What condition is a boat in, after five years of chartering?

[SeaKing]

We have had a boat in charter with Voyage catamarans in Tortola for almost four years. The boat still looks like new. They keep it polished, well maintained and if you look at the Voyage boats they hold their value well. The boats are well built and sailed from South Africa to the charter base. The deal has worked well enough we are strongly considering putting another in charter.


The new 480 has some great improvements, foot entry beds instead of side entry in all cabins. The bridge deck clearance was increased from 15 to 30 inches. It has the same rig as the 520 and seems to sail very well in lighter air. We have an owners 520 and are looking hard at the 480

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

Ask an accountant.

Charter companies know the charter business pretty well. If there was a 9-10% rate of return to be made, they would be doing it themselves rather than offering this "deal" to the public. I suspect that the pro-forma has a lot of assumptions that are hard to make reality.

One option is to go charter a boat for a week.

See how rigorous the companies are screening potential customers. When I started sailing bigger boats, I was surprised that they would let me take the boat with my limited experience. I woould not have let me charter my boat.

See how the boats get knocked around during a week of constant use by someone who does not own or maintain it, then multiply that by 5 years. Not quite "drive it like you stole it", but it is a rental.

Some of these companies have a brokerage arm to sell the old boats. Check what the pro-forma says about the end of contract value vs what they are asking for them. Selling prices will be considerably less.

OPM baby...other people's money
Rule No 1 in the Time Share Biz is to use other peoples money.

[805gregg]

You want to stay away from Gemini, not enough beam to length, should be closer to 18' not 14'