How I lost my boat!

[ykemal]

I have been dreaming to own a sail boat since I was 14. I grew up in Cyprus and I was not a good student. As most lazy students did, who went to atari play clubs instead of going to the class, I went to the old harbour to watch the docking and mooring sailing yachts coming from the far countries while I was enjoying my beer without the knowledge of my family (back in 1983 there was no age limit for alcohol).
And of course, I couldn't pass the exams but spoiled all my summers not going to the beach but studying for the make-up exams.

Anyway, sometimes feeling very far to own a sailing boat, sometimes feeling close, 29 years passed and a chance to own a sailing boat had appeared. I could have efforded a 86 Jeanneau Sun Legende 41 quite in a bad condition with missing rigging, pullies, winches, only with spare anchor, no batteries, no navigation equipment except for an auto-pilot, perkins prima with all leakage of oil, fuel, water, very poor condition 20 year old sails with many patches on etc etc.. But I was very happy because she was the best boat in the world for me and I had owned her.

I had completed the very essential things like the complete overhauled engine, batteries etc and started to sail only with the genoa in the bay. And as I have completed gradually the other missing parts like rigging, anchor and winches my boat was almost ready to sail and I was probably the happiest guy in the world.

But the troublesome days were not so far. The business that I am in started to fail due to the current political situation in my country.

Selling the boat as the first option in an economical crisis, became my last option and to be able to maintain my boat, insisting not to sell her even though it was too late, I have advertised in some of the cruise booking sites to skippered charter.

Then in my first job, I got caught with my pants down when the guests were boarding. Then I found myself facing up to very heavy penalties. Then what happened? of course I priced to be able sell her under her value and she has gone soon then I started again to dream another 29 years to own a sailing yacht.

Sometimes the people may do wrong things and I am one of them who did wrong only once in a lifetime and it costed me a 29 years of dream.

All the best and far winds
Kemal

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Kemal.
Sorry for your loss.

[arslanoglu]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Kemal.
Sorry for your loss.

Thank you

[hellosailor]

Kemal, it sounds like you were running an unlicensed charter operation and got caught and penalized for doing that?

[ykemal]

I did not think that advertising to teach and instructing sailing and navigation through airbnb would be an illegal activity.

[JeroenAdam]

Originally Posted by ykemal

I did not think that advertising to teach and instructing sailing and navigation through airbnb would be an illegal activity.

Kemal, is there not such a thing in Turkey as we have in Morocco named (in French) auto entrepreneur?
You can earn max. 18 000 EUR a year, pay only 2% taxes. It is a simplified and legal way to avoid setting up a business in the classic way as a physical person. This has recently been written into law for people to be able to start a new activity with ease and it is a way for government to reduce 'black' labour.
Such an entrepreneur is not subject to VAT, this is already written in the law for a long time, especially in the domain of services you can do your thing without reaching the max. allowed amount without the need for VAT registration. Logically, you won't be able to claim back VAT on your purchases as an auto entrepreneur.

[ykemal]

Well,actually the incident happened in Greece not in Turkey. In Turkey, there are complicated formalities to operate a yachting management. No personal simple management enterpreuner system exists here. One should own a minimum 10 berth of boat fleet to start a yachting business.

[JeroenAdam]

Originally Posted by ykemal

Well,actually the incident happened in Greece not in Turkey. In Turkey, there are complicated formalities to operate a yachting management. No personal simple management enterpreuner system exists here. One should own a minimum 10 berth of boat fleet to start a yachting business.

Sorry but you're not talking the truth, see eg. https://www.arkadaslik-yachting.com/

[arslanoglu]

I did not know that you were a judge and I have no idea what kind of truth you were expecting to hear? And I don't need to prove anything to anybody as I am expecting nothing from nobody. And I reckon this page was a confession page? And if this is a confession page, let me tell you the meaning of the word "confession":

"An acknowledgement that one has done something about which one is ashamed or embarrassed"

I did not intend to earn money chartering my boat illegally. My only target was to upkeep my boat expences while getting away from my boat and sea to enjoy to instruct sailing and navigating.

[SV Bacchus]

I'm confused.. Are you ykemal or arslanoglu? Are you using two names on this board?

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

I'm confused.. Are you ykemal or arslanoglu? Are you using two names on this board?

+1. When you look at the bios, one list their occupation as “loser”, the other as “university professor”.

Maybe we have a Dr Jeckyl / Mr Hyde situation here.

[oldjags]

OK, so here is (maybe) how to get around the legal restrictions. :-)

You need a captain's license and your boat must meet more stringent safety requirement if you want to make money taking passengers for hire. However, bare-boat charterers do not need any licensing or certifications to charter a boat - if the boat owner is comfortable with you chartering their boat, you are good to go.

So, put your boat in the name of a corporation. Make your wife or some other relative the owner of the corporation. When someone wants to go boating, they all, you included, simply bare-boat charter the boat from the corporation. You pay your portion of the charter fee the same as every other passenger. Of course, your portion simply comes back to you.

In this scenario, you are not the captain, you are simply a fellow charterer along with all the others.

(Disclaimer - anyone who takes this as legal advice is doing it at their own risk!) :-)

[jhulmer]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

I'm confused.. Are you ykemal or arslanoglu? Are you using two names on this board?

cricket, cricket. no sound at all. but cricket, cricket.

[SV Sailfish]

Looks like it is raining escaped mental patients today on CF.

But it sure keeps things interesting here.

You moderators need a pay raise!

[hellosailor]

"I did not think that advertising to teach and instructing sailing and navigation through airbnb would be an illegal activity."
And it probably is not. But supplying and operating the vessel is very different from teaching or giving lessons, in a classroom, or on board someone else's vessel.

In English there is a fine old maritime saying: The devil in in the details.