Hello everyone, I am wondering if anyone here has personal experience with buying a boat with friends or fellow sailors as a partnership. I'm not referring to the services offered where you buy a new boat that is managed by a company that schedules you, etc., but to a group of people making a legal arrangement together to buy, maintain and share a boat. I've heard of instances with sailboats and airplanes where it has worked very well. Anyone have stories to tell, advice or ideas? If you did it, how did you pull the people together? What sort of arrangement did you use? Contracts? I'm very curious to hear what you have to say. Thanks in advance, apilling
Sailboat partnerships
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I recently purchased my first sailboat...or should I say my first half-sailboat with a friend. It seemed like a great idea and, thus far, has worked well. My advise is this... Buy a boat worth less than your friendship. We have just $5000 into our little boat and both of us have enjoyed using it, but if one of us should wreck it, neither of us would be out so much as to ruin our friendship. Write a contract that plans for and end to the partnership. Maybe you'll want out to get a bigger boat, maybe a partner will realize that they haven't the time to use the boat. Our agreement calls for an aggressive depreciation scale of just 5 years (the boat is 25 years old) such that leaving the partnership after 3 years nets the partner only 40% of what they invested. This places a premium on the partners' commitments; boats are big, hard to store, hard to care-for, and hard to sell. Make certain that your partners are going to stick around, or accept losing their investment. Also partners should have some type of a right-or-first-refusal should one member wish to sell their share. These considerations have worked well in our boat partnership. Most important....Build relationships of great value and share a boat of lesser value.
Tom's advice...
is right on the money. Keep # of people to a minimum and the "exit strategy" is MOST important. His "contract" idea should be a high priority. My wife and I shared our first boat with another couple for 8 years or so and we wound up getting virtually every penny back out that we put in except for slip rental and beer/liquor. Older, less expensive 24 footer that we fixed up and used the hell out of. Buy a new boat with 5-6 or more people... not on a dare!!!
is right on the money. Keep # of people to a minimum and the "exit strategy" is MOST important. His "contract" idea should be a high priority. My wife and I shared our first boat with another couple for 8 years or so and we wound up getting virtually every penny back out that we put in except for slip rental and beer/liquor. Older, less expensive 24 footer that we fixed up and used the hell out of. Buy a new boat with 5-6 or more people... not on a dare!!!
It works awesome!
I went in with a friend on a used 25.5 and its been great. You have someone else to help on launches and take-outs, mast raising, holes in the hull (AAAaahhh!), which has proven invaluable. Plus, you really don't give up anything. If you're halfway busy, you can't get out to the lake all the time anyway so it just sits there. We came up with a contract, split days so each of us has 1st right of refusal on odd days/even days of the month, and we split all costs and chores.
I went in with a friend on a used 25.5 and its been great. You have someone else to help on launches and take-outs, mast raising, holes in the hull (AAAaahhh!), which has proven invaluable. Plus, you really don't give up anything. If you're halfway busy, you can't get out to the lake all the time anyway so it just sits there. We came up with a contract, split days so each of us has 1st right of refusal on odd days/even days of the month, and we split all costs and chores.
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