Charter

[Varne850]

What are peoples opions on Chartering their own boat out? We have a Varne 850 and would like to look into the pron and cons of making our boat work for us when we are not sailing her ourselves. Welcome any pitfalls etc that people have experienced.

 

[sailbadthesinner]

if you do a search on this subject there will be lots of info.

basically tho you will have to spend some money to bring it upto spec ie lifejackets liferaft for max number of charterers etc.
somne companies want a spinnaker too.
then you will be charged a percentage by the company.
your boat is much more likely to be bashed. as even if people are relatively experienced they will not know your boat and are less concerned about pranging it or scratching it.
it is really all down to whether or not the loss of being able to use your own boat whenever you want and potential damage is worth the reward of getting some money back.
you will have to berth it at a relatively accesible marina to make it attractive so that may increase the cost. when a friend was trying to get me to come in on a yacht at LBS 2 yrs ago we spoke to a number of charter cos. the relative return was not worth to us the restriction. as in the uk the season is short in terms of charter and you could end up unable to sail the boat on the weeks you have it.

if you are looking at the med that may be a better option as season is longer so you can charter it all July august say but still have plenty of sailing either side. PLUS there is more demand ( this is an assumption based on fact i charter much more in med than uk) so you might get a good return as berths etc can be cheaper than solent depending on where you are . the UK charter co we spoke to were only really confident about chartering it over august. so we could have ltitle return for the outlay AND be restricted. it is all choice

welcome to the boards.

Come on brain.get this over and i can go back to killing you with beer

 

[Luke]

I put mine into charter when I bought her earlier this year. There are lots of things to consider around what will make a boat charter well, how much it costs, what to expect etc. Happy to go into as much detail as you want - but not now as I'm about to head out. If you are interested let me know an email address and I'll give you the low down when I get a chance.

 

[jimi]

I tried it, did'nt like it. I think the nub of the question is that a charter party will not treat your pride and joy as anything apart from a charter boat. If you can accept that then it may possibly work, but you will find when you come to use it yourself that things are broken or missing.

 

[andy_wilson]

1. It needs to be a charterable product. The market is highly polarised towards corporate weekends on large Euro-yachts. The market for family charters lasting a week or more is hugely dimminished, in the UK especially.

2. The yacht will cease to be your own. You cannot beat arriving at your boat, finding it where you left it, tied up securely, booze locker intact, food on board and bedding ready. When we chartered our yacht the amount of stuff we had to cart to-and-fro was incredible.

3. Maintenance will increase. If you are serious about cruising you will have a good supply of safety gear already. This has to be certified for charter use, and liferafts, lifejackets and fire extinguishers for instance need servicing and certificating EVERY YEAR. Full COP surveys are every 5 years, or major incident!! Wear and tear will be increased.

4. The charter managers inability to spot deficiencies in the inventory will be a source of frustration, and inevitable cost.

5. Approached correctly, you will have a tax efficient way to ease the burben of yacht ownership.

6. Higher levels of use will mean that fouling is less of a problem.