andrewcooley

How kind. We were all a bit busy last year, and this year looks like being the same. I'm supposed to be retired and just working part time, but.... Correction accepted - I didn't check the numbers. I'm sure the work force at Heritage are splendid, but the owners - along with another yard - did try to persuade other marinas to adopt the same unhelpful and aggressive line. Fortunately they refused. That episode left a very unpleasant taste.

I'm not sure what Allan is suggesting by that association, so here are some facts. I was local manager for Ownerships at Tattenhall from the time it opened until the collapse of the company, I then ran the 'interim plan' there to help keep the boats cruising and subsequently became BCBM's area manager covering Tattenhall and other bases. Annabelle II, the 55ft ex-Ownerships boat, was commissioned by owners through Ownerships. She was never based at Tattenhall - although she may have visited. At the time of the collapse, she was based at Heritage. She left there as soon as possible, as most shared ownership boats did, for the reasons most shared owners will know about. Her owners chose BCBM to manage their boat, and she moved to Nantwich for the rest of the season and then on to Hillmorton Wharf, where she is now based. Although there are a number of boats on the inland waterways called Annabelle, Jim Shead's boat listing gives only one Annabelle II and no Annabelle 2. BC Boat Management has its head office at Nantwich Canal Centre and its branch and finance office at Braunston Marina. BCBM Boat Share - the sister company that offers shares in syndicate-owned boats whether they are self-managed or managed by BCBM or any other company - is also based at Nantwich Canal Centre. No-one associated with BCBM or BCBM Boat Share posts under a pseudonym. BCBM has a good working relationship with many marinas and workshops, including Tattenhall, but has no reason to promote any one of them in preference to another. From next spring, BCBM managed boats will be based at Reedley, Tattenhall, Nantwich, Overwater, Aston, Great Haywood, Hillmorton, Wigrams Turn and Lower Heyford - plus two bases on the Broads, France and the Mediterranean. In most cases, BCBM has been able to negotiate a preferential rate for mooring the boats it manages. The choice of base for any boat is entirely that of the syndicate. If anyone has any questions about the way these two companies operate, please come along to the open days at Nantwich (3rd and 4th March) or the Braunston Boat Share Show (24th and 25th March). We will be delighted to see you and happy to answer your questions.

BCBM is hosting a viewing day for shared ownership broads boats with shares for sale on Saturday 21st May from 10am to 4pm Full details are here. Please let BCBM know if you want to come and have a look at these boats - phone 01270 628076 or email info@bcbm.co.uk

You're absolutely right of course. Not intentionally! We are trying to get her to Braunston for the show, but lifting her out and on to a lorry from where she's moored at present would cost £800 plus - and the same again to put her back. We can't get her up the GU because she's too tall, so we're genuinely looking for somewhere else on the Thames where we could lift her out for sensible money.

It's a different Dream Catcher! All the details are here - and she is definitely a dutch barge! Does anyone know a spot on the Thames where we could crane her out at a sensible price?

Thanks for that and for all the other postings here. Your help and advice is much appreciated. We had wondered whether we could get Dream Catcher (pictured on page 20 of the spring issue of 'Waterways') up that way to the show at Braunston - but I goes the answer is NO!

Air draft is 2.75 metres. Just checking on draft.

Has anyone taken a Dutch barge (4.12 metre beam) up the Grand Union from the Thames to Braunston recently? If so, were there any problems with low bridges or the Blisworth and Braunston tunnels?

I would like to wish the new Association every success - trading boats add significantly to the interest and enjoyment of those of us who just cruise for pleasure and relaxation. The Cheeseboat is coming to the Boat-Share Show at Braunston on 19th and 20th March - it may be an opportunity to let visitors know about other trading boats and where they can be found.

I think it would only be a problem if attempting to do both on the same boat. As long as he (or anyone else) acts for either the seller or the buyer it'll be OK. If someone was acting for both, there would clearly be a conflict of interest.

In theory you can build anything you like and apply for retrospective planning permission, and the planning authority will have to treat it as a new application as though you hadn't started. Having served on planning committees for 12 years, I know how much local councillors hate this sort of application, but if they are seen to oppose it because it's retrospective, the applicant is likely to win an appeal on the basis that the planning authority has acted unreasonably! Building houses without some sort of planning permission would be a very big gamble, but probably the economics of digging a bigger hole alongside a permitted marina development 'on spec' are not so prohibitive when compared with bringing all the plant on to the site a second time for 'phase 2.'

I'm not sure how that escaped comment, but it takes exactly the same amount of water to fill a lock regardless of the size of the boat in it - or if there is no boat in it. That's because the boat displaces the same amount of water in the empty lock as in the full one. So the only time a boat wider than 7' would be wasteful of water would be when another boat wanted to pair up and couldn't, so the lock had to be filled twice - but that would be just as true whether the boat was 7' 6" or 14'

Details for potential exhibitors are given here.

There is a section on the HMRC website here that explains what has to be done for services that span the date of the change. Unless I'm reading it wrongly, it means that VAT must be charged at 17.5% up to 3/1/11 and at 20% from 4/1/11 and tax at 20% will be required from a registered business from 4/1/11 whether or not they've invoiced it correctly. Even if services or work are started before 4/1/11 and/or the invoice is dated before 4/1/11, the 20% rate applies to any part of the supply occurring after the change date.

In general there isn't a 'depreciation fund' as such. Share asking prices will usually take account of the current valuation of the whole boat if it was offered for sale on the open market. As shares change hands, each successive owner may carry some of the depreciation. Owners can agree to sell the boat. In such cases, they will get a proportion of the sale price back according to their share holding and less any costs of the sale. They may then decide to commission a new boat as an existing syndicate or go their own separate ways - buying a share in another boat, buying their own boat, occasional hiring, etc. In my experience, the sale of a syndicate boat is generally not based on any set life expectancy, but on reaching a point where the owners feel that the costs of keeping her in good shape are too great or when a significant number of owners want to sell their shares at the same time. The oldest ex-Ownerships boats still in shared ownership would be nearly 20 years old. Details of most of the boats with shares being offered for sale by BCBM Boat Share include the launch date.

You'll find running costs amongst the details of boats with shares for sale through BCBM Boat Share here. These shares are not exclusively in boats managed by BCBM - although most of them are. For our share in Sundowner, we pay £33.34 a month BCBM administration fee plus £50 a month into the syndicate account to cover running costs - licence, mooring, insurance, maintenance, etc. In addition we pay for winter works (as agreed by owners at our AGM) in two chunks. This year ours totals just under £500 (2 payments of £250, one before the work and one after it's signed off), but it varies considerably according to what owners decide or the boat needs. This year our single biggest item was replacing the central heating boiler. Since taking on the management of 19 ex-Ownerships boats, BCBM has had each of the boats independently valued, and this helps owners who want to sell shares in them to set a realistic asking price related to the market value of the boat. If you do decide to go for shared ownership, make sure you see the syndicate agreement before signing on the dotted line. This agreement sets out how the owners will work together. Syndicates may have varying rules for the way holiday weeks are chosen, arrangements for 'school holiday' shares, allocation of free or canceled weeks, etc. If a management company is looking after the boat for the owners, there should be a separate agreement for that. I hope that helps.

BCBM Boat Share will be presenting the Annual Boat-Share Show this year. The date of 19th & 20th March 2011 will allow syndicate-owned boats with shares being offered for sale by BCBM Boat Share to get to Braunston after the stoppages. Trade exhibitors please contact BCBM Boat Share Ltd. on 01270 628076 or email info@bcbm.co.uk

There's also this guidance note from the British Marine Federation.

All the boats managed by BCBM are insured through Towergate Mardon who have been extremely helpful. They certainly came up trumps when Ownerships Ltd ceased trading and left over 100 boats with less than a month's cover remaining.

That's about right. Most of the ex-Ownerships boats are cruising for around 40 weeks a year. 40 wks x 6 days a week x 7 hrs a day = 1,680 hours. These boats are getting regular servicing, of course, and I would put engine life in the range 9 - 13 years. We put a new Isuzu 42 in Sundowner last autumn, so the original BMC had lasted 11 years. I've not come across one that needed a new engine after only 6 years, but Allan may have done in his previous incarnation as an Ownerships local manager. Generally syndicates are aware that an engine is approaching the end of its useful life and many make provision for the change by contributing to an engine/contingency fund. Even if an engine does fail unexpectedly on a syndicate owned boat, though, facing the £6k or so bill is a lot easier when it's divided by 12.

Sorry to let the facts spoil the argument, but BCBM charges just £400 per share per year including VAT. It has a contract with the syndicate for a year, which can be renewed at each syndicate AGM, and that contract involves a service level agreement. All the details and example budgets can be found here or here Of course shared ownership isn't for everyone. But if you want to take at least some of your holiday each year on a boat, then clearly you get more for your money than you do by hiring - and you spend a lot less than you would if you had a comparable boat of your own. BCBM works on the principle that it's your boat, your money and your choice. Nobody takes part unless they want to, and we don't tell anyone what to do - although we're always there to give help and advice when it's needed.

Nantwich looks after several shared ownership boats managed by BCBM - some from the former Challenger scheme, some ex-Ownerships and the new award-winning boat built by BCBM for shared ownership, First Dawn Other shared ownership boats managed by BCBM are currently moored at Norbury and Tattenhall, and three will be moving to the new Overwater Marina at Audlem for next season.

What an interesting discussion. There are currently well over 200 shared ownership boats in the UK, mostly with 12 owners in their syndicates - and mostly each owner is a couple or a family. That's around 5,000 folks enjoying their boating through shared ownership. It's certainly not 'time-share'. With shared ownership, the members of the syndicate own the boat completely - they don't buy holiday weeks. I'm lucky enough to own a share in Sundowner with my wife. I'm even more fortunate to be an Area Manager for BC Boat Management, which manages about 50 boats for their syndicates. That enables me to spend days like today checking on the heating on some of the boats to help keep the frost out, something the individual owners wouldn't be able to do on a regular basis, scattered as they are across the UK and from as far afield as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. BCBM doesn't own any part of my boat, and I cruise for three of four weeks a year. If I owned the whole boat, I wouldn't be able to use it for much more than that. At one time we did own two shares and couldn't use the 6 to 8 weeks. There are lots of different ways of allocating the weeks each year. About half of the shared ownership boats in the UK were once in the Ownerships scheme and use a booking system based on a rotating list of owners, so that everyone gets a fair choice of weeks. If the idea of shared ownership interests you, there's a whole lot of information here. And if you want to see for yourself what sort of boats these 5,000 folks actually share, come along to the Annual Boat-Share Show at Braunston on 19th and 20th March. Perhaps I'll see you there.

Website Name: BCBM Boat Share Ltd. Website URL: http://bcbmboatshare.co.uk Website Description: Details of shares for sale in narrowboats on the UK inland waterways, boats on the broads and boats in France and the Mediterranean Any other comments: Presenters of the Annual Boat-Share Show at Braunston Marina on 19th and 20 March 2010