Owning a boat is one
of life's true pleasures.Boat finance in Perth, all over Western Australia and Australia wide, arranged by your own dedicated broker.

Not to get the loan, but you need one to use the boat. In Western Australia you need an RST to operate a recreational vessel with a motor over 6 horsepower, or 4.5 kilowatts. You can sit it from fourteen, only the skipper needs one, and there is nothing to renew and no ongoing fee. Riders under sixteen are limited to daylight hours and to under 8 knots. Plenty of buyers arrange the finance while they are still working through the ticket.

In Western Australia you must register any recreational vessel that is or can be driven by mechanical power, including a sailing vessel able to carry a motor, and that applies to a boat on a mooring or in a pen as much as one that goes out every weekend. Registration runs twelve months and is renewed annually. Craft with no motor are exempt, as are stand-up paddle boards and similar with a motor under 4.5kW, and a tender no more than 3.1 metres with a motor no bigger than 5hp used only as a tender.

A Hull Identification Number is a unique series of characters moulded into the hull or engraved on a plate fastened to it. It is compulsory for every registered vessel in Western Australia, and a boat cannot be registered or transferred without one. For your lender it is the thing that makes the loan secured: the HIN is what lists the vessel on the Personal Property Securities Register, which is where a lender records its security interest. No HIN means nothing to register against.

Yes, and it works differently. With nothing for a lender to register a security interest against, the purchase is funded as an unsecured personal loan rather than a secured boat loan. That costs more and the term is usually shorter. The better move, if you have time before settlement, is to have an accredited BoatCode provider inspect the hull and fit a HIN, which turns the same purchase back into a secured loan.

A secured boat loan makes use of the purchased boat as its collateral. This type of loan can have higher loan limits and longer repayment terms compared to an unsecured loan. An unsecured boat loan doesn't require anything as collateral, but with no backing the terms are usually shorter. Which one you are offered comes down to whether the vessel can carry a registered security interest at all.

Yes. Private sales are where most second hand boats in Perth change hands and often where the better prices are. We verify the seller owns the boat outright and that there is no finance owing against it, then the lender pays the seller directly on settlement.

A PPSR search against the hull identification number will tell you, and it takes minutes. That is precisely what the HIN is on the register for. Do it before you pay a deposit rather than after, and check that the number on the hull matches the number on the registration papers while you are there. Your broker runs one as part of a private sale purchase anyway, so ask before you hand anything over.

Yes, on the same terms as any other registered vessel, and the trailer usually goes on the same invoice. A jet ski is a vessel in Western Australia: it has to be registered, and the rider needs a Recreational Skipper's Ticket. If you are buying two skis for two different people, put each one on its own loan, because the registration, the security and the debt all have to sit with the same name.

Yes, though whether it is secured depends on registration. A tender no more than 3.1 metres with a motor no bigger than 5hp is exempt from registration in Western Australia, which means no HIN and nothing to secure against, so it is funded as an unsecured personal loan. Register the same hull with a bigger motor and it becomes an ordinary secured boat loan.

Usually, if they appear on the invoice at the time of purchase. Trailers, electronics, safety gear and the first year of marine cover are all routinely financed with the boat. Bought separately after settlement they are harder to add, so it is worth deciding on them before the paperwork goes in.

Older than you would think, and the answer is really about the engine rather than the hull. A well built fibreglass hull is good for decades and lenders know it, so the age policy bites on the motor. A repowered boat with an invoice for the new engine is a much stronger application than the same hull with its original motor. Ask the seller for the engine's year and hours, and get the repower invoice if there is one.

Yes. Boat engine finance is one of the packages Yes Loans arranges: you are not limited to buying a whole new vessel to take advantage of it. Whether it is secured depends on the same question as everything else here, which is what the lender can register its interest against, so tell your broker whether the hull is already registered in your name.

Yes. Various options are available when you take out a commercial marine loan, which can range from hire purchases or leases through to a chattel mortgage. The lender is reading the business rather than the household, so a charter book, a catch history or a contract does more for the file than a payslip. Speak to your accountant about the structure before the paperwork goes in.

Boat loans start from $5,000 and go up. There is no fixed ceiling we can publish, because on a larger vessel the number is set by the survey and the lender rather than by us. Our loan calculator is the quickest way to sanity check a figure, and what you can borrow comes down to your income, your existing commitments and the boat itself, since on a secured loan the lender is also lending against the security.

Not necessarily. Plenty of boat loans settle with nothing down. A deposit lowers what you borrow and widens the number of lenders willing to look at the file, which matters most on a thin credit file, a rebuild, or an unsecured purchase where the lender has nothing but you to lend against. It is worth modelling both on the estimator above.

Getting your rate here will not affect your credit score. One application through us reaches the whole panel, so you avoid the multiple enquiries that come from applying to lenders one by one.

Often, yes. Paid or unpaid defaults, a discharged bankruptcy or a thin file change the rate and sometimes the deposit rather than closing the door. The honest position is that it costs more, and your broker will tell you what it costs before you apply.

Yes, and on a private purchase in spring it is the better order to do it in. A pre-approval is a lender's conditional yes on an amount and a rate before you have chosen anything. It costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and most hold for 30 to 90 days depending on the lender.

On a secured loan, yes, and from the day of settlement. The lender holds the vessel as security so it needs the boat covered, and it will normally want the trailer on the policy too. We arrange insurance alongside the finance so it is not a separate errand at the worst possible moment.

The insurer pays out the vessel's value, which is not always the same as what is still owing on the loan. That gap is what shortfall cover exists for. Your broker will raise it with you rather than leaving you to find out afterwards.

Yes. If the rate was set at a dealer counter a few summers ago it is worth a look, particularly if your credit position has improved since. Refinancing a boat loan works the same way as refinancing a car loan.

You will need to be over 18, an Australian citizen or permanent resident, employed or self-employed, and receiving a regular income you can evidence. Beyond that the lender is assessing your income against your commitments, and on a secured loan the vessel against its own age and condition policy.