Live aboard in the Caribbean and making ends meet.

[colinbm]

My wife and I are planning to buy a catamaran, and live in the Caribbean. There are a number of issues that we need to deal with regarding the practicalities...

We're in our 30s, and will be using most of our finances for the purchase, so will need a source of income. Our plan is to take guests, probably via. AirBnB. I've seen various discussions regarding doing this as a business, mainly with recommendations not to. We don't have a goal of making lots of money from it - just enough to keep up with maintenance and living, though anything we are able to save would be a bonus.

From what I can tell as we won't be resident on any particular island, living out there shouldn't be an issue, so long as we don't stay too long in one place. Am I right?

We'd likely be picking up and returning guests from the same location (likely Antigua). Would this mean we would have to be registered as a business in Antigua?

We're British citizens, and would want to be continuing to pay our NI contributions, however I'm not sure how we would stand with tax. We wouldn't be gaining income in the UK, but we wouldn't really be gaining it in any other particular country either. How would we stand re income tax? Regular port of pickup might have an impact on this?

Thanks!

 

[TQA]

You are chartering and would have to register your boat as a charter boat with Antigua. This is not a trivial exercise.

 

[Ariadne]

Most people we know work as couples (Captain/Hostess) for SunSail or Moorings or some other charter company, either lifting their boat during the season or getting a deal with the charter company to use their moorings or their dock/slip.

I'mm not saying it;s a great job but you can earn some serious money doing this.

 

[capnsensible]

Its not gonna be easy!

I know people who do this.

Do you and your wife have sailing qualifications? If so, here is a suggestion.

I've spent a lot of time in Jolly Harbour, Antigua. This is one of the bases for Tradewinds, a timeshare catamaran charter business. I have friends who have worked for them. If you can get a successful interview with them, you will learn an enormous amount about the yacht charter business, more than anyone on these forums can advise. With a season or two behind you, a decision as to whether its for you will be much easier.

Its hard work, a routine cruise with the same destinations but what an apprentiship! Also involves a bit of low key salesmanship.

Good luck!!

http://www.trade-winds.com/antigua-barbuda-sailing-vacation.php

 

[Tranona]

As you will have realized from the responses so far your ideas are way off reality. The charter business is very competitive and mostly run by professional operators who operate within the legal framework. Trying to operate below the radar taking the odd punter out to earn few bob is just not possible. Clients spending the sort of money for this type of activity expect a professional ad legal supplier.

As suggested starting point might be to get the appropriate qualifications then a couple of seasons experience to see if you like and if you can find away of doing it with your own boat.

 

[SteveSarabande]

If they are just providing B&B in a marina, with no sailing, it might be different.

 

[colinbm]

Hi All - Thanks for the responses so far...

@Tranona - We certainly don't want to be operating illegally - I'm wanting to establish what our legal obligations would be.

@capnsensible - We're getting day skipper in October, with the intention being to then get YM.

@capnsensible / @Ariadne - The option of either working for or with an existing company may be a good plan. We shall investigate that option. Working on our own boat would be preferable, as that'll give us somewhere to live, and the ability to travel, when we're not working too.

 

[Ariadne]

Any charter company will want YM as a basic.
I wouldn't worry about having a place to stay as you'll be living on the boat you work on, with your own boat in a marina or lifted, when the season is over/you have time off you go cruising on your own boat. Just working as a floating/standing crew is a good place to start as you don't have so much 'hard sell'. There are plenty of people doing this, and plenty of openings.

 

[KellysEye]

>From what I can tell as we won't be resident on any particular island, living out there shouldn't be an issue, so long as we don't stay too long in one place. Am I right?

Yes but there are implications to that with what you want to do, see below.

On the tax front if you are based full time in Antigua you can apply for not resident and not ordinarily resident in the UK but Antigua has a double tax agreement so you would have to pay tax in Antigua not the UK.

If you island hop then you can apply after four years for not res and not ordinarily res and only pay tax on any UK income e.g bank interest not what you earn abroad. If you want to move your account offshore do not use a European bank they have a 30% withholding tax, as you are in the area move it to the BVIs. Visas are often three months extendable to six months. To get the not res stuff you have to cut all ties with the UK even as far as club membership, you also lose NHS rights until you return.

Personally I wouldn't do it I think you will find it hard to gain any reasonable amount of money the competition is fierce everywhere and if you island hop you can't realistically charter the boat which is the only way to avoid tax

 

[MBullock]

Perhaps think of an alternative way to make ends meet other than Charter. After all if you are working all season long, you will have to sail out of season and you wont get insured for that... Not sure how much you'll have left after the purchase of you boat (maybe cheaper boat, not a cat?) or how much you think you'll need to live on but it strikes me (from research no experience!) that people live and travel on all sorts of boats, and live off all kinds of budgets - which may save you having to work when you would rather be sailing. If you want to be a charter skipper then presumably get your YM sorted and apply for jobs - without the expense of buying a boat? There are people such as the folks in this YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLc83k5o11EIF1lEo0VmuQ) who have sailed for a year or two, run out of money - worked somewhere - and then gone back to sailing. Look for the videos on the talk they have at a yacht club recently, I think they sailed for 2yrs, worked for a year, then sail for 2yrs. None of that involved chartering their own boat, they flipped burgers, worked as crew etc etc. I think 'chartering' sounds like the obvious answer to all of us who haven't done it! I think the reality is stupid long hours, punters you wouldn't really like to hand out with, and taking up time you'd rather be sailing yourself. The only other way I've observed is something like Yacht Jennifer where somehow Lars get away with constant chartering, but I think that's because he picks up 'paying crew' in one country and deposits them in another. Also in his book he did get fined $20K for illegal chartering IIRC. Good luck, dont let the dream die just find another way to pay

 

[Sea Devil]

Without being too negative it is very very difficult to earn a living in the Caribbean by yacht chartering (or by any other means). Skippered chartering is run by organisations who before they take you on will inspect your boat to see if it reaches the very high standards required and that you have the experience and appropriate qualifications to skipper and crew/cook in a charter boat. There is a lot of (mainly) USA legislation covering all this.

Of course you can charter privately but then advertising becomes a major issue and expense (which is why most charterers use established booking organisations) and where do you advertise? How do you pay for it - vastly expensive. Not to mention organising flights etc. I have met several people with all sorts of boats who have tried to go down the private charter route and they all failed because they did not get any/enough bookings.

Jobs in the Caribbean are hard to find unless you have sort after trade like mechanic/shipwright or similar. There are thousands of semi qualified local people all looking for a job... any job and will work for low, low wages.

It is tough - very tough and probably not a gower... As for tax you simply employ a UK accountant to make you non resident UK and then you will not pay tax on any money you earn outside of the UK - but you still pay tax on money you earn in UK - worked for me for decades. Bit of a hassle getting yourself onto the non resident list which is why you probably need an accountant.. Not big bucks...

What about renting out your UK property and buying a really cheap boat? Thats what I did.

 

[Sybarite]

Hi All - Thanks for the responses so far...

@Tranona - We certainly don't want to be operating illegally - I'm wanting to establish what our legal obligations would be.

@capnsensible - We're getting day skipper in October, with the intention being to then get YM.

@capnsensible / @Ariadne - The option of either working for or with an existing company may be a good plan. We shall investigate that option. Working on our own boat would be preferable, as that'll give us somewhere to live, and the ability to travel, when we're not working too.

If you operate in French waters eg Martinique or Guadaloupe you would need the equivalent of a YM Professional. I would suspect that it might be required in other areas as well. You would also need to check that you are covered for professional work with your insurance.