydney-based vessel.
The next question is what port in Australia to sell out of. Boats generally sell best in easily
reached locations, meaning a marina berth in an area served by domestic airlines. High
marina fees put Sydney out of the question for us. We headed to Scarborough, a suburb of
Brisbane, to base our boat in a marina with reasonable fees (AUD$500 a month for our
thirty-five footer, AUD$600 for forty-three feet). Brisbane is the second biggest city in
Australia with a high concentration of boats, and frequent air connections allow buyers to
fly in from any part of Australia.
Another place frequently cited as a good base to sell a boat is Bundaberg, 200 nautical
miles north of Brisbane. Several crews we spoke with reported making profitable sales here
in years past. However, this trend may be on the wane. For many years, Bundaberg's repu-
tation rode the coattails of the popular “Port2Port” cruising rally which helped stock the
local market. The demise of the rally might well mean the demise of the market in
Bundaberg, especially given that connections in and out of the regional airport are limited.
Still, a handful of sailors swear on Bundaberg, and who's to argue with success?
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