spanish charter

[Circo]

You guys probably see these posts every season but I'm close to a decision now and I'm looking for opinions and advice from anyone with some experience in this field.

I'll be selling my Bavaria 37. I'm familiar with the coding requirements and factored that in. I've viewed a targa 40, a 43 and a camargue 44 with the intention of mooring in the med, using it just 2 weeks a year in summer (maybe some winter use too) and chartering out the rest of the season. I've limited the boats to early 2000s and sub 500 engine hours with good service history. Profit would be good but I'd be grateful just to cover my costs. I've met with 4 agents all with differing opinions of potential use and fees.

I've also learnt that the Spanish have legislation in place that prevent the owner from using his boat if it is in charter, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone has been down this route and can offer some advice, but all opinions or indeed horror stories would be welcome.


Bill

 

[Whitelighter]

Perhaps a boat share/syndicate would suit you better?

You still have costs but they can be reduced by 1/2 or 2/3 and with the right set up you'd not notice any usage difference.
I share my boat and (so far) it works well.

Half the capital outlay, half the running costs. What is not to like

 

[jrudge]

Perhaps a boat share/syndicate would suit you better?

You still have costs but they can be reduced by 1/2 or 2/3 and with the right set up you'd not notice any usage difference.
I share my boat and (so far) it works well.

Half the capital outlay, half the running costs. What is not to like

WL is of course right. However er boat ownership is not all that rational as we all know!

This question has been asked before and you will get a range of views- probably mostly negative.

The challenge is mostly on of maths.

1. You have to code it ( £15k is often banded about for the coding, rafts, jackets, modifications etc) maybe on a boat of this size a bit less

2. Where in the med is critical .In mallorca you will get far more charter work in Palma and its environs than say Cala Dor ( I know boats,.co.uk operate form there, remember i did not say nil, just less)

3. The agent takes circa 15%

4. On a boat of that size you will probably get a big bias to day charter as opposed to longer term - this is a problem as you will have more void periods

5. In chartering the newer the boat the better it charters. Cost comes down as it gets older of course but new stuff is booked first

6. You have to pay someone to check in. check out and clean. The agent may ( or may not) do the check out

7. it needs fixing when it breaks. It is being used a lot more so it will need more fixing. Fixing something in July in a med hot spot is tricky !

8. On here people view charter boats as bad news and pay less. Personally I look at condition but they go hand in hand. You either pay to restore the condition or accept a lower price. Your hours will go up and again the significance of that on here varys on older boats

9. the cost of insurance goes up ( double when i made a casual enquiry)

10. you have the ongoing annual cost of keeping the boat in code


None of these are insurmountable, they simply keep hitting you in the pocket and you potentially have to do a lot of charters ( after agents fees) just to cover coding - which puts you back to Whitelighters suggestion. If you have limited time which it seems you do then owning a share ( maybe a little as a 6th say given 2 weeks summer use) will be less stress and more cost effective.

I would consider doing it but I am fortunate that time is on my side so I spend lots of time on the boat.

If the boat is already coded then the whole thing looks a bit more palatable.