Syndicate Agreements

[1114C]

I am in the process of deciding on my first boat which will likely be shared by other members of the family with us all paying equal amounts. I would be very grateful if I could gain the benefit of anyone's experience of setting up agreements of how the boat is shared and how it is paid for with running costs.

Does anyone have a successful agreement or know of the (I suspect many) potential pitfalls such as who gets the holiday weekends and what happens if someone rips a sail etc.

Many thanks

 

[andrewhopkins]

RYA

My first suggestion is to join and contact the RYA who can give you a standard syndicate agreement to start with. As to your other points....

I share my boat with 2 friends and we do the following:

1. Set up a rota for the year where we have the boat from Friday 6pm to the following Friday. This means we generally have the holiday spread amongst us.

2. Agree on Jan 1st if anyone wants to swap any weekends because of weddings, etc during the year.

3. Anyone can swap with each other when they want to.

4. Anyone can use a day of each others week if they get permission.

5. All costs are split 33/33/33 no matter who did what except if the person takes the blame e.g. they smash the boat into the pontoon. A sail tear can happen any time and could be caused by wear of someone else beforehand!

6. Everyone cleans the boat when leaving and puts everything in its place.

7. Everyone gives a safety briefing to all new crew members.

thats about it, works very well. One new idea for this year is to make every 4th weekend an "all down to the boat" weekend just for fun.

It should be noted that one of my friends is retired and does get to use the boat more than us in the week but as a recompense he does most of the "bits and pieces" e.g. sorting out lift outs and scrubs, getting electricians on board, fixing minor bits, etc.