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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Partnership?

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FrankV
Navigator

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USA
134 Posts

Initially Posted - 09/20/2007 : 20:27:17

We have our 81 fk std rig 25 on a slip at Grapevine lake. We have been busy with work, grad school, teenagers! and we do not use the boat more than once a month.
The cost to benefit ratio is going the wrong way.

After owning the boat for 15+ years, we are pondering a sale.

But, I had an idea. What if I sold half the boat to a partner? We could split marina fees and maintenance costs.

So, has anyone done this? How much is fair? How do you find someone? Is there a sample agreement I could modify?

Thanks.

Frank Vaughan
250 WK/SR

Edited by - on

Captain Bill
Navigator

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USA
148 Posts

Response Posted - 09/20/2007 : 21:45:21

Frank, I'll share my experience. My best friend and I bought a 1989 C-25 TR/WK and split everything 50/50 for five years. We never had quibble over money as every calendar quarter I gave him a detail of our expenditures so he always knew where the money came from and where it went. We always agreed on major purchases in advance.

He taught me how to sail. I learned a lot and he had the pleasure of bringing a new person into sailing. He was a natural teacher as well as a very experienced sailor.

Eventually, I found myself working more and sailing less and we sailed only occasionally.
After five years he was age 75 and paying 1/2 of everything and not sailing as often as he would have preferred. He wanted to sell the boat, I didn't. I bought him out at a very fair price of our initial cost. He's happy, I'm happy and we're still best of friends.

After we separated as boat partners, I realized that the boat had become somewhat neglected, I guess in part to our reluctance to increase the cost of ownership while sailing less and less. Since I was then the sole owner I spent a bundle on an almost new Honda, Cushions from Catalina, 4 spring motor mount, bottom paint, electrical stuff, etc., etc., and spent a lot of enjoyable hours tinkering with it. Probably none of that would have been done if we were still boat partners. Now I've got the best of both worlds, a good friend and a good boat that I can and do enjoy either at anytime.

I'm saying all of this to say it can be great to have a boat partner but boat upgrades and maintenance could become sticky problems.

Good luck and happy sailing,

Bill

Edited by - on

dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 09/20/2007 : 22:16:40

Our sailing life has ebbed and flowed over the years, especially as the kids were growing up and getting involved in life and us with them. We went through several years where it seemed like we might never sail again and thought about selling. Glad we didn't, at least I am, can't speak for the admiral. We've since moved up from a C-22 to a C-25. Just don't go back and add up all the years' expenses (slip rent, insurance, repairs, upgrades, yacht club dues, etc., you'll get real depressed. LOL) For us, it's 31 years next month!
For the first 10 years or so we had a partner, my brother. I eventually bought him out. Our split was 2/3 me, 1/3 him.

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DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 08:07:38

I've partnered several times in my life and have formed the opinion that it is a condition to be avoided when ever possible. Sometimes it works out great, as in Captain Bill's case, but generally ...............

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 08:24:21

I've known a couple of partnerships--both turned out badly--one "friend" buying out the other who was no longer really a friend. One would leave the boat without buttoning her up to the other's satisfaction... One would want a new something-or-other, and the other wouldn't... I was invited by a friend to partner with him--his cute little Bristol 22 never left her slip for several seasons--not even once. He paid a yard for every bit of maintenance. I declined... To me, a boat is too personal, and his and my objectives would've been too different.

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Frank Hopper
Past Commodore

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Pitcairn Island
6776 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 09:35:31

One partner concept that has always sounded good to me is the "right to reverse buy-out clause", If a partner wants to buy out the other partner he must make an offer, the partner then has the right to either accept that offer or reverse it and buy the other person out at that price. Seems like a good safety clause to me.
I am like Dave though, my boat is WAY too personal to have a partner.

Frank, to the specifics of your situation, you have owned your boat 15 years, the costs must be minimal. Maybe you should dry sail it for a while. At our lake we can sublease our slip for a couple of years and then go back into it, can you do that?

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dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 09:47:15

Years ago, two lifelong childhood friends, each with families, partnered up and bought the cottage next to my Dad's. At first it was great for both of them, each bringing their families out every weekend/vacation and enjoying each others company, but after a couple of years, things went south. Now they only speak to each other when necessary and have drawn up a schedule that rotates use of the cottage every two weeks with one family checking out the night before the next family checks in so they don't bump into each other...how sad is that.

The only way I'd have a partner is if I didn't particularly care for them and if they agreed that I get the boat on all nice, sunny, windy days and every weekend/holiday and they'd get it on all the stormy, rainy, small craft advisory days...In other words...never!

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stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 13:56:23

Fractional ownership of boats is a well established business model. But I don't think it applies to boats of our size, unless there is a very compelling reason for doing so. Such as: close friend, close relative or such. I don't think I would put an ad in a paper to find a partner for a C25-250.

We've been looking into 1/4 ownership of a 38' sailboat, the make of which has not been decided, via a company on the west coast. All of the potential owners are from land locked areas such as ours.

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 14:16:31

Regarding cost of ownership and its relationship to number of times sailing... I've had some years when the ratio looked pretty grim--raising kids and later losing my wife--but I still found that working on the boat and even just knowing she was there gave me a sense of well-being. For a couple of grand a year (slip, storage, insurance, etc.), she was there. (...now a different "she" and thus a better ratio.) I can't imagine her not being there.

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crcalhoon
Captain

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USA
303 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 17:56:23

Once I was walking down the pier and spoke to one of my neighbors, saying something like "I really ought to sell this thing, all I do is work on it, but the wife says that it's cheaper than psycho therapy. To which he responded with "well, I'm a psycho therapist and she's right." I learned early on to never try to justify the expense of my toys. It steals a lot of the joy and I find it a lot easier to accept the fact that in reality, it is just a toy, no matter how necessary for mental health.

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JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 09/21/2007 : 23:35:25

My boat is not a toy and I'd never be happy without her. I've spent a very large portion of my life on the water and its never enough.

I think partnership in a 25 foot boat is not a good idea, although we have 4 guys who are partners on our dock in an old Cal 27 and it works for them. The boat is only kept in poor to fair shape and not used very often by any of them.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 09/22/2007 : 10:11:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by JimB517
 ...we have 4 guys who are partners on our dock in an old Cal 27 and it works for them...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">I suspect that would work best if the partners went together to buy a boat, rather than the present owner of a boat looking for people to buy into it. In the latter case, the original owner is likely to have an emotional tie to the boat, whether he recognizes it or not, that will probably be violated in some way by a partner. Now, if the owner flat-out doesn't like his boat....... well, then he should sell it. If he does like it, there could be trouble.

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