Putting a Trawler in Bareboat Service in Northeast US

[henryvt]

Hello,

New member here and first post. Great forum! We are long-time boaters with two young children who unfortunately live in the mountains during the school year. For the past several years we have been using our summer house at the coast (SE Massachusetts) and keeping a dinghy at the house and sportfisher at the marina. It has become a lot to maintain and plus we are not filling the need for adventure hitting the same old spots. We have been looking into trawlers for a few years but have not pulled the trigger. Between capital outlay and upkeep it just seems like a huge sinkhole for us for a few weeks of use per year.

We have been considering a new plan which would involve a fairly used trawler (say GB 36 or 42, Monk 36) and use it for ourselves for 4-5 weeks per summer and put it into bareboat service during the rest of the season. We have not been able to find much out about bareboat operations in the Northeast and whether this would truly work out in terms of actually getting some volume of charters as well as an organized operation that can handle the inevitable issues that will arise. We would greatly appreciate any insight into others who have gone this route and referrals to charter brokers who are good to work with. We are flexible on home port as long as it is RI or North.

Thank you for any insight into this idea.

 

[boatpoker]

We have been considering a new plan which would involve a fairly used trawler (say GB 36 or 42, Monk 36) and use it for ourselves for 4-5 weeks per summer and put it into bareboat service during the rest of the season.

4-5 weeks is the season in the NE

 

[Peter B]

I had a 35 footer in charter. It was a good tax off-set, and as many of us don't, or are not able to use a boat all that much, it is a good way to defray costs. Especially if you have it under a professional hire company, who then look after all maintenance, supplies, linen changes, and hire crew training etc. For a percentage of course.
However, there are some issues. One important one is not being so able to personalise it - and keep personal stuff on it. However, the expected concern of it being mistreated by rank amateurs was not actually the case. Rental crews tended to be very cautious, and respectful of it in our experience. The main issue from a practical point of view is limited opprtunity to work on it, and perhaps most importantly, depending on where you are and your local laws, is how nit-picky they are regarding survey requirements. Here in Oz, the laws are pretty tight, so unless the boat is built to survey, as ours was, it is often not possible to get the vessel compliant later in a used boat, as it would be just too expensive.
On the other hand, being able to book it in advance, and have it all stocked, cleaned, fuelled and ready to go - and just being able to walk off at the end, did have it's attractions. That and the tax off-set.

 

[henryvt]

Thanks Peter B. Some food for thought there. Understanding that Australia is a completely different economy, I am still curious as to what percentage of your available peak season slots ended up booked. I think the 'make or break' for us is if we made the boat available the second half of June and all of August if we could count on bookings.

Going through all the hassle of putting it in charter service and getting one or two weeks would be a nightmare.

 

[pshelley]

If you have a 42' trawler for rental please contact me. We would like to charter for 2 to 4 weeks for summer 2016. Our experience - 30 years of boating and references from past charters.
Thanks
Pam

 

[Capt.Bill11]

If you have a 42' trawler for rental please contact me. We would like to charter for 2 to 4 weeks for summer 2016. Our experience - 30 years of boating and references from past charters.
Thanks
Pam

Where do you want to charter? East coast, west coast, north, south?

 

[pshelley]

The Northeast is our cruising grounds and we want to continue there with a bareboat charter. No young children, husband got a small boat captain's license many years ago, and we've chartered sail and power over the years. Want only power now - laziness in our old age.