Ken Moss knew exactly what type of boat he wanted. He just couldn’t find it.

The British Columbia resident had been looking for a 38-foot Meridian powerboat for a few years. He finally found two of them for sale in B.C., but one had problems and the other was snapped up before he could get to it—by a buddy, no less.

So Moss started looking in Washington and was pleasantly surprised to discover a much better selection. In early February, he bought a 381 Meridian at Northwest Yachtnet in Tacoma, which had several Meridians for him to choose from.

“There are way more boats down there to look at,” said Moss, who lives in Maple Ridge. “The selection up here is pretty limited.”

Moss is among a growing number of Canadian buyers who are helping to pull Washington’s boating industry out of a prolonged slump. Buoyed by the strength of their dollar and an economy rebounding more quickly from the recession, Canadians have been flocking across the border in recent months to buy boats in Washington. Most come from British Columbia, but some buyers come from as far away as Alberta.

Though the state does not track sales of boats that are purchased in Washington and registered elsewhere, Northwest brokers say Canadians have made up an increasing percentage of business in recent months.

“Our market has not been hit as hard as other parts of the country, and one of the main reasons for that is we’ve been fortunate to have Canadian buyers,” said Matt Maynard, the owner of Irwin Yacht Sales in Seattle, who closed two boat sales to buyers from British Columbia in a recent week.

“I think the Canadian buyers are really what’s been keeping us going up here.”

The story was similar at Northwest Yachtnet, where Moss bought his boat. Co-owner Bob Berglund said Canadian buyers are currently responsible for about half of the company’s sales.

“Usually they might be about 10, 20 percent of sales. Right now they’re 50,” he said. “It helps. There’s no doubt about that.”

Brokers began noticing an uptick in Canadian buyers after the Bank of Canada declared the country’s recession officially over in late July. Since then, brokers say, the Olympics-related construction boom and the strength of the Canadian dollar have prompted more boat buyers to head south, where the struggling market has translated to lower sale prices.

“With the economy, boat prices here have hit an all-time low,” Maynard said. “(Canadians) know that, and since their dollar is stronger, they can buy more boat than before. Combined with the weak U.S. dollar and the depreciation of boats, they’re in a much better position than they’ve ever been.”

Berglund said boat sellers are often willing to set aggressively low prices and accept offers lower than he would have thought. “Right now, the prices are what’s really driving sales,” he said.

Price was exactly what prompted Phil Robson to look for a boat in the U.S. The Langley, B.C. resident had been eyeing his dreamboat, a 24-foot Bayliner, for years. When he was finally ready to buy last year, he turned his sights south for a better deal.

Checking out boats docked at Lake Union SeaRay in Bellingham, Robson immediately found his boat.

“I looked down on the water and there it was,” Robson said. “It was gleaming. It was calling my name.”

And it was the right price: $25,000. Robson bought it on the spot. “That boat up here is anywhere from $39,000 to $49,000 Canadian,” he said. “The prices are definitely better down there.”

Jane McIvor, executive director of the British Columbia Marine Trades Association, said there’s no system in place for tracking the number of boats purchased from outside of the province. But she said B.C. boaters know the U.S. economy has been hit harder by the recession and are willing to travel for a better price.

“People are researching and looking down in the States,” McIvor said. “You’ve got some better sales. People really want to make deals down there.”

Brokers say Canadian buyers are typically educated and have done their homework. They tend to favor U.S.-made boats such as Bayliners and Catalinas, since they don’t have to pay import duty on American boats, and avoid boats made in Asia, which incur a hefty import fee.

Boats purchased within Canada incur only provincial sales tax, while boats imported from the U.S. are also subject to the 5 percent federal Goods and Services Tax, or GST. For B.C. residents, that means an extra 12 percent added to the sale price.

Robson said even with the extra cost, his boat was a good deal. Moss paid close to $38,000 in tax on his $215,000 boat and says his buddy (that one who stole the boat out from under his nose) probably got a slightly better price. But Moss shrugs off the extra cost.

“I think of it as the price being pretty darn close to being the same,” he said. “Whatever. It is what is. You find the best deal you can, and there wasn’t one up in B.C. What was I going to do, wait for one to come up for sale?”

Beyond their spending power, Maynard said, Canadian buyers have that characteristic niceness that makes them good customers.

“They’ve been some of the nicest people I’ve met. They are very nice and polite,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know our neighbors to the north. For me, personally, it’s been a great experience.”