U.S. brokers look north to sell rising boat inventory. Sell A Boat

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Faltering American economy and election-year jitters put Canadian buyers in the driver's seat.
Faced with a faltering economy and election-year jitters among consumers, American yacht brokers are looking north of the border to find customers for their growing inventory of boats.

The Canadian dollar reaching parity with the U.S. greenback piqued interest in cross-border boat shopping among Canadians, and even now with the dollar at a weaker 93 cents US, Allen Powell, president of the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association, said Canadians are still heading south in search of boats.

"We've had Canadians coming all the way down here," said Powell, who owns Capital City Yachts in Olympia, Wash., which primarily sells trawlers from 45 to 75 feet, ranging from $580,000 US to over $1 million. "We just delivered a brand new powerboat to a Canadian, and we just delivered a sailboat that was built in Canada and is going back to Canada.

"Our goal is to encourage your fellow countrymen to come and look and to look seriously because there is a lot of inventory that brokers are anxious to sell," he said. "Frankly, a lot of people, ourselves included, are looking at getting the '09 models in and not having to worry about the '08 models that are still here."

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Just as real estate here has switched from a sellers' to a buyers' market, boat buyers in the U.S. are now in the driver's seat. Powell said with election years traditionally weaker for those luxury purchases, the November presidential vote is only making it more difficult to sell boats to Americans.

"The dollar parity has helped for sure, and I think your economy has been more robust. It is certainly more stable," said Powell. "It seems to me that has helped, and I assume that has brought some people who might have been sitting on the fence to buy.

"The other thing that has been helpful to Canadian buyers is that there is more inventory, and so the choices are greater."

Like the auto business, gas guzzlers are the new pariahs on the water, and Powell said there has been a shift to more efficient powerboats and sailboats, driven by concern for the environment as well as concern for pocketbooks.

"The sailboat inventory is probably at one of the lowest [points], it is a lot lower than last year," he said, adding that the same cannot be said for twin gas-engine powerboats.

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"People can certainly afford the boat, but they would rather not spend $10,000 a year on fuel," he said of those 40-foot-plus gas-felled boats.

"People are looking for conservative purchases. They are concerned about fuel costs, but also about their carbon footprint," he said.

"We are educating our purchasers that they should look locally first, and if they want to buy something in Seattle or south of the border, we can act for them, just as a real estate agent does when they are buying a house," he said. "We use our expertise to help them import a boat."

Costs can vary, but generally Canadian buyers will be paying GST and provincial sales tax on boats they bring in from the U.S. And depending on where the boat was manufactured, they may also face costs for duty.

"Generally speaking, the selection is better," said Horne. "There is a perception that the U.S. economy is weak and there are bargains galore, but in reality the boats that are repossessed are older boats and they have been let go. The buys aren't phenomenal."

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