Visit our Popular Forums

kimnel · 21-11-2014, 14:24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHmcHypdtOQ

This is SV Joie De Vivre in use during Feb/Mar of 2014

S/V Joie De Vivre resides permanently on a private mooring in a well protected "hurricane hole" at Maya Cove on the Island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. She has been in private hands since new and spent her entire life in the warm, gin-clear waters and steady easterly trade winds of the Virgin Isles.

The boat is currently owned by a partnership of two couples One of these couples is reaching that age (mid-70s) where health has started to curtail their life's nautical plans.....which is tough for people who've lived on the water for 25+ years. Hence, we, the youngsters in our 50's, will be taking on full ownership of the boat in 2015,

Our usage is 3-4 weeks per year maximum and unlikely to change for the next 5-10 years unless we win a Lotto 6/49 pension. Since we don't buy lotto tickets, that's quite unlikely. So there is room to allow others to enjoy the BVI without causing schedule gridlock. Since our partnership has been such a positive experience, we thought we'd take a measure of interest in new members.

So, we are looking to explore / offer up a partnership opportunity in S/V Joie De Vivre to one, or maximum two, other couples who have keelboat sailing experience, are responsible sailors, and have the same ownership philosophy: safe, inexpensive (relatively!), and cheerful.

So what characteristics make a great potential partner?:
- have trained, owned or crewed sufficiently on a keel boat 25 ftor longer;
-are comfortable with disassembling and reassembling mechanical systems (with no unexplained parts left over too!);
- knows that stainless steal is corrosion resistant not corrosion proof;
- you are old enough to know the name of both members of Wham
- you are non-smokers;
- you are comfortable having your boat sit unattended 3000 miles away watched in a general sense by others in the harbour knowing that if Hurricane XXX decides it REALLY wants your boat, there is nothing you can do from your living room;
- have bareboat or crew chartered before;
- know the correct ratio of bathing suits to long pants for the Caribbean;
- do not equate sailing with the latest gadgets, toys and electronics beyond VHF, solar power, autohelm, gps and depth/speed/wind instrumentation;
- you know owning a boat is an expense, not a business nor an investment;
- you think air conditioners are for wimps; and
- you know that when you put "boat" in front of any other word, it's gets more expensive by default.
What characteristics are less than ideal?:
- you sailed a laser once during a school camp in 1982;
- you want to invest sweat equity (BTW: that called being a boat owner);
- you are wondering if you could give it a try for 2-3 weeks and then decide (please go charter a boat then);
- you can't go an hour without checking your phone for the latest CNN update;
- you dislike fresh air, salt water, rum-flavoured drinks, fresh seafood and other occupational hazards of Caribbean sailing.

As to S/V Joie De Vivre herself, she's a 1993 38.5 ft Morgan-Catalina Model 381 centre cockpit, shoal keel, monohull sloop. She's a comfortable, solid, volumous, and easy handling vessel if not the fastest accelerating sailing vessel afloat (but gets to hull speed of 7.6 kts just fine).

Like all centre cockpit boats,she is built to live on and sail....not race on and then sleep just comfortably enough between race events. She's a nice floating condo that moves amongst beautiful moorings at places like Virgin Gorda, Spanish Town, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke,Cane Garden Bay, Marina Cay, the US Virgin Islands, or other islands up and down the Caribbean chain.

She's configured with two independent staterooms with three additional berths in the large common salon. I say "three" because that's what the brochure specs say. The twin is probably perfect for amorous honeymooners who can't keep their hands off each other whereas couples who have been married 10 years or more will appreciate the two separate births: one larger than the other.

She sports in-mast roller furling and genoa furling, has the basic sail suite for island cruising, and comes equipped from sails to dinghy to knives & forks to flippers. Her electronic systems are hardly state of the art but all are functional for the type of sailing in the BVI: blue sky, line of sight, inter-island day sails from restaurant to dive site to nightlife to coral reef (you get the drift).

If you have dreams of crossing the Atlantic, fighting the sea, the sheets grasped firmly in your hands and gritted teeth, face braced into salt-laden spray from gale force winds.....well then....JDV is not your boat. She lives a more urbane existence despite having the mass, stability and strength for jaunts down the Caribbean Sea (she's been from the US to Grenada and everywhere in between).

Usual maintenance would be part of the partnership and covered by % ownership share. Any upgrades would be subject to the approval of the partnership group. New standing rigging and a new Genoa are planned for late 2014 and would be in place before any partnership were to commence.
We would be willing to share our existing partnership agreement and operating cost history once we assess desire and fit with potential partners.

This is not a charter operation in sheep's clothing nor is it a timeshare or for-profit partnership. Partners would hold title to the boat commensurate with their ownership stake and the agreement covering all contingencies for purchase and disposal of ownership stakes would be required and would contain reasonable constraints on use (ie. you can't hire it out, you can't lend it to friends, you can't sail it to Greece, if you have an 'oops" then you fix the result of the "oops"

If this dream sounds like something you'd see yourself doing, then drop us a note.

Price: USD 42,000 for 1/2 share ownership. Pro-rated if 1/3 share only

gmones · 24-11-2014, 10:01

I am recently retired looking to check off "Cruising Sailboat" from my "bucket list". My wife and I have charter in the Caribbean (BVI and USVI) Benneteau and Island Spirit Cat. The second boat I owned was a Morgan 32 on Lake Texoma, Texas. Most of my life I have sailed inland lakes. My longest passage was helping an owner sail his 53' Jenneau from Grenada to Jacksonville, FL. My wife doesn't want to "live aboard" so a partnership might be best for us. I would guess our sailing might be 4-6 weeks/yr. I am reasonably handy with tools and like to do most light maintenance myself. My email is [email]georgemones@gmail.com George and Linda.