Boat Clubs

[ocdale]

Hi,

New to the forum so i hope this post is ok.

I've been in the market for a while looking at a variety of 7-9m sports boats plus Merry Fishers, Beneteau Barracuda etc.
But I've just stumbled on the concept of Boat Clubs, specifically Lymington Boat Club or Poole Boat Club...

Seems like a much better, cost effective way than buying one myself, plus i'm no engineer so am a bit nervous if anything went wrong.

Has anyone got any experience/thoughts on these clubs? Pros/cons would be really helpful.

Thanks

 

[jrudge]

I think it will be a very individual choice.

The clubs are there to make a profit of course but it will work if your usage is relatively low.

You won’t be able to leave stuff on board and will need to pre book. The benefit is usually the total annual cost is far lower.

 

[ST840]

The concept of a boat club seems nice but, I don’t think you can beat the experiences you will have by owning your own boat. You may be no engineer and neither am I but, there are courses you can take to improve knowledge. Also experience will teach you as you go along. Depending on where your bases you could also join seastart to give you some breakdown confidence should the worst happen !!

 

[petem]

I think Jez (Whitelighter) was a member of one for a few years. I'm sure he can give a view.

 

[Whitelighter]

Thanks Pete,

I was a member of Pure Latitude (https://purelatitude.com/) and it worked very well for us for a number of years.
PL are a little different as they have both power and sailing boats in a number of locations around the country. The main base is Port Hamble which is where 70% of the fleet is.

It works on a points system: You buy a membership for a cost, and depending on your spend the more points you get. The points for use are combined from two factors: Size (value) of the boat and the time of use (weekday in February is few points, bank holiday august weekend is lots of points). All booked on line and you can see your points used an available on the website.

It all works very well and its especially good if you want to work out what type of boating you enjoy. Motorboats you pay a fuel cost per liter which includes a cost for maintenance. Sail boats you do not pay any fuel cost. Its a very cost effective way of going boating - you pay about the cost of a marina berth a year for a 9m boat and I didn't really see a drop off in days used.

In fact now we have a boat in the med ive been toying with the idea of rejoining just so I can do some weekend boating in the UK.

The PL power fleet is perhaps a little limited, but what the have is good. Coastal boats are:

6.5m Ballistic RIB
8m Jeanneau Merry Fisher
10m Antares Fly Bridge
12m Jeanneau Prestige 36 Fly Bridge

the club is quite sail orientated which is a good thing as I found the power boats were often easy to book.

Here is a link (https://purelatitude.com/wordpress-.../2018/08/Pure-Latitude-boat-table-Sep2018.pdf) to the boat pricing in points. I think the basic membership at £350/month (£3850/year with discount for upfront payment) gets you 300 points a year. The £600/month (£6600/year) gets you 600 points. They often do boat show deals as well where you get extra points for signing up etc.