Laura or Brian wrote in message ...
Does anybody have any experience with this company? The plan is, you buy
a boat from them, they charter it out and maintain it and the proceeds
from this rental use pays for the boat and allows you a coupla months
use for yourself, plus some annual profit. Eventually, you own the boat
outright and can either continue the relationship for fun and profit or
sail away into the sunset. They advertise in Sail Magazine.
Thanks for any info.


Disclaimer: I have no experience chartering with The Moorings or
owning a charter boat. What I tell you comes from my own research into
charter boat ownership.

The Moorings is the oldest and were, prior to the merger of Sunsail
and Stardust, the largest bareboat charter operation around. Quite
often people who have never chartered before are recommended to The
Moorings because of their efficiency and high level of service
especially to new charterers. What this means to you as an owner of
course is that you may get a higher percentage of first time
charterers on your boat. That's not necessarily bad, just something to
be aware of.

Yes you will have income from charters and it may be enough to cover
your loan payments and maybe even leave you with a little profit. But
the average charter contract is for 3 - 5 years and the average loan
term is much longer than that. And as we all know, when paying off a
loan, in the beginning you are paying mostly interest. You could wind
up at the end of the charter contract owing more for your boat than
it's actually worth if you were to try to sell it. Selling the boat at
this point is certainly an option, but not necessarily a good one.
Many people try to do this and thus the market is fairly saturated
with 5 - 10 year old Moorings boats which deflates their value. Also
since the boats are optimized for charter operation they may not be as
attractive to boat buyers looking for a good blue water cruising boat.

If at the end of your contract you can afford to "sail off into the
sunset" and make the remaining payments yourself, why not charter for
a few years and then when you are ready to sail away buy a 5 - 10 year
old boat. You will probably spend a lot less on charters than you
would plunking down 20% - 25% on a new boat. Also you will have much
greater range of boats to choose from when you are ready to sail away
than you will buying a new boat through a charter company.

I'm not trying to discourage you from doing this if it's what you want
to do, just be sure that you go into it with your eyes open. From the
tone of your question it sounds as though you are just beginning to
think about charter boat ownership. Be sure to do your homework before
making any deals.

There is a good amount of information on http://www.sailonline.com/
both for charterers and charter boat owners. Specifically they offer a
couple of spreadsheets which layout the costs and benefits of
ownership and study it from a few different angles, defraying the cost
of boat ownership, as the cost of several years worth of vacations and
even as a financial investment. I hope you find it useful.

Bob