Many share parters find that they sail more when they own a share than when they own the whole boat - the tendency is to reserve allocated time from other social/family events and to sail. On other weekends other family/social events take priority.

Yacht sharing Shares can be in any size or form but are typically quarters, thirds or halves in the UK and quarters or fifths overseas.

If the share agreement is correctly drawn up there should not be a problem in having unequal shares.

In the case of both the formation of a new group and the first division of a yacht, we will supply a share agreement and will work with the existing and new owners to adapt this to a useful document for their group.

The success of a group largely depends upon the personal compatibility of the various owners and their mutual respect for each other and the care of the boat. It is not important to be best of friends, good business colleagues is the best relationship

Wherever possible we try to group partners who have differing time requirments for the boat and who have similar desires from the boat. We do not usually involve ourselves in racing syndicates as we have no experience of the demands and costs associated with serious racing. We would not usually recommend a partnership with a mix of serious racing and non racing partners.

The share agreement is the backbone of the success, it defines as closely as possible the risks and rewards of each partner. The agreement is discussed and signed prior to, or coincidentally with, the purchase of the share. It is important to remember that the ownership of a boat is intended to be pleasurable, an over bureaucratic arrangement can make this difficult.

Each group usually appoints a manager/secretary who will look after the adminstrative side of the group (paying invoices, arranging work etc). It is usual for these resposibilities to be passed from one partner to another on a regular basis. The amount of work involved should not take more than a few hours each year.

Time is allocated to each partner on an annual basis. A partner does not "own" any specific weeks although he may have a preference for a certain time in the year eg School holidays. This preference will be disussed prior to joining the group and the other partners should respect this preference. It is not unusual to have an appendix to the share agreement which defines these preferences.

The allocation of time is usually discussed at an Autumn AGM of the partners. The pattern of use will be dictated by the location of the boat

it is usual for a retiring partner to offer his share to the existing partners prior to offering it for sale on the open market. The remaining partners have the right to accept or reject a potential partner - this would only usually be on the basis of insufficient experience or incompatible time requirements

It is usual that the owner of a share will contribute an equal proportion to his capital share of the annual and capital running costs of the boat, although other arrangements are not unusual where, perhaps, the usage is split in a way different from the ownership.

Fees:

Sale of existing share, 6% charged to the vendor of value of share sold. We have a minumum fee of £180 which equates to the sale of a £3000 share.

Formation of a new.group, this depends upon who is supplying the boat. If we supply a new boat and receive a factory discount on the boat, the formation of the group is at no additional cost to the partners. If the boat is sourced by one or more of the partners and we are not able to take a commission on the sale then we will charge 6% of the value of each share to each partner.

We do unfortuately need to charge VAT.