Documenting the life of a charter bare boat

[Village Idiot]

Congrats Nils. This must be yours right?

https://www.dreamyachtcharter.com/fl...us-35990/?b=19

Looks good. I would be happy to consider swapping some weeks with mine if that works for you

I have a couple of weeks booked on a FP Orana 44, presumably the predecessor to the Helia, in Turkey in late September (the 2 low season weeks)

Good luck with the first trip ....

[Nils Gruttner]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

Congrats Nils. This must be yours right?

https://www.dreamyachtcharter.com/fl...us-35990/?b=19

Looks good. I would be happy to consider swapping some weeks with mine if that works for you

I have a couple of weeks booked on a FP Orana 44, presumably the predecessor to the Helia, in Turkey in late September (the 2 low season weeks)

Good luck with the first trip ....

Yep, that's mine. Very keen for that first trip after having seen her in La Rochelle.

If you are on a DreamEasy program, you can book her any time anyway, but if it's a problem, let's talk and see how we can best manage that [emoji2]

Sure you will enjoy Turkey. It looks awesome there . Btw, how was your last charter?

[Village Idiot]

My last charter was Thailand last December, on a Lagoon 400, for 9 days using some of the short notice allowance. Weather was a bit average considering December is supposed to be high season there - I think this particular high season was a month or so late in arriving. Fair bit of rain and overcast but brightened up towards the end and of course the last day was beautiful as we steamed back to base ...

I would def like to go back there but next time I will make sure its in proper high season...

The Lagoon 400 was doing one of its last charters before being phased out so interesting to see what one looked like at the end of its tour. Overall it was in pretty reasonable condition, but the most noticeable thing cosmetic wise was some water staining on the internal cabinetry - I think this is probably specific to Thailand because it rains every bloody day at some point yet its sticky enough you have to keep the hatches open, so plenty of potential to get caught out

[Nils Gruttner]

I finally got a chance to see my yacht in its charter environment, still brand new. I met the guys who will be looking after her and got a feel for how the base in Croatia works. Here is an update of what it was like ( a somewhat delayed posting of events)….

I have driven a brand new car, even flown a brand new Airbus 350 after it was delivered to our company in Hong Kong, but nothing prepared me for sailing a brand new yacht.

No creaks, no leaks, everything was tight. The steering was responsive, the sails perfectly balanced, carts and travelers were sliding and the ropes where clean and soft. There wasn't a mark on the boat, it was showroom perfect. Well, almost.

No Shoes had just completed her 2600nm, 450hrs motoring delivered from the factory in La Rochelle to the DYC base in Pula, Croatia.

After some servicing and clean up, it was my privilege to be the first customer to enjoy what will be my full time retirement base in a few years to come.

I had a week of near perfect, first time sailing conditions, heading south from Pula towards Sibenik with a "crew" of four first time catamaran sailors.

Average North Westerly winds, locally known as the Mistral, of around 15kts with a day of 25kts made for some awesome downwind sailing and plenty of opportunities to gently get to know the boat.

We reefed, tacked, jibed, played around with all sorts of technical equipment, cooked, drank and just relaxed on this magnificent, comfortable and most liveable cat.

No Shoes looked brand new as expected. What I didn't expect was a lot of the stainless steel fittings to show signs of corrosion. Some nuts didn't even seem to be SS. This is a €1/2M boat, what was FP thinking?

The good news is that the local base manager, Davor, is already onto it and has ordered replacement fittings where required.

Once inside, I was greeted by that very famous, oh so desirable smell of "new boat". The boat show smell was emitting from the 6 AC units all through the yacht.

Time to try out all the toys (sorry, systems) I could find, under the watchful eye of Davor: genset, water maker, inverter, radio, stereo, onboard WiFi and, oh my god, the Navstation's Holy Grail ... the Garmin 7412 multifunction, GPS, everything display system.

I think the only thing it isn't linked to or shows is the level of gin in the bottles tucked away in the cupboards.

I am somewhat old school so I was very happy to see the yacht was equipped with local charts and navigation guide. It had a hand held compass, rulers & sliders and some very powerful binoculars.

So together with the traditional means of navigation equipment you are able to verify your actual position both on paper and electronically at anytime.

Talking about electronics, the toy line-up continues at the helm station with a full set of Garmin gear and autopilot.

I will need to spend a few more nights to fully comprehend the entire system's capability because I am sure there is a way I can display a GoPro signal on the MFD to see the position of the anchor chain as I winch it up....

I have to remind myself that this is a charter yacht and it would have to be the best equipped one I have come across so far.

The last yacht I chartered, the Bali 4.3, didn't even have a wind indicator near the helm.

No Shoes has of course all safety related equipment as standard, down to bolt cutters. There was even an anchor ball. Didn't think I'd ever use it, but what do you know....

The one thing it didn't have were safety lines, the ones you attached the deck. To be fair, I haven't seen any of these on any other charter yacht to date either.* It did have harnesses and a bosun's chair but no rain jackets or any spare lines of any kind. So if you wanted to rig up a preventer, you had to be a little imaginative with the mooring lines or tail ends of other sheets... Not ideal at all.

Oh, and a searchlight would be a nice addition. The two touches are okay, but at night, close to the cliffs at anchor ... the brighter the better. Lucky I brought my own.

The dingy can easily carry 6-8 adults, just don't be in a rush. Those 5hp only allow 1 person to plain. On the flip side, it easy to hoist back up the davits with a dedicated winch.

I had done a fair amount of research before arriving in Croatia and had a route mapped out already. So it was just a matter of confirming suitability of various overnight spots and restaurants and verifying the reliability of the local weather forecast.

Davor pointed out a few hazards, they even produced a short video, but it would have been nice to have them marked clearly and permanently on the available maps.

I have to admit though, as the manager and guardian of my investment for the next 5 years, we had so much "general" catching up to do that we may have left out a few things which normal charter clients would have been privileged to as part of his routine induction.

There were only 5 of us on the Cat for this trip, so storage space clearly wasn't a problem. Plenty of room for food and beverages in various places around the galley, don't forget the under-floor spaces, but NO FREEZER.

The bar fridge outside had a small compartment to make ice cubes and it was super quick making them, but the giant 2 draw fridges didn't freeze, so consider that when you buy raw meat for a week or two. But then, there is no BBQ onboard either.

We used one of the fully fitted-out forepeaks to store the ungainly suitcases various people managed to bring.

Safety brief, discuss man overboard procedure and finally ... time to leave. First sail ever on No Shoes … and still unable to wipe that smile of my face.

All I needed to do now was to get her safely out of that tight marina without driving over any of these pesky, front mooring lines they seem to use here. What's that all about?

Then of course the sudden realization that my next "parking manoeuvre" wouldn't be anchoring but backing into one of these tight marinas for the first night stop. And I'd never driven a Helia before.

So once out on in the bay, a little "reverse parking" and getting a feel for how No Shoes responds to being directionally controlled, in reverse, with engine controls only.

Now... First sail ever on No Shoes. It turned out to be an awesome broad reach and downwind sail, like gliding over the ocean in 15kts apparent.

Which quickly lead to the first ever Gin & Tonics on No Shoes, the first anchoring, swim, lunch … you get the picture.

As the afternoon approached, it was time to head for the harbour and with that the dreaded first backward style mooring under the watchful eyes of the entire dock.

We pulled it off like pros thanks to the smooth handling performance of this yacht, some very helpful dockside staff, almost zero wind, a well briefed crew and of course…. my amazing skills (hahaha).

First ever sunset on No Shoes followed by first Rum & Coke.

Somewhere along the trip we picked up a rat … yep, first ever rat for me, not just on No Shoes … and caught it a day later with a trap kindly provided to us by yet another friendly Konoba owner. He didn't want the rat, just the trap back.

The rest of the trip was a varied mix of great winds, strong winds and no winds at all. I was glad that I took the opportunity early on to practice reefing and get the crew involved. As it turned out, there were no lines to haul down the reef tack for the second or third reef (the first reef is fully automatic from the helm station). So I had to make something up from bits I could find. This issue has already been rectified by Davor for the next charter.

On the note of support from Davor Grbac, I could not have wished for a more engaged and supportive individual. He was there for us and other clients 24/7. Not once did I have to wait more than 10 min for a reply to a request.

Severe Weather warnings were sent to us by WhatsApp and recommendations for places to eat and visit were given on the run as we changed our itinerary.

The yacht didn't have a raincoat as part of its inventory (as they do in Australia or Thailand) so he lent me his for the trip and it came in very handy one night - thank you so much.

Being a new yacht and me being an owner, I ran a very close eye over the yacht and wrote down a small list of items I would have liked fixed, improved or just looked at.

Fully aware that there are "must fix now", " will fix next" and "attend to during off season" items on the list I was merely hoping for the list to be taken seriously. As it turns out, most items had already been fixed by the time I got back to Hong Kong a few days later.

At the end of the trip, a doctor consultation was required and Davor went out of his way to assist, translate and organise.

Departure taxis were booked and they promptly arrived the next morning at some ungodly hour as promised. Actions speak louder than words. Well done!

A final word on the Helia 44 Evolution, the last one of its kind:

The Helia sailed extremely well balanced at all points of sail with almost no weather helm, although she isn't the most impressive upwind performer. But then all is a compromise and this isn't a race boat …. I still think its the Alfa Romeo of the cruising production cats though.

There were a lot of discussions on the forums about the position of the winches in relation to the steering wheel and access to the auto pilot. Personally I found this setup to be spot on. Everything is in the right place, lines fall neatly into place, don't get tangled, and I never ran out of a free winch. If you had to, you could run it all via the electric winch on the starboard side incase of injury or exhaustion.

Also discussed was the difficulty of lowering the mainsail. Yes, more carts would be helpful for raising and lowering it as well as neater storage in the sail bag. But it's manageable, until you need to reef and there is any tension left on the luff. That requires some light acrobatics, so an assistant downhaul line would help as some suggest.

Anchoring is a breeze with the remote control and chain counter from the helm station. Accommodation, kitchen space (this isn't just a galley), lounging areas …. all are excellent and extremely comfortable.

We all only banged our heads on the boom once and that was at anchor with the boom too low and at a wrong angle for stowage. At sea, this was never an issue, with plenty of clearance at all times.

All up, it was an awesome trip. I am still smiling from ear to ear, having had confirmation that I have purchased the right yacht for me.

Yes, I wish I could sail her away into the sunset NOW where everything is still shiny and untouched by many charter hands, but alas, work isn't over just yet and the money bucket still needs a little topping up.

So in the meantime, I feel this will provide the best of both worlds, keeping me on the water for at least 6-8 weeks a year. Good bye you beautiful cat. See you next year.

Didn't I say in some previous post that I am to remove all emotional attachment as this a purely a business transaction? Focus Nils, Focus!*

[Nils Gruttner]

Whilst I am here "updating", a few weeks ago a couple from Britain sent me an email sharing their experience on “Montaigne”, a 2017 Lagoon 38, which now has another charter season under her belt with DYC in Croatia. I got some info on this cat from the owners last year, so it was very interesting to compare the two stories. Here is what the couple had to say about their trip and the yacht (abbreviated version):

Hi, a short introduction: We are a couple from Britain and have been truly bitten by the sailing bug. Our plan is to retire in 2025 and live aboard a catamaran with our Three dogs.

We have just bought and sailed our own catamaran, a Prout Snowgoose 37, from Poole to Glasson in the UK this summer. Our main reason for chartering: To experience various catamarans prior to purchasing for our retirement.

A quick Google search back in June 2019 for a bareboat charter of a Lagoon 380 brought us to a company called Dream Yacht Charter and what looked like the ideal boat, a 2017 Lagoon 380 called ‘Montaigne’ based in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Roll on 4 months and we are on our way, pilot books and charts in hand with a rough plan on where we wanted to sail.

The weather forecast for the week looked great, sunny and around mid 20c. We arrived at ACI Dubrovnik Marina around 3 hours earlier than our scheduled take-over time for the boat, however we decided to find the charter office and make ourselves known.

The staff on our arrival were great and offered a warm welcome. We were told to give them a call in about 1 hour and they would see if they could get our boat ready early for us to start our holiday. Indeed, after a little over half an hour we were called by the office… ‘Montaigne’ was ready for us!

We were met at the boat by a staff member who went through a very detailed and thorough handover with us......

Once left alone, Judy and I had chance to have a good look around, and we both agreed that for a boat we believe to be at the end of its 3rd season in charter it was in very good condition.

Not perfect but aside from some bits of stick on interior trim flaking, the odd gel coat graze at the helm and a mismatched exterior cushion to replace one that was obviously lost at some point, everything seemed OK.

Indeed, if this was our Catamaran, we would have been very happy with its condition.....

The rest of the email was talking about sailing in Croatia and the performance of DYC

[Nils Gruttner]

When I started this threat I wanted to share my experiences as a bare boat owner. Naturally I come across and talk to other owners. There is a lot of negativity out there towards bare boat ownership and ex bare boats for sale.

To date, I cant share that sentiment and here is an interesting story. Maybe Australia is different to the rest of the world?

Paul Roger has over 9 years of successful dealings with his charter management company, his Lagoon 421 is still in great shape and he made some money. Here is how the conversation went:

Which company did you choose to charter your boat out with and why?

'Whitsunday Escape. After meeting with a number of the Airlie Beach Charter companies at a boat show in Jan 2011, I followed this up with a vessel test (Seawind 1260) in the Whitsundays. This allowed me an opportunity to inspect and talk to the Charter companies on their home turf.'

How long have you been in contract with them? How long is the contract for (original minimum)?

'I signed up with them in April 2011. The contract was originally for 5 years, followed by a five year extension.'

What made you buy a yacht for charter?

'I wanted to get back into sailing but was to busy with business to get involved full time. The tax benefit at the time was attractive and only having one or two weeks a year free to use so it made sense to charter it out.'

What yacht did you end up placing in charter?

'A new Lagoon 421, built in France in late 2010'

Why this particular boat?

'Two reasons (1) Lagoon are the largest catamaran builder in the world (2) At the time it was the largest, newest catamaran to go into the Whitsunday Escape Fleet. It was already in Australia with a broker who had been left with it after a sale feel through. The deal that was offered to me at the time was just very attractive.'

Did you consider other options apart from bare boat?

'Not at the time.'

What programme are you in (did you buy the yacht outright and get a % of the returns or did the company you are dealing with help finance the yacht)?

'I purchased the yacht outright myself, then contracted Whitsunday Escape to operate it for me. They charge 35% to manage the vessel. Then there is a turnaround fee each time the vessel is chartered, and all maintenance is at cost, with all original invoices to me.'

How satisfied are you with your charter operator. Do you feel like you can trust them?

'I am very happy with the operator. I do not blindly trust everything I am told, but I see the charter business as a partnership between the owner and the charter company. Just as I would not go into business with somebody I do not trust, likewise that is how I feel about the management company. '

Is all the maintenance carried out as required and is the process transparent?

'Yes'

How has the boat aged over the years in your opinion?

'The boat has been constantly chartered for approx. 220 days per year, every year for the past 9 years. In that time the boat has required updates to electrical, mechanical and rigging equipment as time, UV and wear have taken their toll. Overall, I have been very happy with the condition of the boat in use for its intended purpose.'

Do you intend to take over the boat at the end of the contract or sell it?

'Sell if there are any buyers after Covid 19, else I am a catamaran owner again I guess.'

Will you enter into another contract with this company or another? If so, will it be the same type of arrangement?

'No. But that is a function of my age and retirement from the workforce.'

Do you get the amount of ‘owners-week’ you are after? Will they be on your yacht only or any of their yachts?

'I could book my vessel for my own use whenever I wished as long as they had not taken a prior booking on it.'

Are the reciprocal deals with other charter operators?

'No'

[Nils Gruttner]

Following through on my quest to find background info on bare boats in charter, I managed to have a chat with a chap from Australia who took over the lease on a 2nd hand catamaran.... seems like a valuable alternative:

Hi Nils,, We purchase 'Fidelio' off QYC (now Dream Yacht Charter) in the Whitsundays . I have noticed your various charter travels. You have been out on their Lagoon 421 'Traviata' in the past so you know their operation.

'Fidelio' was about 4 years old when we took her over. After looking at other boats coming into the country, we figured that we would have had to put them into survey at an approximate cost of $30000 plus import duty and GST. The beauty of our deal was that all those costs were avoided plus we inherited any future bookings.

Depending on your tax situation, the devaluation of the boat can be very tax effective. It is currently at 13% per year for a tax deduction. About$ 60000 P/A in our case.
We intend to slowly fit the boat out to go cruising in 2022 and also claim those costs against current tax.This past 10 months have been pretty challenging but I think we will come close to break even for the year. Last year was pretty profitable.

So for you, the primary benefit in making it work financially are the tax benefits?

I think you would make some money without the tax benefit. But that really pays for the loan interest. We keep 66% but about half of that goes to expenses in a good year but more in a bad one.
We grossed about $ 200000 in our first year so there was plenty for upgrades.

Your figures are pretty much in line with Paul Roger’s who owns the Lagoon 421 ‘R&R’ with Whitsunday Escape in Airlie whom I talked to. Did you look at any other boats at the time?

We looked at a 2017 Nautitech Open 40 but it was asking nearly $700000 at the time. Our engines were the only real worry as they had about 4000 hours when we bought her. I thought at that rate they would be too old to go cruising on. In one way its lack of charter in the past year will be good from that point of view.

A lot more things do need to be fixed when chartered. Toilets, winches, sails, stereo, hatches. At least a lot of things will have been renewed before we cruise for a year.

So do you think buying a 2nd hand yacht for charter is a worthwhile exercise?

I think there will still be a fair bit out of our own pockets to fully upgrade to cruising standard before we go. It really would pay for itself if you just wanted to cruise QLD for four or five weeks a year.

I will check out 'Fidelio' next time I am up in the Whitsundays for one of my 'owners weeks' - they have been noticeably absent this year!