Considering Sunsail/Moorings Owner Program (merged)

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by Steve W

Nautical62, just curious, if the diesel or tranny implodes, does your charter company bear the cost of replacing the engine or tranny under their maintenance plan during the charter contract? How about the outboard or the dinghy? Otherwise, your numbers seem to make sense. I really enjoyed all of our BVI charters, especially the part where I handed the key back to the charter company and let them worry about the boat, maintenance, insurance, bad charterers, tropical storms and hurricanes. Very interesting thread.

They need to maintain the boat and it's accessory items at their cost (covered by charter fees) Each time I come they have a long list of service and repairs they have done for me to review. In the event of major damage, the insurance company could elect to total the boat and pay out it's value, just as with any other insured boat.

I do not own the outboard and dinghy. Their use is covered under the owner's fee, as is fuel. (I believe Sunsail does not cover fuel under most of their plans).

Boats that continue on in the Footloose program have a slightly lower standard to which they must be maintained at turn over time. I believe they have to be in the condition that they would be chartered out. The Moorings turn over policy is a bit higher. Boats come out of the program about a month prior to the turn over date, so that TUI marine has time to address any needed end maintenance or repairs.

For those who only charter a couple weeks per year or may not charter regularly, chartering probably makes more sense. I'm not saying owning makes sense for everyone, and I may not do it again due to changing circumstances. However, I think claims that owning is more expensive due to the extra wear and tear, etc. or that people don't get what they expected out of the boat, are arguments made based on only one factor that fail to recognize the bigger picture. For many, owning may make great financial sense.

Again, in my case, I could almost give the boat away and be no worse off than having had chartered for the same amount of time. That may not be true for everyone's situation, so my advice is to objectively crunch the numbers and make comparisons based on a variety of possible end boat values.

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by Steve W

I really enjoyed all of our BVI charters, especially the part where I handed the key back to the charter company and let them worry about the boat, maintenance, insurance, bad charterers, tropical storms and hurricanes. Very interesting thread.

That's very true for me as an owner as well. As a previous post indicated, as an owner, I'll have to deal with selling the boat some day, but that's true of all cruising boats I've owned. Compared to the three other boats I've owned this has proven to be much less stressful overall and much more economical, even though it had a higher pice tag.

[safariKY]

Sorry to dig up this thread again, but I just found it and am also considering the charter ownership program. I know that 1/2 the original purchase price is not realistic but what is a realistic number? All I really want is to get my 25% down payment back, sell it in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable price, then buy another charter boat. I am not interested in keeping a charter boat, ever. Appreciate hearing form others who have been in this program.