Has anyone experience of being a Sailtime Power member

[Whitelighter]

I am pretty keen on this idea as a short term way of getting the family back into boat (now we are plus 1 lively 2 year old) without forking a load of dosh out on a boat.

The sums work, in that it will cost less than my Bavaria did to run for a year, but I would be interested to know from anyone who is a current member or an exmember how they found the booking system and availibility etc etc.

I am fortunate that I will not be limited to weekends in my new job, and will have a large number of afternoons and days free during the week, so can hopefully make use of otherwise dead time with the boat.

 

[PEJ]

Jez,

(it is Jez, isn't it?)

I think Sailtime is the boating equivalent of timeshare isn't it?

If I was buying a holiday home my first choice would be own it outright, second would be go in to part ownership, third would be timeshare. Mainly because with timeshare you never own the boat/property.

 

[dkm]

I took a close look at this a couple of years ago, never did go ahead mainly due to inability to drop everything and go boating ( particularly with our weather!).
I also recall there was a massive mark up on fuel, don't know if thats still the case

 

[rickp]

I also recall there was a massive mark up on fuel, don't know if thats still the case

From what I heard, I think the markup is still pretty large but obviously they're working on 0/100 (being a commercial lease) which means the starting point is far cheaper than the typical 60/40.

 

[Frontier]

The thought of having to remove all of my stuff every time I came home and take it all back next time puts me off. Also someone has to make a margin out of it, although I guess that might be outweighed by the number of skippers signed up to each boat.

Cheers

D

 

[SailTime]

SailTime Power

Hi All,
I am a representative of SailTime in the US. A Base Owner in Southern California. SailTime has approximately 40 bases in the USA. Currently the majority of them are sailboats only. I believe Toronto, New York City, Long Island, Atlanta, Houston and Austin have power boats as well. We anticipate several more existing bases will begin to offer power next season as well as new opening power only bases now that we have a solid partner with Rinker Boats. To find out about member and owner member experiences contact the base owners at those locations and I'm sure they will give you contacts you can query.

Fair Winds,
Chris

 

[SailTime]

Ooops - I just noticed y'all are in the UK. No Worries. Go to http://sailtime/com/uk and put in a request there. I believe a few of the dozen bases in the UK are offering power boats with more to be added in 2010.

 

[Elessar]

spoke to them today.

upsides:
No maintenance
Boat less than 5 years old
Always the same boat, max 7 others so it shouldn't get trashed
No unexpected costs
Virtually unlimited "short notice" (>24hrs) use if you can do weekdays

downsides:
max 1 week contiguous holiday
can't personalise boat
no maintenance (fettling is part of my hobby)
can't keep possessions on board
lack of "sun's out" spontaneity
no equity built up/retained