Unfortunately I have not had a chance all week to work on the boat. I have been busy getting a new business up and running. As a result of starting this build I have needed to buy a lot of boat related products, and what I have discovered is that pricing for a lot of these products in Australia is way more than the same products in other markets, specifically the USA. There is no good reason for it, other than our geographic isolation. But the internet is changing that. For example, electronics, a decent chart plotter in Australia is almost double what the same unit costs in the USA. I found a friend of mine a branded windless AU$800 cheaper than the recommended retail here by buying it on EBay. It was delivered from Canada $800 cheaper, still with full international warranty.

Why would anyone not take advantage of that? About the only reasons we can think of is the high cost of freighting heavy things in singles (making the difference in price reduce in a lot of cases) and also peoples fear of being ripped off by someone in another country on the internet. So, I have started to import boat related products to remove some of that fear and allow locals to buy from a local at a much reduced price. I am also importing in bulk so much of the freight costs are reduced by bringing in container loads. And of course my overhead is very low and as a result so is my mark up. So because of my freight savings I am as cheap as if they bought it themselves overseas without the risk. I have 2 qualified shipwrights checking everything I propose to import to let me know if they approve of the quality and because they buy at wholesale from a lot of suppliers they also let me know if the saving is enough to make it worthwhile.

To start I have boat hatches but more items will follow. As my motto goes, imported by boat builders for boat builders.