Charter Ownership Resources

[BlueBuddha]

Very often we see posts from individuals considering buying a boat and placing it into Charter Management. Those threads are full of insightful information from current or previous charter owners, as well as much misinformation from people who do not fully understand charter management and the situations in which it works and does not work for the owners.

As some of you know, after several years of research, we recently placed an order for a Lagoon 42 that will be put into the Dream Yacht Charter fleet in Antigua. In the process, I have accumulated an extensive list of resources and have done some writing of my own. So I thought centralizing all of the information in a single place would be useful to readers that are considering this path to ownership.

Resources:

Here is our big picture post about charter management including a transparent description of the factors that we considered before we made a decision. This post also discusses many of the common arguments against charter ownership (some of which are accurate) and clarifies some of the silly arguments against it (e.g., “if it good for the charter company it can’t be good for the owner”)

Buying a sailboat for charter | Blue Buddha Adventures

Our second post deals with the economics of charter management and describes the factors that should be included in any financial model that explores whether charter ownership makes financial sense for your specific situation:

Does boat charter ownership work? How to create a financial model. | Blue Buddha Adventures

Here is the direct link to the financial model spreadsheet. To edit, download a copy for excel or make a copy for google sheets:


Here are other key resources we used:
- The Catamaran Guru has extensive articles regarding charter ownership. Some of the most useful ones are:
o Charter Management in a nutshell
o Is Buying A Charter Yacht For You?
o Business Yacht Ownership: FAQ's And Common Misconceptions.
o Section 179 discussion for performance programs.

- The TMM Charter Management Page has detailed information of the costs billed to owners.

- Dream Yacht Charter comprehensive page comparing all of their programs .

- The Moorings yacht ownership page with detailed information on its program.

- Cruising World article on owning a charter boat with interviews with all of the major players.

- Sail Magazine article by a charter owner.

- BVI Bound questions to consider.

And some of the classic CF Threads:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...rs-123389.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...any-97014.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...out-88903.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ot-174406.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...am-180103.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ny-141809.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ter-20364.html

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...eet-75571.html

I hope this is useful to those considering charter ownership. We will be documenting our experience in detail on our blog and will update here when there is relevant info to share. Best, Nestor.

[denverd0n]

Excellent write-up. This should practically be required reading for anyone considering buying a boat to put into charter.

I especially liked the way you debunked the oft-repeated myth that "if this was good for the boat owners, then the charter companies would just buy their own boats." Of course there will still be a whole lot of people -- completely unfamiliar with how corporate finances work -- who will insist that you are wrong, and that the old myth is true. As they say, you can lead a horse to water...

Good luck with your boat in the future.

[belizesailor]

Good resources for potential owners. Thanks.

Ive had a few interactions w Dream Yachts and have been favorably mpressed by their operation...especially their maintenance. Hope it works out well for you.

[nautical62]

As someone who owned a boat in charter for 7 years as well as owned non-charter boats, I certainly agree many of the generic arguments against owning a charter boat are short sighted and overly simplistic. That said, buying a charter boat certainly isn’t the right fit for many. It’s good to see some well thought out, more objective information. Thanks for sharing.

[BlueBuddha]

Thank you all for the comments. Belize, glad you were impressed by DYC. My take from reading as many reviews and comments I could find online during my research is that people’s experiences with DYC is highly dependent on the base. Some bases have consistently received excellent reviews. We selected Antigua for that reason so we are crossing our fingers that our experience is as positive as previous owners of that base.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by BlueBuddha

Thank you all for the comments. Belize, glad you were impressed by DYC. My take from reading as many reviews and comments I could find only during my research is that people’s experiences with DYC is highly dependent on the base. Some bases have consistently received excellent reviews. We selected Antigua for that reason so we are crossing our fingers that our experience is as positive as previous owners of that base.

Yes, thats very true of many charter companies, the quality, or lack thereof, is heavily dependent on the base manager (which gets my vote as one of the worst jobs to have).

Develop a good relationship with the base manager and his maintenance chief. This can be a very valuable way to stay informed and be aware of practices and changes at the base.

Ideally, if you can, spend as much time as possible at the base so you are a known quantity (in a good way). This can have a positive influence on how your boat is maintained versus some faceless absentee owner.