Charter company purchase schemes

[dk]

Has anyone here bought their boat through one of these leaseback type deals whereby Sunsail/Kiriacoulis etc use your boat for five years in return for half the cost?

If so, how is it going - any pros and cons would be appreciated.

 

[kingfisher]

You get what you paid for

- a five year old yacht,
- heavily used by Jack and all,
- and in the charter layout (iow cram as many bunks as possible in a 36ft hull ).

I haven't heard that many bad comments, as long as you know what you're getting into.

Group of people on the pontoon: skipper is the one with the toolbox.
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[JeremyF]

Yes and No

Yes, if you want a good way of bulk-buying charter weeks, in ever changing locations.

No, if its a way of funding a boat that will be exclusivly yours at the end.

<font color=blue>Jeremy Flynn/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif
Dawn Chorus</font color=blue>

 

[snowleopard]

see what the punters do to them

i ran a few charter yachts for a while and found they got seriously bashed, chunks out of the bow, gel coat crazing from many collisions, generally scuffed inside and gear abused. when i tried to sell them, prospective buyers put the phone down if i told them they'd been chatered. in other words the value at the end of the 5 years is a lot lower than you'd expect.

 

[alant]

I've heard that your 50% is the actual purchase price paid by these Charter companies, so they don't appear to pay anything in this arrangement.

 

[Twister_Ken]

No brainer

So you want to buy a £100K boat.

Do a deal with Sunsail, etc and spend £50K.

Wait 5 years and get a boat that’s done the equivalent of about 30 years of 'normal sailing' and is now worth less than £50K.

Spend £10K and half a season doing it up.

Or…

…Spend £50K now on a nice, lightly used boat.

Get much more sailing – but no ‘free’ charters.

 

[tcm]

Some sums

a quick look at the sunsail site seems to show that you can pay 50% of a 42foot/160k boat for 50%. You get 10 " points" per year, with various weeks weighted differently.

The weeks either side of crimbo in BVI cost 5 points, and the deal lasts five years. Mind you, four can fly and rent the boat for 8k all-in for that fortnight.

So, either pay 80 grand, and get the next five years free OR buy the holidays at (say) 8, 9, 10,11, 12 grand makes 50k. But that includes flights, so net back (say) 3grand a year to get to the caribee , makes 35 k for boat rental. Whcih means that the 5-yearold boat costs 45k now, plus 5?% compound over years means um 1.05 to the power of 5 times 45k = 57 grand. Prices of fligfhts, sopecific deals and so on will twist this of course.

So bout the same either way...always assuming of course that you'll still want the same thing in 5 years as you do now. Mind you, I note that I have been married just over 15 years so... OUCH!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Take a look at Beneteau Owners www

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.beneteauowners.com/beneteau.nsf/ee51da2418d09bc1852567040071059f/f3e53c91ac828ec285256a670068e8f5!OpenDocument>Useful info on Beneteau owners site click here</A>

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by kimhollamby on 05/10/2002 12:02 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Steve Cronin

PM Steve Cronin He has a boat in charter managment with Kiriculis I think .Cannot think why he has not responded ?cheers bob t

Bob T

 

[david_e]

Re: Take a look at Beneteau Owners www

Interesting, still on the look out for a Bennytoe Ken?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Take a look at Beneteau Owners www

One with a nice wobbly keel would be just be right.

 

[david_e]

Wobbly keels

Take your pick, comes as standard!

 

[andy_wilson]

Two (rather long) points.

1. Frightening story down below.

I wonder which 'association' the surveyor is affiliated to. Regardless of which one of the 4 (I think) are allowed to issue Code of Practice Cetification, it is surely encumbant upon the surveyor to advise the certifiating body of the yacht in question (refer to the large sticker displayed prominently) that this yacht is out of code. It is a specific requirement that in the event of a grounding incident that the yacht is taken out of service until examined and repaired if necessary. I wonder if the Yacht Charter Association is aware of all this. I wonder if Mr Brown has the balls to act in any case as surely Sun Sail are the ones to keep him in thje manner to which some of us would wish to become acustomed.

2. There are undoubtedly some yachts, chartered with some agents, possibly in certain parts of the world, that would represent a better bet. Mr Cronin, from a previous posting, indicated that the yachts / scheme / clients that he was involved in would be classified as such. However I would wait to see the programme through before making such an assertion. Lots of Hallberg Rasseys in Dartmouth that look pretty fair, but heres the rub.....

They cost twice as much to buy, a premium to charter, attract a different type of client, and at the end of the programme are considerably more valuable. If you are looking for a cheap boat, this is not where you are going to find one.

Moorings yachts in more exotic locatons are reported to be in better than average fettle.

Buy an ex-Sun Sail UK yacht and I'm afraid it will have been hammered for 3 years in The Solent, then another 3 years in Plymouth or The Clyde. I have personal knowledge of some people who have got away with chartering and to be frank it makes a complete farce of the manning / experience requirements laid down in the MCA Code of Practice.

 

[poter]

Certainly one of the down sides would be that the boat will come in charter config. rather than owners.

I have looked into quite a lot of these types of boat buying for the med. and am not convinced that the figures add up.

Two of the best deals IMHO would seem to be yacht-factions and cosmos, but you pays your money and takes your choice.

poter