Narrowboat share logistics

[CruisingRobin]

Thanks for the perspectives.  I hear great things about BCBM from folks on this forum.  I have little doubt that they are a great company and would be happy to do business with them.

 

I'll ask them a few questions about the boat and the way the syndicate runs their schedule.

 

Indeed we would probably not be able to take advantage of windfall openings in the schedule, nor be taking our winter week(s). Still, ~£2K a year upkeep for 3 weeks cruising seems like a decent deal for a boat equipped as we like. 

[robtheplod]

4 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

Thanks for the perspectives.  I hear great things about BCBM from folks on this forum.  I have little doubt that they are a great company and would be happy to do business with them.

 

I'll ask them a few questions about the boat and the way the syndicate runs their schedule.

 

Indeed we would probably not be able to take advantage of windfall openings in the schedule, nor be taking our winter week(s). Still, ~£2K a year upkeep for 3 weeks cruising seems like a decent deal for a boat equipped as we like. 

If you can get over in the winter (maybe cheaper flights?) then most people tend to use those as 'cottage holidays' and dont cruise- somewhere cheap to stay to explore the local area!  Hope it all works out for you!!  which boat are you interested in?

[CruisingRobin]

Getting back, we've put a deposit down on a share of our boat of interest, NB Eos managed by BCBM, soon to be based in Cropredy Marina.  Since we already are booked up with hires for 2024, we made a deal with the seller that they would continue to use the cruising time on the books for 2024, and keep paying upkeep until we take over in Jan 2025.  We also managed a swap with one of the other members for a spring fortnight that works better for us than what the share already had on the books for 2025.  We probably won't even see the boat until May 2025, but we like the pictures and the layout, she had a recent repaint and new engine, and we trust we will like the boat.  Would never buy as a full owner sight-unseen, but this is what we can do and seems OK.  

 

Looking forward to our future cruises, with just a little more feeling of agency.

 

 

[MrsM]

How exciting and congratulations. I agree that you have secured very good value boating holidays compared to renting, and as a part owner your boat will soon feel like home from home. Hope you have many happy years exploring the network. 

[CruisingRobin]

Thank you!  

 

We've been delivered documents to sign.  I asked about surveys a while ago, and I was told that the boat was surveyed every four years.  It seems reasonable to me that I should be allowed to see the most recent survey report before signing, especially as we are buying a share sight-unseen.  Does this seem reasonable to others?

 

 

[Stroudwater1]

3 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

Thank you!  

 

We've been delivered documents to sign.  I asked about surveys a while ago, and I was told that the boat was surveyed every four years.  It seems reasonable to me that I should be allowed to see the most recent survey report before signing, especially as we are buying a share sight-unseen.  Does this seem reasonable to others?

 

 

Yes but it’s likely to be fine, though surveys can be picky too on certain things. It’s a 13 year old boat that’s likely to be well maintained so all should be good survey wise.
 

I imagine any issues are likely to have been addressed as the monthly direct debits usually accrue to give a decent fund for remedial work. 
 

Well done, looks like a nice boat. Enjoy! 
 

https://www.boatshare.co.uk/shared-narrow-boat-eos

 

 

[cuthound]

6 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

Thank you!  

 

We've been delivered documents to sign.  I asked about surveys a while ago, and I was told that the boat was surveyed every four years.  It seems reasonable to me that I should be allowed to see the most recent survey report before signing, especially as we are buying a share sight-unseen.  Does this seem reasonable to others?

 

 

 

It seems a reasonable request. Shareboats are typically very well maintained, repainted and blacked every year.

 

The two shareboats I had shares in a still around. The 1992 one is now in private ownership and the 2002 one is still a shareboat. Neither were ever surveyed in the time I was a shareholder (1992-2013).

[haggis]

8 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

Thank you!  

 

We've been delivered documents to sign.  I asked about surveys a while ago, and I was told that the boat was surveyed every four years.  It seems reasonable to me that I should be allowed to see the most recent survey report before signing, especially as we are buying a share sight-unseen.  Does this seem reasonable to others?

 

 

Unusual for a relatively young boat to be surveyed every 4 years. The Boat Safely Certificate requires an inspection every 4 years. Could this be what is being termed a survey? The BSS is aimed at ensuring that a boat has safe gas and electricity on board so that it doesn't blow up and take out other boats. It is nothing to do with hull thickness etc. 

[CruisingRobin]

I'm quite trusting that the boat is well managed and fine.  To tell the truth, I'm just curious at what a survey report looks like.  Plus we get to wait a year to see the boat, and any and all information is something to toy with while waiting.  I'm not making it a contingency on the deal.

 

We signed the papers.  Always happy to sign a contract sporting verbiage like this:

 

"The parties agree as follows:
1. THE singular shall include the plural and the masculine shall include the feminine and the neuter and
obligations entered into and burdens assumed by a party consisting of more than one person shall be
deemed to be entered into and assumed jointly and severally so as to apply to and be enforceable
against all both or any of such persons and their and each of their personal representatives."

 

How excitingly inclusive!  I'll have to get some new pronouns for the occasion. 

 

 

[Hudds Lad]

3 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

"The parties agree as follows:
1. THE singular shall include the plural and the masculine shall include the feminine and the neuter and
obligations entered into and burdens assumed by a party consisting of more than one person shall be
deemed to be entered into and assumed jointly and severally so as to apply to and be enforceable
against all both or any of such persons and their and each of their personal representatives."

That's why legal types get paid the big bucks, to sit and come up with guff like that.

 

Admittedly i've only just finished my coffee, but it took two read throughs of that to understand what it was saying, or perhaps i'm just thick  

[PeterScott]

8 hours ago, CruisingRobin said:

"...obligations ... deemed to be entered into and assumed jointly and severally ...."

This applies to all shared boats: one co-owner causes an expensive but uninsured loss, and a (third-party) claimant acts against the richest co-owner, who happened not to be involved in the incident that caused the problem.

 

Here's an embelishment by way of thought-experiment (*):

One co-owner is unexpectedly unable to use their booked fortnight, and by happenstance, at a barbecue, meets their neighbour's cousin who has experience of lumpy-water cruisers and is really keen on trying a narrowboat, so the co-owner says they can use their weeks.  (Or if the agreement between the co-owners doesn't allow subletting, then let's have this neighbour's cousin as a guest on the boat offering helpful tidal-passage advice)

 

The fortnight includes a trip down the tidal Trent and returning to the canals at Keadby, which is successfully achieved. Sadly Thorne Lock has an unscheduled fortnight's stoppage and the only way to complete the trip on time is via Trent Falls, where a navigational error cutting the corner causes the narrowboat to sink, and a Humber Lifeboat rescue for the crew without personal injury. The wreck is blocking a shipping lane and ABP (the harbour authority) claims its extensive costs in removing the wreck from the co-owner best-placed to pay. The boat was not insured for the tidal Trent below Keadby, and has no value once recovered...

 

(*) Subletting and scary tidal trips have both happened with other owners on our shared boats, but I've never known of any catastrophic uninsured losses.

 

I wonder if anyone ever explains to owners signing agreements what "jointly and severally" means, and the thread inspires the question of how US law has adapted this common-law concept. Can't be extradited for debt 🙂 and having  assets offshore could in these circumstances be advantageous ...

 

[CruisingRobin]

9 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

That's why legal types get paid the big bucks, to sit and come up with guff like that.

 

Admittedly i've only just finished my coffee, but it took two read throughs of that to understand what it was saying, or perhaps I'm just thick  

I'm plenty used to shaking my head at the balderdash of legal wording in American contracts, but there's just something particularly amusing in that paragraph.  A whiff of powdered wigs and just a scant of Monty Python, perhaps?  I can always read through more for entertainment while we're waiting for a year to finally see our boat.