thinking of a boat share?

[Andy Healey]

We own a 12th Share in a share boat that has worked out reasonably well for us over the years, we where in at the beginning so had a hand in the planning, decorations, furnishing, etc, the boat is 11 years old now, we survived the Challenger fracas and went to ABC for management who looked after it well, kept costs down, and if using their bases gave discounts on mooring, maintenance, and Chandelry items.

We are now transferred to BCBM, not through choice, ABC decided to partner up with BCBM which we are not keen on especially as the owner is ex Challenger. We have been given notice already that management fee's are due to rise over the next couple of years to bring us on par with other BCBM managed boats.

Share Owners Fee's at the moment are approx 1K a year, which include Management Fee, Licence, Mooring, Insurance contributions, a contribution to the maintenance budget, and a contribution to a contingency fund + Gas, as a comparism 1K would get you a week in a decent hire boat out of high season. We expect the total fee's to rise to about 1.2K. On our weeks on the boat we only pay for Diesel and Pumpout.

We have 4 weeks a year, this equates to a week in each season of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, weeks are drawn randomly per season, with only a couple of owners getting school holidays which suits us fine, there is some mutual swapping of dates involved at the yearly AGM where the draw takes place.

In general the boat moves to a new base approx every 2 years, this has worked out reasonably well, and has given us the chance to do most of the Southern waterways including Thames/Wey, K & A, GU South and Midlands, GU Leicester, Caldon, Maccy, Peak Forest, T & M, Bridgewater, all of SU including Llangollen, and BCN.

In General share boating works out quite well for us, If we could afford our own boat we would do so at the drop of a hat, but not to be so this is the next best thing. Yes we have had a few disagreements within the syndicate usually over trivial things but with a good chairman and a voting system these things are resolved without malice.

We have recently looked at cost savings within the syndicate, the management fee been the most obvious, this would save over 300 a year for each member at the moment, but this would be offset by having to pay certain expenses to whoever in the syndicate has the time to be the link to boatyard's/marina's for issue resolving.

Hope this helps.

[Cheshire cat]

Shares sell if the price is right.I sold one in January after advertising for three weeks. It didn't cost us a huge amount but I think we have lost £1000 + inflation on it in ten years. Boat depeciation seems to be much less than caravans or motorhomes.

 

One of the tricky things that syndicates tend not to think about is you can't choose who the boat share is being sold to.

 

If you go for it make sure they do/don't allow pets and smoking according to your preferences.

[the barnacle]

Thanks for the replies - its given me alot to think about and stopped me from jumping into a situation i might regret, thanks again.

[MHS]

Shares sell if the price is right.I sold one in January after advertising for three weeks.

Ditto

 

We sold our two 1/10 shares in around one month.

 

If you price it too high, you end up paying the monthly maintenance cost, even if your not using the boat. Drop the price a bit, and move on.

[cuthound]

Yes, the market has changed over the years. I sold my first share in 2002 after 10 years on that boat. Got 85% of the new share purchase price back and the share sold in 2 weeks. Used the money to buy a 1\12th share in another new share boat

 

In 2014 sold the share in my second share boat. Got 46% of the new purchase price back. Priced competitively the share took a couple of months to sell.

 

My advice would be to get a cheap share in an older boat to see if you like share boating, and trade up to a new or newer share if you want to.

[Machpoint005]

Yes, the market has changed over the years. I sold my first share in 2002 after 10 years on that boat. Got 85% of the new share purchase price back and the share sold in 2 weeks. Used the money to buy a 1\12th share in another new share boat

 

In 2014 sold the share in my second share boat. Got 46% of the new purchase price back. Priced competitively the share took a couple of months to sell.

 

My advice would be to get a cheap share in an older boat to see if you like share boating, and trade up to a new or newer share if you want to.

 

Seconded. We had a 1/12 share of a brand new boat for about four years, and sold it for slightly less than we paid, although of course we had also paid management fees and some additional costs (1/12 of a new engine! but that's another story).

 

Share boating is not for everyone. The downside for us was having to book our weeks on the boat anything up to 18 months in advance, with no scope for last-minute changes of plan (or last-month changes, for that matter). The boat was in the Ownerships fleet and we felt no particular desire to 'join in' with the other 11 owners, so we didn't attend annual meetings to discuss the curtain patterns for five hours.

 

You don't get the hassles associated with owning a boat yourself, but you do get a whole bunch of other niggles to deal with. Not least. your week on the boat (Friday to Friday) only gives you six days of cruising by the time you have picked up the boat and brought it back to base. One thing that got to me (yes, it was a first-world problem) was the way other owners shifted kit around all the time - somebody didn't know how to stow things away where they found them!.

 

The scheme went titsup less than a year after we had sold our share. Good timing, for once!

[MajorB]

I think that this is an interesting thread, and when we opted for shared boating we took that to mean that we would be ... well "SHARING"- we discovered new friends along the way and it was a bit like family - not always plain sailing (pun intended) and we were all literally in the same boat. I didn't always enjoy the corporate AGM meetings under Ownerships, but without that initiative we probably wouldn't be boating four weeks a year now.

 

A good private syndicate is where people are willing to share their shared possession including "give and take" works well most of the time. Sharing isn't so easy when you never meet up with the people you share with, so not attending the annual owners meeting may cost a syndicate member in time and money, but those members miss out in the cut and thrust of discussion and, as a consequence, don't always understand how decisions are taken. We don't often get absentees from our syndicate AGM, which we hold at a Midlands venue, and all of us have to travel some distance to get there.

 

We have found some flexibility in the booking system at certain times, and we have reached agreement on how most things are stored whilst on board. If another owner chooses to put things in a different place, the boat isn't so big that those items cannot quickly be found.

 

We really enjoy sharing - especially when it comes to sharing the cost of boating. It is no substitute for owning our own boat, neither is it as convenient as hiring from a boat hire company - but the benefits in terms of sharing costs cannot be ignored, especially when on a fixed income.

[cuthound]

I think that this is an interesting thread, and when we opted for shared boating we took that to mean that we would be ... well "SHARING"- we discovered new friends along the way and it was a bit like family - not always plain sailing (pun intended) and we were all literally in the same boat. I didn't always enjoy the corporate AGM meetings under Ownerships, but without that initiative we probably wouldn't be boating four weeks a year now.

 

A good private syndicate is where people are willing to share their shared possession including "give and take" works well most of the time. Sharing isn't so easy when you never meet up with the people you share with, so not attending the annual owners meeting may cost a syndicate member in time and money, but those members miss out in the cut and thrust of discussion and, as a consequence, don't always understand how decisions are taken. We don't often get absentees from our syndicate AGM, which we hold at a Midlands venue, and all of us have to travel some distance to get there.

 

We have found some flexibility in the booking system at certain times, and we have reached agreement on how most things are stored whilst on board. If another owner chooses to put things in a different place, the boat isn't so big that those items cannot quickly be found.

 

We really enjoy sharing - especially when it comes to sharing the cost of boating. It is no substitute for owning our own boat, neither is it as convenient as hiring from a boat hire company - but the benefits in terms of sharing costs cannot be ignored, especially when on a fixed income.

Sensible post, have a greenie. I always took the view that if you didn't attend the AGM you couldnt really complain about any decisions made. In 22 years I missed 2 meetings, in both cases because I was selling the share and didn't want to influence the other co-owners.

 

Edited coz someone stole one of the letters!

Edited May 29, 2015 by cuthound

[BrumSaint]

 

Seconded. We had a 1/12 share of a brand new boat for about four years, and sold it for slightly less than we paid, although of course we had also paid management fees and some additional costs (1/12 of a new engine! but that's another story).

 

Share boating is not for everyone. The downside for us was having to book our weeks on the boat anything up to 18 months in advance, with no scope for last-minute changes of plan (or last-month changes, for that matter). The boat was in the Ownerships fleet and we felt no particular desire to 'join in' with the other 11 owners, so we didn't attend annual meetings to discuss the curtain patterns for five hours.

 

You don't get the hassles associated with owning a boat yourself, but you do get a whole bunch of other niggles to deal with. Not least. your week on the boat (Friday to Friday) only gives you six days of cruising by the time you have picked up the boat and brought it back to base. One thing that got to me (yes, it was a first-world problem) was the way other owners shifted kit around all the time - somebody didn't know how to stow things away where they found them!.

 

The scheme went titsup less than a year after we had sold our share. Good timing, for once!

This should not be seen as a criticism of your comments, but I do think you are painting a negative picture of share boat ownership. We used to be part of a syndicate and the fact that holiday weeks were planned 12 to 18 months in advance we saw as an advantage. It gave us plenty of time to arrange our work schedules.

 

As for last minute changes, this applies equally to booking any holiday, once you've booked it is usually very difficult to change. Although with share boats (depending on the 'rules' for your boat) there is always the possibility of someone not using their week and it being offered to other owners, usually at about a months notice, but sometimes at the last minute.

 

Whether or not owners choose to meet the other owners or not is a personal issue, but I can say we never spent 5 hours discussing curtain patterns. In fact the annual meetings would only last a couple of hours so that owners could go for a drink and socialise (if they wanted to).

 

As for the time on the boat whether you hire a boat, have a timeshare or are part of a syndicate the time constraints are the same. There is a slight advantage with a share boat in that you can arrange with the owners either side of your week to pick up the boat away from the base which gives an extra day cruising. As for the 'niggles' with other members I suppose that depends on the group of people you share with, we never had any real concerns. I don't know if we were lucky or not, but speaking to owners in other syndicates it would seem that the owners of most syndicates get on well together.

 

As you say share boating is not for everyone, but if you want more than a week a year on a boat then being part of a syndicate gives the opportunity to do so, for not much more that the cost of a weeks hire. It is a great way to get to know more about narrow boats and if you then decide that 3 or 4 weeks is still not enough, the experience and the confidence to buy your own boat. Which is what we've done, I can honestly say that without the stepping stone of share ownership we would not now have our own boat.

[Machpoint005]

This should not be seen as a criticism of your comments, but I do think you are painting a negative picture of share boat ownership. Just trying to point out some of the less-than-obvious pitfalls! We used to be part of a syndicate and the fact that holiday weeks were planned 12 to 18 months in advance we saw as an advantage. It gave us plenty of time to arrange our work schedules. Different work circumstances from ours, obviously. It was much easier for me to take 'last minute' holidays depending on workload, instead of planning my workload 12-18 months in advance (impossible!)

 

As for last minute changes, this applies equally to booking any holiday, once you've booked it is usually very difficult to change. Which is exactly why we don't do it! Although with share boats (depending on the 'rules' for your boat) there is always the possibility of someone not using their week and it being offered to other owners, usually at about a months notice, but sometimes at the last minute.

 

Whether or not owners choose to meet the other owners or not is a personal issue, but I can say we never spent 5 hours discussing curtain patterns. Exaggeration on my part. perhaps, but still not interested in such minutiae! In fact the annual meetings would only last a couple of hours so that owners could go for a drink and socialise (if they wanted to).

 

As for the time on the boat whether you hire a boat, have a timeshare or are part of a syndicate the time constraints are the same. There is a slight advantage with a share boat in that you can arrange with the owners either side of your week to pick up the boat away from the base which gives an extra day cruising. And a great advantage of having your own boat is that you can go whenever you damn well please! As for the 'niggles' with other members I suppose that depends on the group of people you share with, we never had any real concerns. I don't know if we were lucky or not, but speaking to owners in other syndicates it would seem that the owners of most syndicates get on well together.

 

As you say share boating is not for everyone, but if you want more than a week a year on a boat then being part of a syndicate gives the opportunity to do so, for not much more that the cost of a weeks hire. It is a great way to get to know more about narrow boats and if you then decide that 3 or 4 weeks is still not enough, the experience and the confidence to buy your own boat. Which is what we've done, I can honestly say that without the stepping stone of share ownership we would not now have our own boat. We had our own boat before the share experience, and have one again now.

 

The above comments, and also, although not attending owners' meetings we were quite prepared to accept their decisions. Life is too short to arrange leisure time by committee. Having said that, we were perfectly prepared to 'muck in' - for example, one owner wanted the syndicate to buy and anchor and chain so that he could venture onto the river (nobody else was bothered). We donated an anchor from our previous boat instead.

 

Perhaps too many of our co-owners were aspiring members of the shiny boat brigade?

[Cheshire cat]

And there's the risk.

Most of the syndicate will be of the same mindset most of the time but there's always potential for Mr. odd man out.

We had a guy who used to let his dogs sleep on the bed with him. Popular he wasn't.

 

Discussing curtains isn't exclusive to shared ownership. I wasn't interested in entering that kind of conversation either. "Just get on with it Dear" So she did and when I saw what she'd bought I was horrified. They're going back tomorrow.

[Bigredbus4468]

Just had our first week on a Narrowboat. Absolutely loved it despite it being a budget boat. Met some nice people on the South Oxford and some not so nice

 

We got talking to a couple who had a share in NB Halcyon. They invited us to look around and it was a palace compared to our hire boat. At the end of the week we went to Napton Narrowboats to look around and get a brochure/prices. Much nicer than our hire boat and not too much more expensive.

 

The weekend was finished of staying in a lovely dog friendly B&B with the weekend spent at Crick Boat Show. We really enjoyed it. We had some interesting seminars as we are considering retiring in 2-4 years time, selling the house and becoming genuine CCers. Talking to manufacturers was bewildering as the prices fluctuated wildly. We came across Carefree Cruising and remembered Martyn and Elaine had there share with them. After a brief discussion, a phone cal was made to an owner who was considering selling his 1/24th share in a 10 year old boat - Kingfisher, based at Aston Marina - Stone. She's a 58ft Semi Trad standard layout, sleeping 6. The price of £1200 plus annual running fees seemed very reasonable at £875. The cherry on the cake was our allocated weeks this year were 10Oct15 - she's just lost her 2 weeks all inclusive to Fuertaventura lol, and a week 2Jan16 plus we are 1st to pick next year. I don't think it is perfect but it will help us decide if we really do want to live on a boat. I haven't paid much so not much to loose that I wouldn't have already spent on a hire boat plus if the boat is sold, I get 3.6% The boat itself looks great - from photos - and has washer/dryer, microwave, Dyson, Bubble solid stove and decent electrics.

 

For us this is a great way to get into Narrowboats without costing too much, plus varied weeks will give us winter cruising too..

 

Incidentally, our hireboat burned out Joanne's electric toothbrush and later in the week her Expensive Coriolis Hair Straighteners. Hire company didin't seem to care at all. Cold taps ran hot water, toilet - dump through - smelled disgusting and flushed with hot water. Interestingly, there was always no hot water in the morning despite little usage and 5-6 hrs engine running during the day. The Hurricane heating system worked great - while you had 12v and then it tripped iin the night waking you up with an alarm, but didn't do so well with the hot water. Still Jo and I, and Hardy the dog had a wonderful week.

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

Just had our first week on a Narrowboat. Absolutely loved it despite it being a budget boat. Met some nice people on the South Oxford and some not so nice

 

We got talking to a couple who had a share in NB Halcyon. They invited us to look around and it was a palace compared to our hire boat. At the end of the week we went to Napton Narrowboats to look around and get a brochure/prices. Much nicer than our hire boat and not too much more expensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is how I got hooked, On a grotty little hire boat in Stratford basin and got invited on to a share boat for a look round. Went from one week to three and a half for the price of three yeas hire up front and then less than one weeks hire each year. As we both worked it was a no brainer even if we only used 2 weeks each year.