Yacht membership charter type clubs

[Fimacca]

Anyone have real experience of these?

Saw a stand at the boat show and have been digging into the pricing.

They do a dufour 375 at cost of £ 8460 for a year for 30 - 40 days sailing annually. IF you can get it and it is not booked out I suppose. There are of course, many days you cannot sail due to weather and the formula seems to work all year.

Anyone had good/ bad experiences?

 

[siwhi]

We were with one for a while based from Kip. Overall a very positive experience. We had access to a nearly new well specced boat which was quite a bit bigger and better than we could otherwise have sailed (apart from chartering). It allowed us to get to know an area and a boat pretty well and we had some great holidays.

I think we signed up in the first full year of operation which helped as there was spare capacity (and a reduced price). This allowed us 'free' use of the boat if it was not already booked on a given day as long as we reserved it the day before. As it was just down the road that was ideal for us. Fewer customers in the start up phase of the business also meant there was less demand at peak times than there might otherwise be.

Overall I think it depends on your usage. If you're fairly flexible about when you use a boat then it's probably ideal, and great for long weekends or mid week breaks. If you are a peak holiday season user then I could see it being frustrating compared to chartering. In the end we bought our boat because we wanted to go sailing whenever we liked with no restrictions, such during school holidays or if it's a beautiful day. Nothing was more frustrating that missing one perfect weekend (sunny F4) because someone else had booked it, and then booking the following weekend to find it was pouring down and flat calm or a gale.

Obvious disadvantages are that you have to take everything you need (bedding, boots, etc) and then take it home again, but a couple of crates in the garage packed and ready to roll make that easier. Conversely the major advantage is that there is no cost or hassle with maintenance, preparation, fettling, organising things, etc, and with a new boat all the systems and equipment is sound.

Incidently some of the claims concerning the cost of running a boat versus the cost of signing up to such a scheme can be questioned, but I guess they are comparing like with like (a large newer boat in a premium marina). The price you've given seems high to me, but there are many factors that could affect that (location, boat size, age and condition, preferential / weekend access, etc). My experience since we got our own (older and smaller) boat is that the costs have been a little less than I feared, (but there is still the hassle factor concerning maintenance / organising).

 

[prv]

Does it work out significantly cheaper than chartering? Because otherwise I can't see what the point of it is. The experience is surely much the same as a charter (can't leave your stuff on board, can't make personal modifications and improvements, have to plan and book your use, etc) with the added disadvantage of being tied down to one base. Plus you're committed to a certain cost every year regardless of your circumstances and other activities.

Maybe it is loads cheaper than chartering and that's the benefit, but I can't see that it would suit me. Owning, yes, pure chartering, yes, floating timeshare, no.

Pete

 

[Fimacca]

Thanks siwhi, I was in kip checking out the yacht sales board just after xmas. Nice area, though I tend to sail from dunstaffnage when up there for hols. There was no sign of an interested broker anywhere in kip and I called a few !

The concept did get me to price my costs for running my current yacht, and I was surprised how cheaply I can do it if I avoid costly upgrades and extra 'bits'. I feel 8 k can buy a few holidays in the med with a nice charter yacht. The company did offer a few locations round the south coast though. More for the corporate days out I feel, offset by company tax breaks.

Not for me.....

 

[Topcat47]

I suppose it depends where you are. These people ( http://www.modernsailing.com / office@modernsailing.com ) operate for Sausalito in San Francisco Bay. I had a day charter with them this year as a "customer"rather than a member. The 10 year old Yacht looked as good as new, the skipper friendly and knowledgeable and it ticked a box for me in my "Bucket List". A great day out and relatively good value if you were a member as they run courses and allow members to bareboat at relatively high discounts. Compare to keeping a boat in the Solent area, it would be very good value. I've not looked at the possibility of any UK based "clubs" though.

 

[siwhi]

In our case it was significantly less than chartering. Roughly speaking I would say we paid about half the price on a per day basis with the package we signed up for. Plus with a number of 'free' days thrown in, the overall value was reasonably good (and especially helpful if it's on your doorstep, with no flights to pay). You sign up for a year at a time. I believe the aim of the organisation was to have boats based both on the Clyde and west coast proper.

We now pay less through boat ownership on an absolute basis, and on a cost per day of sailing basis it's incomparable. That said the overall arrangement is incomparable (age of boat, condition, location, etc)!

 

[PhillM]

I looked at the freeview sailing thing before buying. At £7k a year.

It seemed to me that you either needed to have owned your own boat to have enough experence to be alowed to sail, or the restrictions were well, fairly restrictive. Also peak season seemed crowded and the system seemed less ideal for a family with school age children and better suited to a retired family. Perhaps a way to keep sailing with known fixed costs, after many years of boat ownership, not a way into it?

 

[marttell]

We were members of “myboatshare.com” for a couple of years before they went bust and took our security deposit down with them.
The myboatshare model was not tied to one particular boat and they had a quite a variety available at several ports which was the main attraction – it enabled us to sail different craft from different locations.
If we used our full allocation of days it was cheaper than chartering but had similar limitations. Additionally you needed to commit to a full years membership paid monthly and needed to plan a long way ahead to get the boat you wanted on the days you wanted it.
We now charter and find that it is much more flexible – plus it allows us to sail in foreign parts for our main summer break.

In light of my experience I would recommend you do a thorough credit check on the organisation and find out what happens to any deposits or pre-paid subscriptions should they go under.

 

[langstonelayabout]

I looked at the freeview sailing thing before buying. At £7k a year.

It seemed to me that you either needed to have owned your own boat to have enough experence to be alowed to sail, or the restrictions were well, fairly restrictive. Also peak season seemed crowded and the system seemed less ideal for a family with school age children and better suited to a retired family. Perhaps a way to keep sailing with known fixed costs, after many years of boat ownership, not a way into it?

We were approached by a similar organisation out on the pontoon ar SIBS last year. A rather bossy woman told me that I'd save a fortune and get to sail their wonderful boat from the Hamble.

I was also told that they'd need to assess my sailing competence and get RYA training to sail them as they wouldn't take my 35 years sailing and ICC as adequate for sailing in the Solent.

We kept walking and, yes, owning your own boat can be cheaper than sharing a boat with a pompous person...