'Boatsharing' Roars Ahead in Popularity

by Cruising Editor on 1 Jan 2000 Whether you’re in Lousiana in USA, Falmouth in Cornwall, or Pittwater in Sydney, yacht sharing is booming in popularity. Whether they are called ‘Boatsharing’, ‘Fractional Boat Ownership’ ‘Sharesailing’ or ‘Yachtsharing’ the basics are the same:

You share the ownership with a number of other owners, a third party organisation maintains the boat, cleans the boat, fuels the boat, stores the boat and arranges the sharing. All you do is step onto the boat at the appointed time, and sail away…..

Even if it didn’t cater so well for the keen sailor without the time – or the money – to fully own a boat, the very convenience of not having to visit it to clean off the bird shit or start the motor regularly has many attractions. Primarily, it allows the sailor with a shortage of time or money (or both) to own a yacht – or a bigger or newer yacht.

There are reports that people who share their boats actually end up spending more time on their boats than when they were single owners. This is because when sharing, one is obliged to commit to a certain time period of use, whereas when the boat is sitting there waiting for you, other commitments tend to take priority

There are many different schemes, depending on who’s organising. Sometimes there are as many as ten boats in a scheme, sometimes four, sometimes only two.

Boat sharing plans offer a more affordable way for a person to get out on the water. 'It's a great alternative for people who love to sail but can't use the boat often enough to justify the cost, time or commitment, and is ideal for people who don't like the hassles of maintenance,' says Great Lakes Boat Share president John Pas. 'Also it's a more affordable alternative for boaters who want to move up into a larger vessel, but might not qualify for a higher loan.'

No matter where you are in the world, you’ll find an organisation that’s organising boatsharing, and it can suit all pockets..

'Money is not the issue with fractional ownership, time is,' said Fractional Yacht Management Florida based owner Mark Casburn, . 'All of our customers can easily buy their own boat outright, but don't have the time to provide upkeep or the desire to worry about security.'

At the top end of the spectrum are the megayachts offered by YachtSmart of North America head-quartered in Arlington, VA, or Monocle Management LTD of Fort Lauderdale, FL.

YachtSmart's shares in a 2004 Azimut 85 are already sold out. A single share of this $4.2 million vessel went for $425,000. 'Shareholders put $125,000 down and finance the rest,' said YachtSmart's president Jonathan Metcalfe. 'We have 30% of these owners already committed to moving up to our new offering of a 35-meter Italian built Benetti yacht. Money is definitely not an issue with our buyers, quality time on the water and not at the dock is.'

In Australia, Pittwater - Sydney’s most popular cruising ground - Pittwater Boating Club’s Allan Bridge has up to ten owners in their boat sharing programmes, and the cost to each owner is very much less:

‘It’s a great idea,’ says Allan, ‘because you can have access to a top yacht with only a small expenditure, and the truth is that one-owner boats are always used for only a tiny fraction of their potential. A syndicate can have up to 10 members, making it a very reasonable investment. You don’t have to collect the 10 members yourself, we do that, and we also manage the programme. We are already set up to do that for our yacht charters. It’s so simple for the syndicate members – just like a charter boat - you can walk on/walk off. You just need to bring your food and drink on board.

’In management terms, it is essentially the same thing as yacht charter - it is a boat that needs to be maintained, and slotted into a maintenance schedule. The main difference is that rather than having an endless number of customers you have only up to 10 customers who are actually the 10 owners of the boat.

‘We run through the boat on handover, spend half a day to a day with them running through the operation of the boat so that hopefully when they are out there they don’t have any problems. We are here to support them 24/7.’

The say that the two happiest days in your boat owning life are:

1. The day you buy the boat, and
2. The day you sell it.

Just maybe this is the third, and most successful solution.

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