Daunting adventure for most, almost impossible for the normal buyer, whom most don't have the time, and the sellers won't mess with that after they've closed.
I wouldn't had taken that gamble, as too many times I've had to wait as long as three months for the ships to arrive in Florida or Costa Rica. That's the main reason Florida added another 90 days extension on sales tax exemption, as buyers had been stung bringing boats in for "hurry it's going to be here next week" and months rolled by, and their original 90 day exemption had expired by the time they did. Now it's 180 days IF you buy the 2nd 90 days within the first 60 days.
The majority of my buyers don't come to the States at all, and the few that did blew in and blew out rather quickly. I had several ready to buy boats up there, but after realizing what was involved, we didn't mess with them, instead buying boats located at least within a couple days run to Florida at the furtherest. I just didn't have the time or inclination to do what you did. One boat was up the coast from Los Angeles and the dockage at Long Beach was going to be insanely expensive as a transient waiting for the ship to arrive, and would had to pay a Captain to load her, and finding one with a schedule flexible enough to wait and then jump at the last minute was just too much. The other boat was in Portland and again the distances to run, and the waiting was not worth it for us. I probably spent $3k in hotels and travel just to find the boats. At a certain point it's not worth it. That's that Aussie "can do" spirit that I admire so much.
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