Boat Buddy

Mowjo · February 21, 2014

Ok here's what I think could work, but it would involve having a legal contract with the other person. You sell them one share of your boat for a token amount say £10, in the contract you put that they own one share and are liable for a % of running cost and maintaining agreed by both party's, and that should the other person wish to drop out you have the buy back option to buy the share back for £10, my thinking behind this is that as the other person owns one share he becomes a joint owner, so no problems with the boat being classed as hire/reward, no problem with insurance, no problem with tolls, you could agree to let the other person use the boat for say four weeks of the year and he contributes say one third of the running cost, it's basically the same as boat sharing but instead of say four people owning 1/4 each you only sell one small share, and stay 99% owner, obviously it would have to be with someone you trust and would agree to those terms, but when you think hiring a boat for one week can cost over £1000, even if it cost the other person £1000 a year it would be a good deal, if you one of those unable to get to your boat very often you could even agree to let them use the boat anytime as long as they check with you first,, I've been doing a bit of checking and the only way I've seen not to fall foul of all the regs and stuff is if the other person/persons are joint owners, in my mind the above makes sense, and I can't see there being a problem if you advertised for someone to boat share, you could probably even do it on the forums,, now where's Boss Alan,,,,,

ranworthbreeze · February 21, 2014

Hi Frank,

If you have a contract in place that all parties agree to and sign you should not have a problem.

The key points would be for a friendly group of three or four people sharing a boat:-

The price of the share.

The entitlement of the share (usage in weeks)

Who manages the boat or syndicate (who arranges all the payments, river toll, insurance, moorings, servicing, repairs etc).

Who's name the river toll will be registered in (it can be in more than one name if you prefer it).

Insurance named owners.

Limits to where the boat can operate, i.e.is it just the Broads or can it be taken to sea (this has implications on the insurance).

Set procedures such as, responsibility for cleaning, refuelling and replacement of gas bottles and handover times.

Have at least one meeting a year to discus the winter servicing and laying up and set a budget for the forth coming year.

To give you an idea our management costs have been as follows for our twenty shares.

2011 £980 last year being managed by a company.

We became self managed in early 2012, jobs were done when required, the boat was serviced better to our specification and improvements were constantly introduced.

2012 £700

2013 £500

2014 £600

If anyone wants more advice please feel free to contact me directly..

Regards

Alan