Buy a boat from China?
 

I thought this looked a bit weird even for eBay. Lets see what we can find wrong with this deal.http://www.donzi.org/forum/images/smilies/whee.gif

Brand New 17.7' Boat For 8 Person With Trailer Free Ship By Sea

6690.00 buy it now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Brand...item20ca8e7d4e

Not bad only takes 35 days to get it

Ok let me see what I can drum up.. 8 people? If you want it to sink sure, and speaking of sinking made in china? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayKOlLhlQsc.. Thats all i got besides boating season will be over by time it gets here. :party-smiley-004:

Wonder how long before they start splashing Skaters? :whistle:

I wouldn't buy any dam thing from China, much less a boat.

Actually, there are quite a few boats made in China. Here is just an example: http://www.ocean-asia.com/ Probably the most notable is Grand Banks by American Marine, a quality built trawler from Hong Kong.

However, I'd recommend to never buy a boat from overseas without a dealer network in the good old U.S.A.

They have been making some small Glastron copies for a few years. They were trying to get me to be a dealer for them. NOT gonna happen!

Take a look at his other items he is selling

What do you think the guys pushing on the bow were trying to do? Nice find on the video.

Ever see how many people fit on a boat in China? Theyre probably stuffing twice that number in the heartland!

They say if Your digging a hole an keep digging You will come out in China. So if You buy one of these boats an it sinks. Is it just trying to go home?? LOL Artie

How about your phone, Tv, monitor, mouse and computer. Maybe a camera, coffee pot, micro wave ..............?

With the insane prices of boats, I was wondering how long before they were being built elsewhere and shipped here.

A new family-sized boat (25-30') now costs $80,000 - 120,000. How many people have that kind of money to spend on a toy that's basically a bathtub with a motor and seats? Heck, I can almost buy a house for that. My little piece of crap boat would be $50,000+ for a new model. There's just no way I'd spend that on something I use just 20-30 days per year.

I may take some heat for this, but knowing economics as well as I do, one of the problems is that there are just too many boat companies. Small companies can't take advantage of economies of scale and technology in the building process. Since this inefficiency makes building boats a highly labor intensive process, it makes sense to do it where human labor is cheap. The only problem left is that it's still costly to ship something as big and immobile as a boat, but that cost will come down as volume increases. If we want our boating industry to succeed it needs to consolidate just like the auto industry did 70 years ago and the motorcycle industry 40 years ago.

Depending upon future currency valuations, this may be a trend.

Plenty of yachts are made in China or surrounding regions:

Cheoy Lee, San Lorenzo, Grand Banks, Marlow Explorer, Hargrave, Horizon, etc. Cheap labor, lower costs of doing business especially environmental issues = simple decision to build there and import here. In a 80-100 ft motoryacht the cost savings between a US/Italian (Azimut/Ferretti)/English (Sunseeker mainly) built yacht can pay to run the boat for the whole ownership period.

This would probably be the flagship of Chinese built boats:
151 Cheoy Lee: http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2012.../United-States

FYI there are almost 150 Cheoy Lee yachts listed on YachtWorld so they have been out there for years!

edit: http://cheoyleena.com/
Notes they have built over 5,000 boats since 1870.......

It was back in the 1970’s when Cheoy Lee began experimenting with foam coring materials, and soon recognized its advantages. This was not only for the huge saving in weight and greater strength, but also a perfect solution to the age old problems that occurred with the use of wood.

With the use of these all new core materials began a new age for Cheoy Lee. As composite materials became ever more sophisticated, and new technologies such as resin infusion proved themselves suitable for yacht construction, Cheoy Lee recognized the need for specialist structural engineering know-how to fully harness the capabilities of these materials and techniques. Enter the renowned structural engineering firm SP-High Modulus. Vastly experienced in cutting edge structural analysis, SP-High Modulus has experience ranging from America’s Cup yachts, to military craft. They also design the structure for all Cheoy Lee yachts. Boat building has changed immeasurably in the time Cheoy Lee has been in business, although some things have remained the same. Cheoy Lee, has been, and continues to be, one of the most technically advanced shipyards in the world.

It is no wonder why when you are on a Cheoy Lee you don’t notice any creaking or groaning while at sea, when climbing a staircase or walking across the cabin floor. It is because there is no plywood or for that matter no wood at all used for structure in a Cheoy Lee. What this means is that the bulkhead and cabin soles are all made out of the very same exceptionally strong material as the hull and superstructure. Utilizing resin infused foam cored composites throughout allows the structure to be laminated together as one.

Wouldn't Mexico be a competitive place to build boats ? Especially for laying up hulls. decks etc ?
ed

Yamaha and Sea Doo build quite a few boats of the same model. I think the real problem is boat builders don't employ even the most basic design and manufacturing techniques for reducing construction costs. All you have to do is look behind the dash, and you'll see what I mean. I can't believe the boat builders aren't using PCBs for this yet. What's with all this point-to-point wiring, and all the hand rigging? No wonder boats are so expensive. The boat industry is stuck in a time warp.

Michael

Can not address Chinese quality standards, but have good friends who run a Sea-doo dealership in NH. They have repeatedly had issues with the lack of quality in the boats assembled in Mexico. A recent purchase of a top model PWC, had them go through four crates to get a unit with properly applied decals, and body work without paint flaws or defects. This was a 15k machine, and now they are waiting for factory approval and damage claims to get the other three boats up to snuff. These faulty boats will not clear all the Bombardier red tape in time to market this summer. If the cosmetics are suspect, can you have confidence in the assembly of the major components?

I like the hay bales

In Hong Kong and Taiwan they've been building yachts for decades. They are very good at it. Modern factories, materials, etc. In mainland China not so much. Most of the trawler yachts are made in Taiwan. My parents had a 60ft Defever trawler, made in Taiwan in the 1970's. I was looking at them with my brother a few months ago.....

We looked at this: 1983 Defever Trawler DEFEVER 68 Power Boat For Sale - www.yachtworld.com

For a boat built in 1983. She was in excellent shape. Taiwan is more like Japan when it comes too manufacturing.

They can build anything you want in Asia and can build it just as well as anyone else. From my experience in Thailand, they lack the imagination for innovation and styling but if they have something to copy, they can do it perfectly.

Some of those big boat manufacturers mentioned previously have built beautiful boats but they probably weren't designed locally and all the styling comes direct from overseas. There's a few splashes of top brand boats here in Thailand and they're well made. If someone were to take on a build project here and had the time to watch every step of the way, you could have a boat that would stand up against the world's best. No issues with quality, you just have to watch and make sure it is all done the way you want.

RR

P.S. Not trying to steal your jobs, make America great again!

A friend of my dads is a consultant with the Seattle Art Museum and their South East Asian art collection. His house is filled with Burmese crafted teak furniture. Thailand as neighbors and Burma not being a great place to live. A lot of the Burmese craftsmen work in Thailand now. So yep for wood work, interiors. You could either build a top notch Yacht there. Or restore the interior of a classic yacht there and it will be better then new. Mainland China lacks the craftsmen skill too pull it off interior woodwork wise................

Yeah, a lot of Burmese teak is used over here on boats and furniture and it's first class. There are now special arrangements for superyachts in place to allow them to stay for extended periods in Thai waters if they're having refit work done. A good initiative to encourage visitors and promote local craftsmanship.

Still have a lot of issues here at the moment with cheap labor from Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia, mostly illegal workers because they work for about 8 usd/day whereas Thai labour is nearly 10 usd/day. It's a great place to get work done!

RR

It's because China doesn't give a f*k about anyone or anything. Simple !

Just be aware this thread is 5 years old, and was brought back to the top by a spammer. Much of this is not relevant anymore.

I don't care if they begin making top notch stuff. The reality, their eminent domain is move of we kill your entire family. They take over small villages and build factories. You are no longer a farmer. You make iPhones now! Its a brutal country. They banned a religion there. They don't protest at there embassy here in Vancouver anymore. Partly because they'd put spies in the protests. Find out if they had family back in China. Then kill their family back in China.

https://www.straight.com/news/906706...canadian-woman

The Chinese kill them for their organs. Its a sick brutal country, not just because they torture and eat dogs.

Um... wouldn't trust it. Especially not when lives are at stake.

I would have no problem buying a boat made in China, they make just about everything else. I would, however, have a big problem with buying that thing. I would give up boating before I was seen in one of those. No offense.