Boatshare syndicates

[mainplus]

I am considering purchasing a boat share to provide cost effective sailing in the Ionian. I have approached a broker who deals in boat shares and he has provided some interesting possibilities.

I have no experience of boat shares and would welcome any advice regarding how they work and any pitfalls to watch out for.

So far all feed back on syndicate ownership has been positive.

Thanks

 

[PeterGibbs]

Not to bore you with the obvious downsides, I relay the following considerations:

1. If the boat's basic maintenance / cleaning relies on the previous user doing a good job, there will be inevitable disappointments for you. Previous users, friends of friends perhaps, who you may never meet, may run out of time at the end of their usage period etc. A lot to be said for having the boat prep'd be a local before you board.

2. Safety and reliability, even if placed in the hands of a local engineer, are an area of real concern.

3. Agree with the other owners when sails etc have to be replaced; failure to agree can either leave you with ageing canvas or too frequent changes etc

4. Take care that insurance is valid for such a venture. 3rd party coverage these days is most important.

5. Selling your share and valuing it properly and fairly when you want to move on may be less than easy. Boats depreciate fast under the heavier use of multiple ownership.

It all adds up to spending time with fellow partners face to face, before signing up, to ensure complete understsanding and a written agreement in advance, to at least agree expectations. Enforcing it legally will be impractical. A calculation could easily show that bare boat hire is pretty competitive end 2 end.

PWG

 

[chippie]

All good points, It may be beneficial to actually sail with the prospective shareholders so that you can see if you are comfortable with the way they handle/treat the boat.
Just a thought.

 

[Richard_Peevor]

HI

Having just ended a boatshare agreement (albeit in England) I have very big reservations about it.. I will not share a boat again!

The main difficulties I found were agreeing how much/little money to spend on certain things compared to others. One person may want to make the upholstery the other buy new from a profesional. One person may want to get a professional to do some work on the engine, the other person prefering to make do by doing it themselves..

The problem with my share was that even though we knew each other and had sailed together we found it very difficult to agree on what to spend our money on and in the end very little got done. I even resented going to the boat at times!!

Since then I have bought out the other share and I am now spending time doing all the work that was missed.

I support the person above who said agreeing a final price can also be difficult as it is almost impossible to take into account depreciation without trying to sell/valuing the boat first. (I therefore paid over the odds but I've got a boat I really like now!!)

I'm sure many people enjopy boat shares, I just want to put forward the opposite argument..

Rich

 

[tcm]

Boatshare syndicates: 2 types

the first type is offered by a broker or whatever: They manage the boat, you pay for a share. Although not as remote from ownership as a timeshare, you can't up sticks and have the boat looked after by someobndy else, as far as i know.

the second type is as understoof by most- a group of people sharing the boat. Cheaper, cos it's split several ways =- but as other remark the responisibi;ty is split too. You need someone local to sort things out.