New Member

[Graeme K]

Hi all. I own an '05 Albin 30 FC. blue hull, hull No 22, with a Perkins Sabre Ti. I bought it in Somers Point New Jersey in '09 and had it shipped to Australia. The boat was trucked from Somers Point to Baltimore MD Port, where a shipping cradle was made on the docks.The boat was then loaded on a Marfie and on to the 'Tamesis' - a rolling cargo vessel. (Have photos of loading).
Baltimore to Melbourne took from 29th August to 3rd October, then a short stint from the docks to quarantine, where she sat for 2 weeks. The last leg was a 5 hour road trip down the east coast of Victoria to Gippsland.
I renamed the boat Somers Point, being the last place where she left US waters. She is now at Tambo Marine (Marina) at Johnsonville, near Lakes Entrance, Victoria, where we enjoy river, lakes and off shore boating.
Cheers - Graeme K
'05 Albin 30 FC
Perkins Sabre 265 Ti

[johnmurray]

Welcome Graeme...our little A-30FC fleet is slowly growing!

[jcollins]

Graeme,
Welcome to AOG. Post pictures of Somers Point journey. That would be interesting.

[marko]

Welcome to the group Graeme. I've heard of other boats being purchased in the States and shipped to Australia. It seems there may not be enough supply in Australia if you check Yacht World. Is that the case? Is there also a favorable exchange rate? It seems on the surface that it would be very expensive to ship a good size boat from Baltimore to you. Any photos would be very interesting. Thanks.

[kathylsails]

Welcome to another FC 30 owner!

[Graeme K]

Hi all,
Thanks Marko. With only a few manufacturers of boats in Australia in the over 30' class we have always had to pay a premium for anything bigger than a trailer boat. Since the GFC and devaluation of US$, however, we have finally been able to afford to purchase boats directly from USA and have them shipped to Australia. Price for shipping varies, but a good estimate would be about $1000 per foot for boats that can be shipped on a roll-on roll-off vessel. Cost can be a lot less for smaller boats that will fit in a shipping container and a lot more for bigger vessels that are 'floated' over here on one of the special submersible float-on float-off cargo vessels. This direct importing has been happening for years now and the local price of larger boats has dropped considerably compared to the pre GFC prices. The exchange rate is still very good for us, with one Australian dollar being worth around US $1.04, where we are more used to the Australian dollar being worth around
US $0.70 - US $0.80

Graeme
2005 Albin 30FC
Perkins Sabre 265Ti

[Graeme K]

Hi John,
Thanks to all for the welcome. Attempting to upload about 10 photos. Graeme.

[Graeme K]

Hi John - think I'm doing this wrong somewhere!. Graeme.

[Graeme K]

Hi John,
Oops, no pictures! Gremlins in the works in our computer, but have worked it out now. Will resend photos in the next few days.
Do we upload to the New Member site or is there somewhere else.
Graeme

[jcollins]

Hi Graeme,
You can post up to 10 within the same message if you like. You can also post photos in the Photos forum or just about anywhere else. We're not too picky about that around here. To upload photos. Start a message, click on the "upload attachment" tab, click on browse, then click on Add the file, then submit when you are finished.

BTW...I'll cleanup those <blank> messages.

Thanks!

[marko]

Graeme:
It may be just me, but what is GFC? Hope you have some luck with the photos. I guess you're getting ready for spring. Appreciate the info.
Thanks.

[Graeme K]

Hi Marko,
We have a bad habit here of abbreviating things: Global Financial Crisis is what I should have said. It is two weeks into Spring here, slowly warming up. Average daily temperature around 20C. We use the boat through winter. This year I installed a Webasto oil heater. Our winters are mild - around 10 C compared with what you have to cope with in your winters. Hard for us to imagine.
Regards - Graeme.

[tbnolin]

Nice pics...certainly an interesting journey! Good Luck!

[Veebyes2]

Welcome to the group. I have imported 3 boats into Bermuda over the years. What is the purpose of the quarantine? Don't have it here. The boat is customs inspected, you pay the import duty, the boat is released to you.

[marko]

Graeme:
Thanks for the info and photos.
Mark