Own a Ship

[astalweeks]

Was at the ownerships show at the weekend and was very impressed with everything and everybody we met. We will almost certainly become an ownership menber.

But....

Has anybody got a bad word to say about them?

I was asking everybody that there must be some negativity around and I would rather hear it now than after I have purchased a share.

If you prefer not to put it on the public domain please PM me,

 

thanks

AW

[greywolf]

they are a nice idea but you will i think need to ask the people who run the scheme who owns the boat if the management goes bump and get it in writing.I say this because a scheme went bust and some people lost out big time i believe.If you do a search of the site you may find a thread on the site. Welcome to the forum.

[churchward]

they are a nice idea but you will i think need to ask the people who run the scheme who owns the boat if the management goes bump and get it in writing.I say this because a scheme went bust and some people lost out big time i believe.If you do a search of the site you may find a thread on the site. Welcome to the forum.

 

With ownerships the share owners own title to the boat so if the management company went bust the boat is not part of the assets of that company. The only snag comes when ownerships themselves (unsold shares etc) are the majority owner. Even so your share is your asset. There is a very specific and detailed contract with the sale of shares that explains all the details. You can get a generic copy on request for prospective buyers.

 

Before we bought our own boat we had a share in an ownerships boat and it was a good way of getting out on a boat more often (cheaper than hiring 4 times or so a year) and we had a share in an asset that when it came to move on we sold.

 

The management company are quite good I think and as far as possible try and make things as simple as they can for the share owner.

 

The only down side I can think of is that you have to agree things with your other share owners about the maintenance of the boat which with up to 12 sets of people can be difficult. Also the annual maintenance bill can be quite expensive. The boat I had a share in used to have an annual expenditure of £9000+ obviously shared among the owners. This is just maintenance/running costs (inc licenses) so does not include improvements or new equipment. Our own portion of this including all other items was aprox £1000+ each year for a 12th share. It is of course expensive when you have everything done by professionals all the time and the boat is in almost constant use requiring several engine services etc a year. Once shared this cost will still be cheaper than maintenance on your own boat (say £3000 per year inc licenses) but it does mean if you have multiple 1/12 shares you can get close to that figure. Which was one of the factors in deciding to branch out and get our own boat (not the top reason though) we wanted to spend more time boating which would have meant more shares.

 

The other issue with a share scheme is that you just can't use the boat when you like or pop out at weekends you need to book your weeks in advance and stick to it. This means not always using the boat at times that is fully convenient to you.

 

All that aside though we really enjoyed our time as share owners and when the time came to move on selling our share was an easy process.

Edited February 9, 2009 by churchward

[Machpoint005]

We had an Ownerships share for about four years, starting with a brand-new boat. It's a good way of getting some cruising time in, but there are drawbacks.

 

• The cost of the three weeks a year has already been mentioned - it is cheaper than hiring, but not much.
  
• You have to be able to plan your boating weeks some eighteen months in advance for the next round: we found we couldn't make full use of our weeks because of commitments with less lengthy notice periods (eg daughter's graduation, to name just one).
  
• Some of the Ownerships' staff we came across (not all of them, I must stress) were right jobsworths. One in particular, on hand-back day, castigated my wife for our late arrival back at base, despite our having phoned ahead, told him about the traffic problem, and given him an ETA. The coward waited until I was out of the way before 'having a go', which I found particularly objectionable.
  
• On a related subject, your week on the boat starts at 3pm Friday, and you have to be back by 10am the next Friday. This means you only get six days, bearing in mind the boat has to be cleaned and serviced for the next 'owners'. (You can have a fortnight, but only once a year).
  
• We had a problem a couple of times when asked by the management if we could be back early, as the next party wanted to make an early start. We thought this was a bit cheeky.
  
• The base for the boat is fixed for the year, but can be changed by agreement with the other 11 shares. This can work in your favour - ours moved steadily northwards - but the reverse is also true. Getting to a distant boat through Friday afternoon traffic in summer can be a right pain.
  
• The Ownerships scheme is large and successful - but we felt it was getting a bit too large and the personal touches were lost. You have no choice in who the other shareholders are in your boat - some can be people that you wouldn't otherwise choose to spend time with.
  
• Owners' meetings: held in November these are the forum for discussion about where the boat is going to 'live', what routine maintenance needs doing, etc. If spending two and a half hours discussing curtains is your thing, then go ahead and enjoy. Are you prepared to discuss removing the microwave and putting in a bread bin instead? OK then (I couldn't understand why bread couldn't just be kept in the microwave, but there you are).
  
• There is a subtle pressure to conform - such as in filling in the daily log, so that others could see where the boat had been. Our mindset is that holidays are not for writing essays, but for relaxing - so our boat's log had some blank weeks. Weren't we the rebels?
  

Buying and selling a share is easy enough, and there is some legally enforceable paperwork. I would think this is a good time to buy in, but I'd suggest not joining a brand new boat: go for one a few years old as it's cheaper! They work on the principle that a boat (and thus a 1/12 share) loses half its value in ten years, but it's market forces that dictate prices and movement of shares.

 

Hope this is helpful but feel free to PM me with any questions!

[PeterG]

Before we bought our own boat we had a share in an ownerships boat and it was a good way of getting out on a boat more often (cheaper than hiring 4 times or so a year) and we had a share in an asset that when it came to move on we sold.

 

The management company are quite good I think and as far as possible try and make things as simple as they can for the share owner.

 

The only down side I can think of is that you have to agree things with your other share owners about the maintenance of the boat which with up to 12 sets of people can be difficult. Also the annual maintenance bill can be quite expensive.

 

We also had a share with Ownerships and generally were happy with what we got out of it. Certainly it was a much cheaper route into owning a boat without taking on the cost of a whole boat. However there was a downside.

 

The downside for me was the other 11 owners if they wanted to do something different or perhaps sometimes treated the boat as theirs on a more individual basis. Then what could happen was an argument that bubbled under and upset the group of owners. In theory there were rules in the agreement you signed at the out set but in practice you might be lucky or not.

 

At the end of the day it depends on you getting a good group of people over which you no real control, but once you have then you need to try to get on and keep the ones in tune with you.

 

One thing I did not like was that Ownerships kept the right to loan out your boat if it was not being used to others which we as a group were strongly unhappy about when it happened.

 

So it is cheaper that buying your own boat of comparable specification, the boat will get very hard use and hence heavy upkeep costs, you have to get on with 11 other groups who may or may not be annoying to you (and vice versa perhaps) and the upfront cost of your share x12 are high compared to buying your own boat.

 

Bottom line for us we like the flexibility of having our own boat so we know no one has smashed it into a bridge at full throttle and we can take it out as and when we want to and can get off work.

[Pie Eater]

We attended an ownerships day about 10 years ago before we decided to buy our own.

 

One of the things that put us off was one of the share owners telling us the tale of his group arguing because some members wanted to splash out on having a special box made inside the boat to store the tiller and pin after use. Other members thought that the idea was a waste of money.

 

Steve

[Machpoint005]

We attended an ownerships day about 10 years ago before we decided to buy our own.

 

One of the things that put us off was one of the share owners telling us the tale of his group arguing because some members wanted to splash out on having a special box made inside the boat to store the tiller and pin after use. Other members thought that the idea was a waste of money.

 

Steve

Yeah - thanks Steve - that reminds me that one pair of owners wanted an extended tiller, because it was hard work steering. My response was 'fine - but you pay for it yourself'. Ditto an anchor for river work - the 'free' one we happened to have in the cellar wasn't good enough.

[PeterG]

Yeah - thanks Steve - that reminds me that one pair of owners wanted an extended tiller, because it was hard work steering. My response was 'fine - but you pay for it yourself'. Ditto an anchor for river work - the 'free' one we happened to have in the cellar wasn't good enough.

 

Our group got into a problem were certain people left more and more personal stuff on board which you then had to clear up before you put your own stuff on board. The boat just got full of other people's stuff which only one group ever used. It all became a little daft until the next annual meeting where we all agreed to take all of the personal stuff away or risk it being binned.

 

It depends what you are prepared to put up with before you buy your own.

[PeterScott]

Well I hope you had a ride on Odyssey as 'trip boat' :-)

 

I which case I probably said ...

 

We always expected to buy our own boat, with sharing in the interim. But our group got on so well together that 5 of us still own a boat - this one not with Ownerships any more as it happens - and the advantages of having friend to share not only the expense but the decision making and some trips far outweighs the compromises. So go for it! And make the effort of getting-to-know your fellow owners.

 

"arguing because some members wanted to splash out on having a special box ..." Yes meetings do need a good chairman, or they degenerate into a row about whether to replace the pillows.

 

"One thing I did not like was that Ownerships kept the right to loan out your boat if it was not being used to others which we as a group were strongly unhappy about when it happened." If your boat doesn't want to be used by others, and its owners don't want to use spare weeks on other boats, then you can opt out of this. We did.

 

Regards

PeterScott

Odyssey (OS)

[Teakbank12]

Was at the ownerships show at the weekend and was very impressed with everything and everybody we met. We will almost certainly become an ownership menber.

But....

Has anybody got a bad word to say about them?

I was asking everybody that there must be some negativity around and I would rather hear it now than after I have purchased a share.

If you prefer not to put it on the public domain please PM me,

 

thanks

AW

 

Hi

Reading all the replies i agree that the boats get good use, BUT whats the point having a boat sitting in a marina & you dont/cannot use very often due to work getting in the way.

You still have all the expenses but no one to share with the costs of marina fees etc ...

Its perfect buying your own boat if retired when you can make proper use of it.

 

Personally i think there are many boat owners out there now who probably regret investing a large amount of money in their own boat for it to sit in a marina for weeks at a time.

 

We were introduced to Silkwood by my brother/sis in law who had a share. We joined them for a week in the depths of February 07 & it reminded me what i missed from a previous boating experience way back in 2002.

As soon as we returned home i asked my brother to mail out other owners to see if any were interested in selling up, fortunately one owner was having their own boat built & we agreed a price & hand over date.

 

Silkwood is a 10 year old boat but has plenty of life in her & we love her to bits. Having viewed a few newer boats we always come back to Silkwood & realise why we bought into her.

I think if we had a win on the lottery or our premium bonds came up we may consider a second share in one of the new polish boats BUT would still keep our original share in Silkwood.

 

We consider the money we paid for our share as money spent & dont ever think about it as an asset we can trade in.

We just find the annual fees each year & look upon those as running costs & of course whatever we spend on each trip we consider as usual holiday spending money.

 

I cannot honestly see any negatives in the system. Everyone in Ownerships we deal with is very obliging & helpful plus you can of course chat with the other owners & negotiate date changes if booked weeks become unusable due to work/family commitments.

 

We had never heard of Ownerships until my brother informed us about them & it amazes me the amount of people we come across at locks etc who have hired for many years & become very interested in Ownerships.

 

Whatever you decide please feel free to call us if you need to chat.

 

If you want a chat with Ownerships then i guess Phil Capp is the man & he is very helpful & can answer any queries you may have.

[Allan(nb Albert)]

Was at the ownerships show at the weekend and was very impressed with everything and everybody we met. We will almost certainly become an ownership menber.

But....

Has anybody got a bad word to say about them?

I was asking everybody that there must be some negativity around and I would rather hear it now than after I have purchased a share.

If you prefer not to put it on the public domain please PM me,

 

thanks

AW

I have owned shares in two schemes, one of them OwnerShips and I have also worked for the company in the past. I would recommend them.

 

However, you need to make choices - Hire vs shared vs timeshare vs own boat. How you make that choice is up to you. If you decide that shared ownership is the way to go then you have to make another choice - a private scheme run by its owners vs a "managed" scheme where the owners employ the services of a third party (e.g. OwnerShips) to assist in the administration of running the boat.

 

Finally, if you decide on a managed scheme you have to decide who to go with. Here, the choice is somewhat limited but others schemes are available (Carefree, JD, ABC). You should always ask for a sample copy of the agreement or contract and don't be afraid to ask "what if" type questions and make sure you talk to owners.

 

If you get through all that then you have to decide on a boat!

 

Feel free to PM me if you want to know what to look for.

 

Regards

 

Allan

[frahkn]

I have been an ownerships menber for eight years.

 

I bought a share in a new boat and its only now (as the boat begins to show its age) that my annual contribution has reached the £1000 range.

 

I have never been to an owners meeting and have always "gone with the majority view" when asked to express an opinion about changes/expenditure. I agree that there can be high feeling about apparantly trivial issues but there is no obligation to become involved.

 

Because I am very flexible about holiday times, I have been able to take 5 weeks on the boat in six of my eight yaers and have twice had a three week break. This makes it very good value compared to hiring.

[davem399]

After getting hooked on canal boating by hiring for a couple of years, we visited the Ownerships show in 2001. We liked what we saw and bought a share in a new boat which launched the following year. We are still owners of the same share today.

 

The 2 main factors was the quality of the boat and the economics. We generally get 3 weeks onboard for approximately the cost of one weeks hire. We have a special share which does cost more in annual fees but allows us to select school holidays. This very handy feature was one missing from the main competitor in this market (now no longer trading), when we were looking at the options

 

As pointed out by several others, it can be pot luck regarding the other owners you share the boat with and can lead to differences over quite minor things. We are fortunate in that we get along well as a group when it comes to sorting out things such as annual maintenance, repairs, change of base etc. at the annual meeting. I can imagine that being attached to the "wrong" group could be an unhappy experience.

 

A couple of our owners transferred to our boat from older boats and their experiences helped us to get off on the right foot from day one as a group. An endorsement of the scheme could be that one of these owners has been in the scheme from virtually day one.

 

 

Dave

[MikeV]

We had shares in two different OS boats. The first one was about 10 years old when we bought into it and we sold it 3 years later to buy into a newer boat in the scheme with a different layout. Including the losses on buying and selling the share in the first boat, my average cost worked out at £610 per week (including diesel and pump out costs) which included 2 weeks in the school summer holidays. This was based on 3 weeks use per year.

 

Previously we had hired boats and paid between £800 and £1100 per week. The OS boats were in general much better built and equipped than the hire boats.

 

Personally I found the boat owners meetings quite enjoyable, but it is the luck of the draw who are the co-owners of your boat. With the first boat we also once arranged an owners' maintenance weekend where we undertook a number of maintenance jobs ourselves thereby saving some costs. Again this was a very enjoyable weekend and a chance to have a banter with some co-owners.

[thresholdofadream]

To add to comments re:Ownerships. We had 2/3 seasons on one of the boats and a great time was had by all. Good experience for new boaters and an opportunity to learn the ropes without to much risk.

 

The support and advice from the Ownerships management team was good and it didnt take to long for us to sell our share when it was evident that our growing kids didnt want to give up the nights out with their friends rather than a few days on a narrow boat

 

The luck of the draw with your 11 other shared owners is quite right. Certainly there was a lot of time spent discussing furnishings etc and the odd couple or two who may delight in announcing that they "had spent a few quid last time out on a broom or matching kitchen towels".

All in all I would recommend this route as you develop a relationship with canal boating and possibly before you step up to buy a boat of your own later on.

 

Go for it and good luck

 

[saladdays]

To add to comments re:Ownerships. We had 2/3 seasons on one of the boats and a great time was had by all. Good experience for new boaters and an opportunity to learn the ropes without to much risk.

 

The support and advice from the Ownerships management team was good and it didnt take to long for us to sell our share when it was evident that our growing kids didnt want to give up the nights out with their friends rather than a few days on a narrow boat

 

The luck of the draw with your 11 other shared owners is quite right. Certainly there was a lot of time spent discussing furnishings etc and the odd couple or two who may delight in announcing that they "had spent a few quid last time out on a broom or matching kitchen towels".

All in all I would recommend this route as you develop a relationship with canal boating and possibly before you step up to buy a boat of your own later on.

 

Go for it and good luck

 

I have been a share owner for just over 6 months.NB Farndon is Polish built and is a very high quality boat at least as good as the Polish new boat co ones. We have had some teething problems but I guess that is the same for any new built boat. On the whole the scheme seems to work very well and it works for me! Looking forward to my third trip in May and we have just had a nice re blacking and and the jet thrusters are now working!