Yes plywood is here 🙂
The organization of the plywood turned into the first adventure. For boat building you need certified marine plywood of very good quality. Fortunately, you can buy this very close by. This excellent plywood which was used also by building the ClassGlobe #01 i ordered in Italy. But the purchase was the first obstacle of hundreds that will come.
To explain for the overseas readers. It’s only 250 km but there are worlds in between european countries. Not that crossing the Alps is a big hurdle these days to get some plywood. No! It is the mentality and peculiarity of certain national borders that are the biggest problem in Europe. And the corona situation is the icing on the cake. The service of the company nord compensati was very professional and very nice. After waiting some hours and aid money for customs clearence the mircale happens. I was finally able to cross the Italian border. The import documents for Switzerland were done in a few minutes with digital help from the customs app. So I recommend everyone to avoid the time consuming and bullying customs in Italy and have it delivered by professionals. Despite everything, I was happy to finally have my plywood at home in the workshop that evening.
Hi Thomas, I am starting to contemplate building the 5.80 boat. As I also live in Switzerland, I was wondering if you would be able to share the name of the company where you got the plywood from. Could you comment on what the problems on the border were? I thought that it was as simple as buying something in Italy, declaring it in the QuickZoll app (paying the import duties) and that’s all.
You also mentioned that it could be better to have the material “delivered by professionals”, would you be able to point me to a company that has this type of service in their portfolio?
Hello Szymon, I bought the plywood from the Nordcompensati company near Milan. I think I or the company made the mistake that the papers for the export were created for freight forwarders or professional traders. I also assumed that I would simply drive up to customs, have it stamped and then get the VAT back. However, on the basis of the papers issued to me by Nordcompensati, they sent me to the forwarding customs clearance building. And that’s where the crap started with the fee for a customs broker. Then these agents gave me false papers and they kept the VAT refund slip and probably wanted to pocket the money themselves. So beware. Maybe you can agree with Nordcompensati that they declare it as a private purchase. They are very nice at the company and respond promptly to email conversations. Good luck and happy building.