Buying boat for charter with Dream Yacht Charter

[letsgetsailing3]

Like with any charter company, probably makes sense to charter with them for a week first.

Then you can make up your own mind how you feel about the charter company in general, and not trust someone either praising them or blasting them on the internet. And every company will have both of those.

[bstreep]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

Like with any charter company, probably makes sense to charter with them for a week first.

Then you can make up your own mind how you feel about the charter company in general, and not trust someone either praising them or blasting them on the internet. And every company will have both of those.

Some charter companies will give you credit for this against a purchase.


Just to point out again: Look over that contract. If you have to go to the middle of the freakin' Indian Ocean to file suit, you might want to reconsider the company.

[annsma]

Our 5 year DYC management programme to buy a monohull finished in November 2020. During the 5 years we were very happy with the deal we had and enjoyed chartering all over the world for up to 12 weeks a year. We found that the bases were variable in how well they looked after the boats but whenever we had a problem we always felt we were dealt with properly and fairly.
Unfortunately the end of the programme coincided with Covid but despite this we felt that we were very badly let down by the company. Our main issues were communication and accountability. People were working from home but failed to keep us up to date with what was happening and when we enquired we were often on the receiving end of abrupt or downright rude replies

When we tried to complain or find a boss to deal with this , the lack of management structure or accountability became clear. It was impossible from web sites or phone calls/emails to offices to find out the name of a person who managed a specific section let alone their contact details. It was as if it was top secret!
If you look on the website there is no complaints procedure, no part of it tells you what to do if you are unhappy or where the buck stops. The whole experience left us frustrated and because of the delays combining with Brexit lost us a considerable amount of money.
i would definitely not get involved with them again

[Mackers74]

Originally Posted by ol1970

We have chartered with Dream Yacht in the Bahamas, and French Polynesia, both times it was a fantastic experience. So much so that the whole concept does get me thinking about doing the whole ownership program ourselves.

In speaking with their representative this past weekend in Dusseldorf the program that would be of interest to us is the following:

-Pay 55% of the boat cost up front. (let's say for example it's a Lagoon 42, cost $600,000, I write a check for $330k)
-It goes into their charter for roughly 5 years and 6 months.
-We get to use the boat 12 weeks a year (off season, or 6 weeks high season)
-No expenses for us
-No income for us
-At the end of the program they theoretically have maintained the boat to be in good working order and free from defects, and then they give us the keys and we own it 100% outright.

So from my angle, I then take this Lagoon 42 and attempt to sell it after coming out of charter. Let's take a leap of faith and say it sells for $330k, so after brokerage fees and expenses I get a check back for $300k. The cost to us has been $30k loss on the boat, plus the cost of money for 5.5 years on the original down payment. So conservatively say roughly 4% return on the 330K would be $70k net.

We have now spent $100,000 for 5 years of a lot of sailing around the world. If I assume we only used the 6 weeks a year in high season and the boat is $8k week high season cost, we've saved $175,000 in would be chartering expense.

The reason this is kind of appealing to us is that my wife's benefits allow us to fly for free, so the travel expense side of things doesn't come into play for us like it would others. Secondly because of this benefit and our diverse travel interests we find ourselves liking to do tons of other cool stuff like visiting land based stuff as well, like national parks, snowboarding, cool cities, jungles, deserts, mountains, etc.

So from a retirement angle, we'd actually be more likely to spend the entire 12 weeks in low season vs. 6 weeks only in high season. This is a pretty good amount of time on the water each year and being able to mix it up with new locations is appealing.

Other the risk of not being able to sell the boat at the end, what am I missing? But considering the expense of actually owning and maintaining your own boat for 3-4 months use a year (and that being the same location year after year) it seems like the idea has merit.

People who have done this don’t get back a great boat. I wouldn’t go w DYC after chartering and seeing their boats - no!

Yes, it’s a legit business. They have six cats currently available for the French Disiculation (spelling). They do it with properties too.

[aqfishing]

I have only seen the DYC boats in Seychelles and I was not impressed. We went with Sunsail for 5 years on a 444 where we purchased outright and got 9% for 5 years. The condition of the yacht was fine. I actually made $18000 after trading it in on the new one. We looked at the dream easy for a lagoon 52, 35% down and 25% balloon. Only way I could ever afford to own my dream yacht. Ultimately we decided to buy a Leopard 40 with Moorings. 6 years, 8% guaranteed. We took ownership in July last year (the deal was signed pre COVID 2019). They have not missed a payment since, even though our yacht only did its first charter in April this year, 9 months after our contract kicked in. Not only that, they have allowed us to keep our 2020 points allocation to use anytime before the end of our contract.

The main reason for going back with them. With the Dream Easy and I think the Fractional Ownership as well, the yacht is not registered in your name until the end and it’s hard to get out of if you not happy. You will have to pay a chunk or change. So if DYC goes down you will probably lose your yacht. Also you cannot make use of any tax write offs if the yacht is not in your name(well in my country anyway!)


Good luck. We have had the best time with our family and loved been in the program. The more you use the yacht the more worthwhile it is. If we do not keep our current yacht to cruise with we will more than likely go back in.

[DYC boat owner]

I’m a dream yacht owner in the performance program. A warning to people considering buying with them…. I purchased a boat a year ago and it was missing ~$30,000 in equipment when it was delivered. DYC accepted the delivery of the under equipped boat without dispute and it wasn’t until I was able to go inspect the boat several months later that I became aware of the missing equipment. I’ve spoken with other owners with similar stories. It’s been a year and my boat is still missing equipment I paid for last year. Additionally, the financial estimates they made to me when I decided to put the boat into the performance charter with them were materially off. As an example, the marina fees that they estimated for me were about $1,000/month but they are charging me over $2,000/month at a base where they have 3 boats for every marina slip they pay for which means they must be burdening the performance owners with the docking fees for their entire fleet to try and move expenses from the guaranteed program fleet to the performance owners. Curious if other performance owners are experiencing the same thing and if their docking fee allocations have gone up to $2k post COVID?

On paper, the performance program is great but they are cutting corners and practicing shady (and likely illegal business practices). I hope they can turn it around with the new owners but I feel I should warn potential buyers before that is proven.

[aqfishing]

Originally Posted by DYC boat owner

I’m a dream yacht owner in the performance program. A warning to people considering buying with them…. I purchased a boat a year ago and it was missing ~$30,000 in equipment when it was delivered. DYC accepted the delivery of the under equipped boat without dispute and it wasn’t until I was able to go inspect the boat several months later that I became aware of the missing equipment. I’ve spoken with other owners with similar stories. It’s been a year and my boat is still missing equipment I paid for last year. Additionally, the financial estimates they made to me when I decided to put the boat into the performance charter with them were materially off. As an example, the marina fees that they estimated for me were about $1,000/month but they are charging me over $2,000/month at a base where they have 3 boats for every marina slip they pay for which means they must be burdening the performance owners with the docking fees for their entire fleet to try and move expenses from the guaranteed program fleet to the performance owners. Curious if other performance owners are experiencing the same thing and if their docking fee allocations have gone up to $2k post COVID?

On paper, the performance program is great but they are cutting corners and practicing shady (and likely illegal business practices). I hope they can turn it around with the new owners but I feel I should warn potential buyers before that is proven.

I have always felt that the Performance type deal is not a good one. Especially when the company has their own yachts in the fleet, or where they have yachts to whom they have promised a guaranteed income. Which yachts do you think they are going to book first? Then there is always the possibility that you will end up paying for stuff on their yachts!

[Joh.Ghurt]

Originally Posted by DYC boat owner

I purchased a boat a year ago and it was missing ~$30,000 in equipment when it was delivered. DYC accepted the delivery of the under equipped boat without dispute and it wasn’t until I was able to go inspect the boat several months later that I became aware of the missing equipment.

I wonder, if they accepted it with the equipment and now it's missing, wouldn't that indicate Dream Yacht Charter stole it (on paper)?
Kind of:

• There's proof it was here at delivery (their signature)
• There's proof it's missing now
• They lost / stole it and have to replace it.

$30000 is enough money to make it worth to involve a lawyer.

[lesliehand]

We did this deal with an FP 58 - so far it's been working out for us. No income, but no expenses either and we bought the boat for less than half price. Was nice not to have any payments to contend with, once the pandemic hit. Our boat ALWAYS is captained/crewed so no worries about some random charterer damaging it. We are 3 years in and have had some great trips. Just got back from 2 weeks in the Bahamas.