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Carefreecruising boatshare...


robtheplod

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Hi All

After visiting the show on Saturday we've seen a few boats that tick our boxes and are seriously looking at getting a 1/24 share with CFC. We're not really interested in the RED zone (crazy peak holiday season) and are looking at the YELLOW zone - spring/autumn. As I understand it we'd get a week in this zone and a week in the Blue (winter) zone. My wife is a bit cautious about winter use saying we'd not use it and i do read most shares don't take up their Winter allocation - Apart from the short days i can see it might be quite nice on a clear/crisp day - might be a nice alternative to rubbish winter TV.

Are there any other share people on here who have any advice?  do you use your allocation?  wary about buying into this if we only use one week a year as that's not really good use of funds and it would be cheaper just to hire...

Also can you upgrade your share if you find its working for you and shares are available?? Anything on shared ownership would be good to discuss also!!  :)

thanks!

rob

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Hi

We have our own boat so these are just general observations . The main problem with Winter cruising are the stoppages so you might find yourselves very restricted as to where you can go. Yes cruising on a crisp day is lovely it isn't as much fun when it is raining or snowing. We do take our boat out in Winter but we have the choice of when we go so can avoid really bad weather ! Hope this helps

Tizzie

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We had a share in a boat for over 25 years and thinking about it, we used it in winter if that was where our allocated time was. Winter cruising can be lovely and there is nothing nicer than cruising on a winters day then spending a pleasant evening on board with the fire lit, a good book and a glass i hand. In fact, if it is not a nice day, it is nice just relaxing on board. I don't know the terms of CFC sharing but I am sure that if you decide to increase your share, if one becomes available or even buy a share in another boat which might  give you a change of cruising range. 

haggis

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we pick three weeks in season, and one in off season, the priority of who picks first rotates yearly to make it fairer, so none of those coloured zones for us as we are self-managed.

luckily for us we were near the top this year so managed to get weeks that aligned with school hols as we have a 12yr old daughter. this will not always be the case but you take the rough with the smooth.

when folk cant make use of their weeks due to illness or other commitments they just offer to whoever can make use at no extra cost, or sometimes arrange swaps.

winter cruising is nice and quiet we’ve found, hardly anyone about, you do have to carefully check for stoppages and winter works though.

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When we had a share in Sundowner we took all our weeks (4) summer or winter and took up any spare weeks if we could. Our very first cruise after buying the share was in late November from Stockton to Coventry. 

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We have a managed boat share ( albeit not with Carefree ). This year we have two consecutive weeks in May and one at the end of September. There are usually winter weeks available on a first come first served basis. In fact, 2 years ago we spent a very pleasant Christmas on board and as Haggis said, with a fire and/or central heating going, there's no need to fear a bit of chill. Makes the weed hatch inspection fun though. 

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We had a Carefree share boat for 5 years and used our winter week (which could be as late as the beginning of March or as early as the end of October) for 4 of those.  The exception was one January when the ice was too thick to be moving - even so we spent three days aboard at the boatyard, went for walks and took down the curtains and delivered to the drycleaners!

We've always enjoyed winter cruising, though you need the right clothes, the right food/drink/pubs and plenty of fuel for your stove! One of the main pleasures for me is that you can see so much more of the surrounding landscape when the trees and hedges aren't in leaf.

One advantage of getting a 2 week share now is that if you like it and want to do more, you can always get afurther two week share in a different boat at a different base, thus extending your route options.

Hope it all works out for you

Edited by JJay
grammar edit
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4 hours ago, Alan B said:

We have a managed boat share ( albeit not with Carefree ). This year we have two consecutive weeks in May and one at the end of September. There are usually winter weeks available on a first come first served basis. In fact, 2 years ago we spent a very pleasant Christmas on board and as Haggis said, with a fire and/or central heating going, there's no need to fear a bit of chill. Makes the weed hatch inspection fun though. 

If you pour a kettle of boiling water down the weedhatch before putting your hands down there it buys you a couple of minutes of being able to feel what is around the prop. In the meantime a second kettle full of water can be boiled.

It is very dangerous to let your hands go numb in the cold water whilst freeing something off the prop . You could cut yourself badly and be completely unaware of it. 

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We had a share in a boat in a scheme very similar to this. We gave it up when we realised that we could hire a boat using one of the last minute sites for less than the annual fee.
One thing I didn't find in all their notes was what happens when a boat gets to the end of it's life; what costs are going to be passed on to the sharers for it's replacement?

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11 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

We had a share in a boat in a scheme very similar to this. We gave it up when we realised that we could hire a boat using one of the last minute sites for less than the annual fee.
One thing I didn't find in all their notes was what happens when a boat gets to the end of it's life; what costs are going to be passed on to the sharers for it's replacement?

With the now defunct Ownerships scheme, if the shareholders decided to act upon the advice that the boat was soon to require expensive replating on the hull or possibly interior fit-out work, the boat was sold, and the funds either shared amongst the shareholders, or used to pay towards a discounted new boat.

Good question to ask of any scheme though.

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14 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Thanks for all the replies..

As most of their boats are based at Middlewich a whole section is now cut off (or vastly extended times to get to) with the recent breach so now hanging on to see what happens here....

I wouldn't worry about it.

By the time you have explored the Bridgewater, Leeds & Liverpool, Rochdale, Peak Forest, Macclesfield, Caldon and Trent & Mersey canals the breach in the Middlewich branch will have been long fixed.

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15 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Thanks for all the replies..

As most of their boats are based at Middlewich a whole section is now cut off (or vastly extended times to get to) with the recent breach so now hanging on to see what happens here....

Have you had a look at the Boatshare web site?

http://www.boatshare.co.uk/forsale/index.htm

There are quite a few boatshares on there at varying prices, managed and self managed, and in many locations around the country. Who knows, you may find a share which offers more boating time for the same cost as the two weeks you were looking at. As has been previously mentioned a self managed boat offers savings over a managed one.

 

Good look

 

Howard

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I used to have a share in a Carefree boat many years ago!

My take on the Carefree share boat, or any other share boats, is that the majority of syndicate members are just playing boating and really know very little about the running of the vessel and leave it up to the company to do very expensive maintenace!

Just to give you an indication, our Carefree syndicate boat had three propellors fitted one year!, it was said that we kept bending them!

At the syndicate meeting, I got shouted down, because I asked why they fitted cheap propelors and not a decent brand.

At that meeting the syndicate wanted to replace the carpet in the lounge with a cream one, bearing in mind these boats are out on the cut 24/7., in all weathers and also wanted to score how well the boat was cleaned by the previous crew!

I then bought into a private share boat with an older boat and a an experianced syndicate!!

After a couple of years I then decided that it was time to get my own boat!

Nipper

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1 hour ago, nipper said:

At that meeting the syndicate wanted to replace the carpet in the lounge with a cream one,

Did you ever have two hours of arguing about curtains?

That was another powerful incentive to get our own boat (again) but we were one of the lucky ones - we got out of Ownerships less than a year before they went bump.

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We were fortunate that our syndicate was pretty knowledgeable about boats and boating - when we bought our own boat we had shared with the same owners for over 25 years - but I have heard of other groups who spent hours arguing about whether to hang pictures or not. I think self managed groups tend to be more clued up and realistic 

Haggis 

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15 minutes ago, haggis said:

We were fortunate that our syndicate was pretty knowledgeable about boats and boating - when we bought our own boat we had shared with the same owners for over 25 years - but I have heard of other groups who spent hours arguing about whether to hang pictures or not. I think self managed groups tend to be more clued up and realistic 

Haggis 

We have had shares in 4 boats over the years - 2 with Ownerships until their demise and the 2nd two being self managed. Both have their merits but we much prefer the self managed route. We have gone down the pictures/no pictures discussion but the worst one must be the subject of replacement pillows and duvets which used to take hours to decide. Fortunately this issue has gone since self management! The main bonus about self management, however, must be the saving of at least £420 per year per share, which builds up over the years and releases money to be spent on improvements/maintenance.?

Howard

 

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51 minutes ago, haggis said:

We were fortunate that our syndicate was pretty knowledgeable about boats and boating - when we bought our own boat we had shared with the same owners for over 25 years - but I have heard of other groups who spent hours arguing about whether to hang pictures or not. I think self managed groups tend to be more clued up and realistic 

Haggis 

Like us

A lot of owners look on them as Time Share and not shared ownership. Pick it up, take it out for 2 weeks and drop it back off, job done, someone fuels. cleans and pumps it out

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What Brian is saying can become a problem. If a shareed boat is self managed and there are enough owners wanting to get involved in maintenance its OK to have a few owners who want to be in Time share mode. The problem comes when the motivated owners leave and their replacements aren't interested or live too far away to be hands on. 

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This is our issue. We live in Norfolk so 3.5/4hrs away so wont be involved in maintenance etc hence why looking for a managed boat. The privately run syndicates that I've seen don't seem much less expensive than the managed ones that i can see - maybe i'm missing something?

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5 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

This is our issue. We live in Norfolk so 3.5/4hrs away so wont be involved in maintenance etc hence why looking for a managed boat. The privately run syndicates that I've seen don't seem much less expensive than the managed ones that i can see - maybe i'm missing something?

The average management fee is over £400 per year for each 12th share which is around £5000 extra cost over a self managed boat. 

As far as not being able to contribute to the upkeep because of travelling distance, that is not unusual but there are many other ways to contribute; secretarial work, booking chart management, liaison with the marina base to organise repairs, maintenance etc etc etc. 

We have saved a lot of money since going self managed on both my shared boats and with less fuss and bureaucracy than managed. We also like the freedom in making all our own decisions. It certainly works well for us.

Howard

 

 

 

 

 

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You don't need to be near the boat to share the work in a self managed syndicate. You need a secretary and treasurer who can do the job from anywhere 

Regarding costs I know we saved a lot of money when we started self management 

For a start we didn't have to pay an organisation to do our booking charts etc and as we arranged directly with boatyards we got the work we wanted done and not what someone else decided 

For example we no longer needed to replace the engine every few years ?

Haggis 

I see Howard and I found the same! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by haggis
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42 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

This is our issue. We live in Norfolk so 3.5/4hrs away so wont be involved in maintenance etc hence why looking for a managed boat. The privately run syndicates that I've seen don't seem much less expensive than the managed ones that i can see - maybe i'm missing something?

Well I think £12K is a bit much to maintain a boat for a year, I have seen several shares for sale  1/12 and £1000 a year maintenance

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