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Buying first boat w/ 3 partners ?
"L. A. Powell" wrote in message news:ugS%a.141187$Oz4.31995@rwcrnsc54...
Never partnered on a boat, though I did do so with a couple of airplanes. These tips should work for boats as well. Form a partnership - easy enough to do, with proper incorporation papers, checking account, etc. Agree on a "rental rate" and assess partners for usage hours. The assessment should be enough to cover dockage or storage fees, usual and ordinary maintenance, etc. An hour meter will give usage; a mandatory log will let the treasurer know who and how much to bill each month. Each partner should be assessed an equal amount to make the boat payments, insurance, and other fixed costs. Anticipate building an escrow for big expenses like a blown engine or other major repairs. Sound like the right idea. We are already seeing the posts to this thread about how partnerships never work. I grew up with airplanes in my family. The first two planes were shared among three partners and the last was shared by two. It is not uncommon for planes to be owned by private partners - and it works fine for lots of them. Why can't it work for boats? Maybe aircraft owners are generally smarter than boaters and can make realistic agreements they can live up to. I don't know... Maybe its that a lot of boaters are too emotional about their boats ("It's my boat"). While pilots love their planes, perhaps they are more able to separate the "emotion" of ownership with the "business" of ownership. Don't go into a partnership think that it will reduce the cost of ownership to a small fraction of sole ownership. For exmaple - If I bought a boat with two other parties, I would expect (off the top of my head) to save 40% (maaaaybe 50%) off the total cost of owning the boat alone. As pointed out, certain maintenance items that many owners may do themselves might be better "contracted" out in a partneship. Avoids the problem of one or two partners feeling like they do all the work. These are things that raise the overall ownership cost to the partnerhip, but you still realize significant savings individually when you divide the costs out. (I think I could quickly get past the scheduling issue, if I could save a significant amount of money on the boat ownership and not have do so much maintenance.) "Jim Donohue" wrote in message news:7FQ%a.1103$n94.336@fed1read04... I am not a small boat guy so I will leave those questions to someone who knows something. I do however have a good bit of partnership experience. First decide how the partnership ends. How many partners to end it and how to do it...Get that in place before you buy anything. Second decide how a partner leaves. Do he sell his share or simply walk or... Third decide how costs are divided up and paid. Note that this is related to prior and next item. Have clear plans for repairs and maintenance. Unless someone is well suited to the role pay an outsider to do them. More expensive but it vastly limits partnership friction. Fourth decide how the boat is scheduled. I recommend a regular schedule of "ownership" with the owner allowing other partner usage as he sees fit. Fifth - Write it all down. You will be sorry if you don't...and it may well cost you a friend or a lot of money. Jim "BooBoo12321" wrote in message . net... |
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