Would you like 1/2 of a boat

We are in the process of a purchase. We are concerned about the purchase given the current situation. Equity markets dropping, future economic climate, etc.
I’m thinking other people might be in our situation of tentativeness when it comes to buying a boat right now. I’m just going to throw this out there. If you are interested in talking about a partnership on a boat, please contact me via email. Location would eventually need to be South Puget Sound. We have a boat under contract. I’m happy to provide details for serious potential partners. I am a pilot, have owned an airplane by myself and now own a much nicer airplane with a partner. It allows my wife and I an opportunity to own a much better airplane, sharing fixed costs etc. with a partner. The partnership has worked well and I’m thinking it might work for a boat as well. Price range is around $300K. Please email if you’d like to have a conversation and to learn about the boat we have under contract.
Knewman172@gmail.com

I guess it would depend on which half.

Photo of wife would probably help.

menzies said:

Photo of wife would probably help.

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she probably isn't part of the "standard equipment" list..


HOLLYWOOD

Interesting. Are boat partnerships common in US? Seem to be a number of them here in Australia. One of our Sydney TF members has one. And syndication, where there might be up to 10 "owners" sharing the boat, though how that works I can`t imagine.

I'd avoid a partnership. I've never heard of any good coming from them.

On the other hand, some folks are really happy joining a "club" where membership allows them use of a fleet of recreational boats. It's a way to share the costs of ownership without as many one-on-one conflicts.

I think it's an ideal solution for a lot of boaters. Those to whom boating isn't their life, but an occasional side activity. Also for anyone not interested in doing all the maintenance. In the end it's probably cheaper than owning, especially if you hire out most of the work. You just show up, take the boat out, come back and hand over the keys.

I have considered the advantages of a partnership but the Admiral and I are pretty spontaneous about boating. Sometimes we make weeklong plans only a few days in advance. Often we drop plans at the drop of a hat, usually weather dependent.

In fact, whenever we make boating plans we always have a "plan B" on the back burner.

I don't think a partnership would work very well for us.

pete

menzies said:

Photo of wife would probably help.

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LOL You sick bastard.
It might be a set up.... end up with his wife and he would not need to sell half the boat to someone else.

Personally I think, selling a partnership in a boat to someone else is like buying a time-share. I knew of one boat 4 person partnership and a big Hatteras .... it was not pretty. Everyone was best of friends until then. Simple things like, who gets the big stateroom, who cleans up the galley after a meal, who cleans the heads,.... it is just not worth it. Buy a smaller boat and enjoy it.

I've done two boat partnerships, both on sailboats. In a past case, 3 of us were joint owners and split all costs. In my current case I'm sole owner, but 3 partners pay monthly for the privilege of using the boat and that pretty much covers my expenses. In both cases, the partnerships have worked out very well, but I was able to stack the deck in my favor by selecting friends I knew well.

I suppose I could consider my tug as a partnership also, as I have it in charter. That's a whole 'nuther way of affording a boat beyond your means, with it's pros and cons.

Twice I've entered into boat partnerships, each time 50/50 with other guys who I trusted and considered responsible and reasonable. Each time it didn't work out, I guess owing to an accumulated list of fairly minor things we felt differently about. Took a lot of time and diplomacy to preserve the friendships after dissolving the partnership. I tend to believe we should live our hopes, not our fears, but my take away was, never again.

One evening over drinks at the yacht club bar with a group of boating friends, this subject came up. Turned out each of us had been in boat partnerships before. As soon as I finished saying, "never again," another guy chimed in and said, "I'll never do it again," and then the next guy said the same thing . . .

Your mileage may vary though, so good luck!

I’ve thought about a partnership several times, but I’d probably be the problem. My boat’s old and I’m just to picky about how things need to be done. Plus, someone else would never agree to fund my “improvement” projects. Not worth the heartache.

Partnershiups

I have been in lots of business partnerships and rarely had a problem, but only because it is fairly easy to define each party's financials rights and obligations, and to define decision making authority. Only one has ended in litigation, and only because a "silent" partner sold (as permitted by the partnership documents) its interest (really just an economic interest, since there were no relevant control rights) to a buyer who doesn't understand the concept of "silent" partner. With boats, those issues are really difficult, and normal deadlock disputes (like buy-sell provisions) don't work well with assets whose value is not strictly economic, particularly if both partners can't easily write the check to be buyers or sellers. So, I would never be in a boat partnership, but have seen it work with three partners whose decisions are made by majority rule, with caps on contribution obligations. The third guy died, but left his interest in the boat to the other two. Problems began when there was no majority to rule.

menzies said:

Photo of wife would probably help.

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Would you say that to a man's face? If not, why here?

I was a broker a long time ago dealing primarily in sailboats. I saw and dealt with a variety of partnership situations, and they almost all were remarkably successful. It can be done.

I recently read on one of the sailboat forums about a guy who had 1/4 interest in a partnership. He loved it - in part, because none of the 3 other partners took out the boat!

Personally, I would not be comfortable in a boat partnership. I would rather, buy a smaller boat or join a club.

Jim

A friend of mine had a partnership with 9 other couples on a large houseboat on Lake Powell here in Utah.
For the most part it worked well, sharing costs, repairs, etc., UNTIL one couple decided not to clean the boat after using it and another damaged a part but would not own up to causing the damage and the repairs.
Things went down hill from there.

Knewman said:

I am a pilot, have owned an airplane by myself and now own a much nicer airplane with a partner. It allows my wife and I an opportunity to own a much better airplane, sharing fixed costs etc. with a partner. The partnership has worked well and I’m thinking it might work for a boat as well.

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Funny this post popped up at this time as I'm thinking of doing that exact thing. I have a very good friend who has a larger boat than mine but is considering selling it. He is the Felix Unger of the yachting world & I offered him 1/2 of my boat. I don't want to sell the whole boat and he would be the perfect partner. So far he has not accepted but I still have hope. I don't use the boat nearly as much as I did several years ago and this would provide an opportunity to have the boat used more, and defer costs. I believe partnerships can work well if one knows the partner really well. Why not buy half of his boat? My wife likes our boat better and it's more up to date than his. Better electronics, etc. The photo is of my boat.

I've had several partnerships over the years.... planes, boats and houses.


Most have been very successful, but a few failed. The ones that failed I went to the partner(s) and said: "Lets sell it and save our friendship." All but one worked that way.


The very best partnerships I've been in is where ONE person controls the whole thing, and the others can get out with reasonable notice without a huge penalty. Like a club or rental situation. I've taken both sides of that and it's worked well.



I have something like that with my plane right now. However, we just don't use it much and it has more capability than we need, so I'm going to sell it and down size and may add another partner. Much more practical.


One, thing..... if all the partners just felt like they had to just bring a tad more than their share, it would work fine.

FlyWright said:

Would you say that to a man's face? If not, why here?

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It's kind of a common web joke. Don't think it was meant to be taken seriously or with malice.

Besides if he was there, his wife might be as well and you wouldn't have to ask....

and the next question is, send picture of boat.

Interesting question...enjoyed the feedback from others with experience partnering. Funny to see this now as I was tossing around a similar thought earlier today. We are about to close on a boat we’ve had under contract since before this virus mess as well. Our short term plans changed, but long term remain the same so we decided to move forward. Best of luck to you!

Whatever you do, nail the partnership agreement down to a gnat's rear end! Who does what, who pays what and when. TBO reserves, days/dates of use to each party, dissolution, or sale of partnership share, etc. That way, any potential conflict is between your partner and the contract, not between two partners. It's a good way to remain friends!

Where I've see partnerships struggle most is when there are Oscar & Felix discrepancies - one party feels they are shouldering too much, or feels the other is taking advantage. Rather than having each person contribute labor only, partnership will run smoother with outside professional maintenance at regular intervals, including cleaning after each use so the vessel is in good shape for next user. Partners agree to reserves in addition to splitting costs.

Of course, this ends up looking like a mini sliver of a boat club, which is perhaps why they work

I leased boats from two different buddies - sailboats. Basically I paid 3/4 moorage and they paid the rest and repairs unless it was a larger costly repair. Worked out well and I used the boats more than they did.

I had a successful partnership two decades ago in Juneau when I bought a 27' SeaSport Seamaster together with a friend that we mainly used for recreational diving. What made it work well for us was that we were also dive partners so most of our boat use was actually together. We explored a lot of the shipwrecks in the inside passage and did a number of multi-day dive expeditions to more remote locations. And spent a lot of money getting it tricked out for diving.

We actually hired an attorney to draw up a partnership agreement, but then we never really looked at it again, we just kept track of all the expenses and split everything 50/50 except for fuel. It basically allowed us to own twice the boat that either of us would have been able to afford on our own.

When I left Alaska for Texas my partner didn't want to take it over for himself so we sold it to a charter operator out of Sitka (lavishly equipped) for about 80% of what we had paid new for the raw boat 4 years earlier so it all worked out.

Personally I would be more reluctant to go into a partnership with someone whom I wasn't going to use the boat together with for fishing/diving, etc. Especially if I wasn't retired and had my use limited to weekends and holidays where schedule conflicts could crop up. If I was retired that might be less of an issue.

Would you like 1/2 of a boat?

How’s this for a “successful partnership”? I worked ten youthful summers at Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island, WA. Many of you undoubtedly know it. We had repeat guests every summer and it was always fun to see the same boats, same people. One evening, while collecting moorage, my friend was discreetly taken aside by by one of our long time clients. He said, “well you might have noticed something’s a little different this year”. Hmm ... same week of summer, same boat, same two co-owner couples ... what’s different? “Well”, the captain replied, “we’ve switched”. Even after a couples flip-flop the same four were still happily boating and vacationing together like it was always meant to be! What a model for an amicable divorce... two of them actually. Maybe more boating means more happiness!

Mark Laurnen said:

How’s this for a “successful partnership”? I worked ten youthful summers at Roche Harbor Resort on San Juan Island, WA. Many of you undoubtedly know it. We had repeat guests every summer and it was always fun to see the same boats, same people. One evening, while collecting moorage, my friend was discreetly taken aside by by one of our long time clients. He said, “well you might have noticed something’s a little different this year”. Hmm ... same week of summer, same boat, same two co-owner couples ... what’s different? “Well”, the captain replied, “we’ve switched”. Even after a couples flip-flop the same four were still happily boating and vacationing together like it was always meant to be! What a model for an amicable divorce... two of them actually. Maybe more boating means more happiness!

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Or... if they hadn't been sharing a boat the four of them may have still been happily married.

Big difference between and airplane and a boat. You don't live in an airplane and they are vastly more simple than a boat. In general, with a plane, when you take it out of the hangar you wouldn't even know you weren't the last pilot to fly it (assuming not leaving junk there, dealing with fuel).

Way more things happen with boats! With airplanes, you don't really get to work on them yourself.

Say your partner says "I changed the oil in the generator, she's all good to go." Next time you run the thing it stops working, has overheated, oil puked out because the filter wasn't on all the way. (Just an example, although this is a real life one from my Dad's partner boat). Who pays? You were running it, why didn't you monitor the situation?

I'm sure it CAN work, just saying it's a way different beast.

Please do not forget about insurance. Marine insurers have strict policy language regarding operators and owners. An insured is required to disclose all owners and operators when requesting coverage. The maritime law requires "utmost good faith" when dealing with an insurance company. If you fail to do so the policy will be void from day one. I would urge you to consult an attorney before sharing ownership of a vessel. Consider forming a corporation too. Prior planning prevents poor performance!

In one word, "NO!"