New guy from Germany

[InflatablesGuy]

Hi!

I am from Germany and I am basically completely new to the business. Just a few month ago I did my certifications here in Germany (some licences for driving boat and vhf). I have no boat yet. However, I am aiming to import cheap chinese inflatable boat. It is more cheaper for me, since I cannot afford the high prices here in Germany. I am also interested in RIBs, but they are out of range for me, maybe I will import someday a cheap chinese RIB.

Looking forward to discuss especially inflatable boat related topics, since this is the kind of boat which will be my first boat. I want to use it with an outboard enginge, approx. between 20-50 hp. Furthermore I am also interested in topic CE certification and delcaration of conformity, but I guess most of my questions and knowledge is related to German law, so of limited use for this community.

[Fenlander]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Do you mean you hope to direct import an unbranded SIB from China yourself... or do you mean import from the UK a known Chinese made brand such as Honwave?

20hp-50hp is in the range for the largest and fastest SIBs.. anything over 30hp is usually for commercial or expedition quality craft. Many Chinese SIBs for the leisure market will be limited to 25/30hp even for the larger models.

A more normal SIB outboard range would be 10hp-25hp.

Are you going to use a trailer?.

If you ask with more details in the "inflatable" forum section there will be loads of advice.

[Bushrider]

Hallo Landsmann aus Norddeutschland !
If you want to go for a low budget but sea going RIB I recommend you to look for a Searider .
Although I had to learn a new english word that Seariders are "f"-ugly they are hard to beat .
I made it with my 5.4 Round Ireland and I would not consider a chinese boat for that .
I also started with a SIB (4.20m) but sold it after the first trip at the Mediterranean .
If you look for topics related to German regulations you can also find here knowledgable people :
Schlauchboot-Forum

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by InflatablesGuy

Hi!

I am from Germany and I am basically completely new to the business. Just a few month ago I did my certifications here in Germany (some licences for driving boat and vhf). I have no boat yet. However, I am aiming to import cheap chinese inflatable boat. It is more cheaper for me, since I cannot afford the high prices here in Germany. I am also interested in RIBs, but they are out of range for me, maybe I will import someday a cheap chinese RIB.

Looking forward to discuss especially inflatable boat related topics, since this is the kind of boat which will be my first boat. I want to use it with an outboard enginge, approx. between 20-50 hp. Furthermore I am also interested in topic CE certification and delcaration of conformity, but I guess most of my questions and knowledge is related to German law, so of limited use for this community.

Welcome to Ribnet
You may have to wait for a Cheap Chinese RIB however....I read they're running out of Materials!!
....sending Vast Container lands of large poorly built "Boats" to certain Nr Eastern county's is finally catching up!

[InflatablesGuy]

Originally Posted by Fenlander

Do you mean you hope to direct import an unbranded SIB from China yourself... or do you mean import from the UK a known Chinese made brand such as Honwave?

20hp-50hp is in the range for the largest and fastest SIBs.. anything over 30hp is usually for commercial or expedition quality craft. Many Chinese SIBs for the leisure market will be limited to 25/30hp even for the larger models. A more normal SIB outboard range would be 10hp-25hp.

Are you going to use a trailer?.

Hi! Yes, direct import. No, not from UK. And yes, 20-50hp. 10hp is not enough. So at least 25hp. I think thats what I will aim at - if I get more, fine. No, I don't want to use a trailer. I know, sounds weird, but I somehow try to get around it, since I actually have to carry it in public transportation or store it in the backside of a car? I know, I was already told that I have somehow wrong expectations and that it won't work out what I want. Only thing I know is that e.g. Bombard C4 or something like this is simply too expensive.

Originally Posted by Bushrider

Hallo Landsmann aus Norddeutschland !
If you look for topics related to German regulations you can also find here knowledgable people :
Schlauchboot-Forum

Hallo zurück! Thanks for the link, I already knew it.

[Xk59D]

Public transport a 25hp engine and boat?

NEVER going to happen if that is your plan. They are very heavy and awkward things. Im guessing you have never owned a boat before?

You will need a medium size car for a 4m sib and 25hp engine.

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by Xk59D

Public transport a 25hp engine and boat?

Even if you can come up with a trolley system that easily would let you wheel them onto the bus (and I doubt it!), round here you'd be kicked off the bus for bringing a 5Litre can of petrol on...

[nick h]

Some other things to consider...

- Import tax, duty, customs fees etc. How much would actually save. Also, have a look at other countries, Korea, Japan, US, maybe the tax rates vary depending on trade agreements.

- potential defects, warranty issues, Buying locally can be more expensive but you also get someone a lot closer to deal with should any issues arise.

- weight/size. I purchased a 2.7m Korean inflatable and that's 40kgs on it's own. Add a 15hp motor and there's another 38kgs. Living in an apartment means 3 trips to the car, boat then motor then bits and pieces.
I don't think anyone would care if I took it on a city bus/subway but I couldn't imagine how. Intercity trains/buses would be OK as you generally have time to load/unload but how would you get it to and from the station, to the water.

If you want to look at the Korean market, maybe as another option or out of curiosity try

https://search.naver.com/search.nave...&fbm=1&ie=utf8

Obviously its in Korean but click on the links and the pictures are pretty much self exploratory. The first link, boat-korea is my local go to place.

고무보트 - Inflatable Boat
선외기 - Boat motor.

[Pikey Dave]

With all due respect to the OP, if buying the boat is a financial challenge, owning, running & maintaining it won't be any easier. Buying it is the easy bit.


Sh1t happens

[InflatablesGuy]

Short update from my side:
I now got a 30 hp Evinrude. So I got the outboard. I hope to receive the inflatable boat from China in approx. 1 month.

Now I am still thinking about how to carry / move the outboard. I got a trolley like this. But it is not the best. So carrying the ourboard in public with this is not the best choice. For small distance it does work. But it is not sufficient for more.

[mick]

Couple of ideas for you 👍I used to tow my sib on the back of a bike round the campsites we visited

[InflatablesGuy]

Haha! Nice!

[InflatablesGuy]

Well, an update just for the principle of completeness:

I imported an inflatable boat from China to Germany. I managed to get the chinese factory to fill in the declaration of conformity correctly. So the import was not blocked. However there were a lot of clearance fees at the port of Hamburg. I also bought 3 different inflatable SUP. All in all (i.e. the boat, 3 iSUP, tax, duty, other costs) I payed approx. 1600 Euros. I payed a bit more than if I would have bought a new one here in Germany. See this reference with 1400 Euro (same quality).

However my initial proposal was to be flexible and to be able to somehow move/carry all the complete setup on my own. Completely not possible. Absolutely not. So if one wants to take it into the city train it has to be a smaller boat and a smaller outboard.

With my setup I need a trailer.

[Mextli]

For that kind of money you get proper used boats

Just sayin, not trying to slight you, but chinese boats do have their issues.