Walking around almost any marina or sailing club, you'll see millions
of dollars sitting idle 99.99% of the time.


Frogwatch wrote:
Your last sentence says a lot. Not being used seems to be worse for a
boat than moderate use.

That seems true from what I've seen. What's worse, the owners of boats
that sit for years tend to think of the boat as being still spanking
new, so when they do show up for that once-in-three-years sail (and
I'm not kidding) they get into trouble with engine problems, dead
batteries, sun-rotted gear, etc etc.


.... So, how to address this problem? For a
cruising boat, I cannot think of a way but for racing boats a racing
club might be the way.

For racing, one way is to have fleet-owned one design boats. Buy in at
the crew level, a higher buy-in for skippers; mandatory maintenance
hours or a fee that will more than cover needed work (most people
would rather pay, so you have to make the fee at least slightly
punitive). There are actually a number of clubs that do this around
the Chesapeake; don't know about other areas.

For cruising, the answer is to use the boat a lot. Mulitple
benefits... you don't have a lot of capital lying idle, you learn the
ins & outs of the boat, you have more fun.


"Edgar" wrote:

..... you also have to consider that
there is always the possibility that the another guy who shares the boat and
had it out just before you will find himself unable to get back at the end
of his time because either he went too far downwind or else the weather went
against him on his way back. So you arrive to pick the boat up when it is
your turn and you find it is not there waiting for you Big difference from
a timeshare property!

Or one of the partners has damaged the boat and not fixed it because
he didn't notice, or didn't know how, or "didn't have time". Never
happened to us but is common. Some friends of ours who owned a nice 37-
footer in partnership had the partners' family leave the head valves
open, so the boat flooded with a skim nice fresh potty-flush floating
on top. That one ended up in court as they argued about not only who
was supposed to pay for totally stripping & cleaning the inside of
boat, replacing cushions, etc etc. That one *really* ruined a
friendship and a family relationship as well.

The boats I owned in partnership were all racers and the partners were
quite good sailors. We had quite an extenensive & effective agreement,
for example we agreed to flip a coin before every race to determine
who would skipper. We also had to kick in a fixed amount monthly above
expenses, so that money was always on hand in the "boat fund."

It was actually a valuable experience because I got to campaign 2
boats I could not have afforded otherwise and learned first-hand that
a hard-racing keelboat is like a cocaine habit, you simply spend as
much money as you can lay hands on once it gets hold of you.

Also consider that it is likely to be very hard to sell your share when you
are tired of the deal. Take Doug's advice and buy a boat you can afford and
can sell when you want to trade up.


You also won't be caught in a financial trap like all the yuppies
currently moaning over their McMansion ARMs.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King