Chartering out your yacht? Does it make sense?

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keelbolt

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With the ever-rising costs of mooring, maintenance, etc, I was pondering the option of letting my Solent-based yacht out for charter. Anyone done it? What are the insurance issues? What is your experience of doing it? And is it worth it?

I did email one of the charter operations, got a holding reply, then silence.... Maybe not interested.

KB
 
keelbolt said:
With the ever-rising costs of mooring, maintenance, etc, I was pondering the option of letting my Solent-based yacht out for charter. Anyone done it? What are the insurance issues? What is your experience of doing it? And is it worth it?

I did email one of the charter operations, got a holding reply, then silence.... Maybe not interested.

KB
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That's what we do. But it is not "cheap". Getting the boat coded and maintained to that standard is an "investment", a.k.a. a large expense. The success of the operation depends a lot on who will manage your boat, and who will market it. We have been very fortunate, in having a great partner on this.

Insurance issues: you just have to pay more.

Is it worth it? Advantages: the boat is always in working order (even if we don't use it for months). Psychologically, it is easier to think of the expenses as "business related". After 10 years of operation, we clocked up the first small profit in 2014-2015. This year, we "reinvested" that in a copper coat....

Disadvantages: you get other people using your boat, and causing the wear and tear....
 
It really depends on what your objectives are. If you just want to offset some of your costs then forget it. The only way it makes sense is to accept (like TiggerToo) that it is a business asset to which you have access when you want it. Typically you are looking at 10 weeks charter a year before it starts to cover its costs. This is difficult to achieve in a crowded market in our short season.

The main costs are coding (and keeping in code) - mainly a one off cost which will vary according to how your boat is currently equipped - insurance, commission to manager, turn around costs, wear and tear and berthing.

Inevitably if you are trying to maximise your income you have to accept restrictions on your own use as the main demand is in the time period when you might most want to use it yourself.

If you do want to minimise costs of using your own boat then buying a new boat under a charter contract is probably more attractive, although even this (at least in the UK) is a marginal activity. More attractive in the main overseas charter locations like the Med and Caribbean.
 
For me no. The boat is my luxury not an asset to be worked. If I had the cash I might buy a boat to charter, but then becomes a business.
 
Camelia said:
... I might buy a boat to charter, but then becomes a business.
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That is exactly so. And I may add that it is a business you must love, just like you love sailing, otherwise you will never be justified spending all the time you will on doing stuff yourself (whenever possible) to keep costs down and the boat "Up to scratch".

I reckon that just about all the suckers (like my self) who charter their own boat, essentially pay into the general "boating economy" to keep a boat which is nominally theirs.

As the Principal of the companie(s) using/marketing Tigger told me once: we do it for the life-style, not for the money. And I guess that probably includes the vast majority of businesses involved in the "leisure" market.
 
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