The Concept

I’ve owned Levana, a fine and spacious 15 m 3-cabin steel motor cruiser based on the inland waterways of Europe for the last 5 years. I’d now like to reduce my commitment of cruising.

I could simply sell the boat and rent one from time to time, but I love the boat as it’s much more comfortable for 3 or 4 people than any rental boat. It occurs to me that there may be other like-minded people who’d like to spend several weeks on “their own boat” each year - but at a much lower cost than is normal to buy and maintain (or to rent) a comfortable and well-equipped modern motor cruiser.

I’d like to find 2 or 3 other similarly minded people with some boating experience to share the capital and running costs so that we can all benefit and minimise costly idle time - unused in costly marinas.

With just 3 or 4 co-owners, I would hope we could agree on where the boat goes and mutually agreed changeover locations. Perhaps Germany (Berlin and the Mecklenburg Lakes) could be included our cruising area in the future?

I’ve been very content having no regular base and have travelled extensively in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, leaving the boat between my several trips at suitable secure marinas or boatyards where a car can be parked safely while I’m cruising. If the boat remains nomadic, we’d have the advantage of much more varied cruising with no “return to base” commitments.

So, how about paying just one third or maybe one quarter of its capital value and a similar fraction of the normal running and wintering costs?

Assuming a May to September “high season” of about 21 weeks we could each use the boat for about 7 weeks (3-person) or 5+ weeks (4-person) in the summer, plus 3 or 4 weeks each in the quieter and cooler months of March, April and October.

The boat is currently laid up at Meppel, Netherlands for the winter. It can be inspected at any time by arrangement.

The Costs

The boat has a value of about €240,000 (broker suggests €299,000 asking price), but I’d consider it less for share distribution purposes:

Capital outlay: €75.000 (3-person) or €57,000 (4-person) for each share

Based on estimated running costs (engine service, winter storage, insurance, R&M, etc):

About €1200 (3-person) or €900 (4-person) per year for each owner ­ maybe more

Fuel, summer mooring costs, waterway licences, tolls, etc are not included ­ to be paid by users

Buy Back Offer**

If you bought into the scheme and for some reason you wanted to sell after a couple of years, I’d offer to buy back your share (as long as I hold my own share) at what you paid less 10% for each full or part year you had owned it. By my estimation, even with this 10% capital loss, you’d be paying somewhere in the region of half the cost of renting a comparable vessel for your 7 or 5+ weeks - and much less if you also used it for extra “mid season” weeks.

(**Please note this web site (boatshare) cannot confirm or underwrite this offer)

Alternatively you could of course sell your share to another suitable and acceptable party - maybe at little or no loss.

Interested?

Please contact me with your scheme preference (3 or 4 person) and what you feel about cruising areas, administration, costs, or any other matters. I’m flexible regarding how the scheme may work (but it will eventually have to have a few mutually agreed rules), or where the boat goes.

I’d expect this may be a particularly attractive proposition to long-distance boaters (from US, NZ, Aus, etc) as they could use the boat perhaps for one long trip with a minimum of travel costs and not worry about it the rest of the time - with a big saving compared with renting and avoiding “return to base”.

I’ve started work on a proposed Rules document, but this really needs to be compiled by all those involved in the scheme, but I’d happily forward where I’ve got to so far.