Boat Sharing goes 'Do it Yourself' with generic software

by Lee Mylchreest on 8 Nov 2010 Not using your boat to the optimum yet don't want to join a boat sharing syndicate run by professionals? The designer of the software for such boat sharing companies as SailTime and Beneteau has now designed generic software so that you can efficiently and fairly run your own boat sharing arrangement with friends.

NauticEd and its principal Grant Headifen last month announced the release of boat sharing software to the public called myBoat™.

Until now such purpose built sharing software has been closely held by professional sharing companies. NauticEd hopes that by making its Internet based sharing software readily available, people who have chosen to stand on the boating sidelines, due to the economy, will find that sharing a boat is their ticket back onto the water.

The sharing software will also benefit existing boat owners who are tightening their belts and considering selling their boat. Now they can invite a few friends to join their boat and share the expenses.

Headifen says that he has incorporated quite a few improvements and now opened the Internet based software up so that anyone can login and create a new boat online to share, invite some friends and be up and running inside a few minutes. NauticEd also provides boat sharing agreements which cover entry and exit strategies and what if contingencies between partners.

The myBoat™ software is configurable to fit most people’s sharing profiles and incorporates fair sharing rules developed from 10 years of knowledge gained from using the older versions.

'With an Internet based sharing software program, a member of a shared boat feels like they have almost total access to the boat’s time. People who share a boat with designated weeks or days are really missing out. If there are 4 people sharing the boat, rather than getting 25% of the time, myBoat will give a member closer to 90% access to the time.' Says Headifen. While that sounds counter-intuitive, you'll see what Grant means when the system is explained.

NauticEd’s survey of its ten thousand plus students shows a significant percentage do not have daily access to a boat. By providing this sharing service to its students, NauticEd believes that it can get more people out on the water. 'And that’s a good thing for the industry' stated Headifen. 'More people on the water means the faster the boating industry can recover from the recession'.

Headifen acknowledges that people have been sharing boats for thousands of years. What NauticEd is doing is making sharing more accessible. NauticEd also hopes that boat sharing members will require their 'mates' to take the Sailing Education classes that NauticEd offers, although it is not a requirement.

Some of the features of the boat sharing software are:
- Online Swap and Wait list functions
- Grab and go - inside 48 hour free reservation period
- Add as many members as you like
- Reserve for half day or up to 10 days in a row
- Anti-weekend-hogging limits
- Anti-holiday-hogging limits
- Reserve, cancel, re-reserve without penalty
- Reminder emails to confirm reservation
- Snooze function for confirmation
… and more

The myBoat™ boat sharing software is available for $4.44 per month per user and can be found at http://www.nauticed.org/boatpartner

NauticEd also developed an enterprise version that allows professional sharing companies to access state of the art multi-boat sharing software for a few hundred dollars per year instead of licensing software for thousands of dollars per year or developing it for tens of thousands.

Beneteau doesn't see this as competition, but as a big potential booster to their sales. NauticEd will advertise Beneteau sailboats on the sharing site and encourage people to use the software and share the purchase price and operating expenses of a new Beneteau sailboat amongst their friends.

To get more information about boat partnership software, go to http://www.NauticEd.org/boatpartner, or watch the video below to see how the system works: