A Successful Boat Partnership
John Ryan
We are entering our fourth year of a great partnership with
another couple in which we shared joint ownership of a 40-foot Mainship
Trawler. My wife and I (Karen and John) use the boat from January through May
and Francisco and his wife, Maria Paula (MP), use the boat the rest of the
year. We echo Francisco’s sentiment when he says “what has made our
experience with Glory Days absolutely FANTASTIC!... has been our partnership.
We have never had any disagreements. We have always shared the same focus on
making sure we take the best possible care of our great boat.”
Francisco and MP have adopted a 2-year-old boy. For
obvious reasons, they won’t be using the boat much, so we are actively looking
for another partner or else we will put the boat up for sale this spring. We
have thought about buying their share, but we see so many positive attributes
to a partnership, that we’d like to find another likeminded partner. In this
brief post I want to share the key elements of how we made this partnership
successful and why we want to do it again.
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| John & Karen in Great Harbor Cay |
How we met
I posted a notice on
the Mainship Forum indicating an interest in finding a partner to purchase a
late model Mainship and Francisco responded. We subsequently corresponded by
email, shared thoughts on a partnership agreement and the kind of boat we were
looking for, and then agreed to meet in person. I went to Miami and they flew
out to meet us. We could not have been more different in our life styles and
how we planned to use the boat. They lived in a condo near downtown Miami, we
live on 10 acres on a rural island. We planned to be “snowbirds” in the winter and
use the boat to cruise Florida and the Bahamas as live-aboards, whereas
Francisco and MP wanted a weekend getaway from their busy lives in Miami. We all shared an enthusiasm for boating and
recognized that a partnership could maximize the enjoyment we could derive
while minimizing our costs.
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Francisco & Maria Paula in Miami
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Once
we met and worked out the partnership details we started looking for a boat in
earnest and bought “Glory Days” from an owner on the Mainship Forum.
The boat was in Cape Cod and Hurricane Sandy was on its way when we made our
offer, contingent on Glory Days weathering the storm and being delivered to
Norfolk, VA. Everything worked out and I picked it up and delivered it to Miami
via the ICW. The delivery and the rest of our boating adventures are documented
in this blog.
The Partnership
Agreement
Our partnership agreement was a simple 2-page statement of our
expectations about managing costs and schedule. Basically, we split insurance
and maintenance 50/50 and were each responsible for our operating expenses
(moorage and fuel) while we had the boat. We had the boat for about 4.5 months
per year in the winter and Francisco and MP had it the rest of the time.
Partnership
Tools
We developed a number of tools and check lists to communicate with
each other. Several spreadsheets are kept up to date by each partner to track:
Expenses
Maintenance
Ships log and fuel use
These are stored and updated in “DropBox”, to allow each partner to
see what is going on. We also communicate by email frequently to agree to and
stay on top of any maintenance or upgrade expenditures.
We worked out a checklist of handoff expectations to make sure the
boat was in perfect shape prior to turning it over to the other partner. One of
these items was to have the boat professionally cleaned and detailed both
inside and out.
This blog has also proved to be a good way of staying in touch and
enjoying each other’s boating experience.
Managing
Costs
Any owner will tell you that purchasing a used boat can include a
number of unexpected costs, so it’s best not to stretch your budget on the
purchase alone. Beyond the obvious benefit of sharing the cost of the boat
purchase, we also shared the boat tax, which is 6% in Florida. We also completed many of the upgrades which
are desirable on a Mainship trawler, such as a stern thruster, since sharing
the costs made these options more affordable.
Going forward, a new partner would benefit from the experience we gained
and not face the unexpected surprises of buying from a broker or third party that
is not vested in the boat’s future.
A significant benefit of a partnership is sharing the annual
maintenance and insurance costs. We keep detailed records of what was spent on
maintenance, upgrades and insurance over the past 3 years. We spent about
$36,000 on maintenance and upgrades over the past 3 years which works out to
about $12,000 per year not including insurance. I would expect maintenance and
upgrade costs to be less going forward as these costs include the 2,000 hour
engine service we completed when we first bought the boat. We have since found
better vendors and I do some of the routine engine and gen set work. Also one
of the paint jobs involved removing the old paint. Going forward we could find better rates for
haul out and painting than those available in Miami. We had some big ticket
items on the upgrades list including the Bimini and stern thruster which I also
don’t project going forward. “Other” costs of $1100/year primarily covers diver
and boat cleaning and some minor repairs like a new fresh water pump I
installed and are likely to be similar in the future.
Projected annual expenses going forward should be less than $11,000/year
including insurance, and still leave a $3000 allowance for upgrades and the
unexpected. Split two ways that is less than $5500/partner/year.
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3 year total through 9/15
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Annualized
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Projected Annual expenses
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Engine/Gen maintenance*
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$
7,257
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$ 2,419
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1300
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Supplies
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$
1,459
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$
486
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500
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Other
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$
3,341
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$ 1,114
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1100
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Paint
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$
7,163
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$ 1,791
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1500
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Maintenance Subtotal
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$ 19,220
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$ 5,810
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$ 4,400
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Bimini
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$
5,564
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Stern Thruster
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$
7,274
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Batteries
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$
1,533
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AC
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$
3,148
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Upgrades
Subtotal
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$ 17,519
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$ 5,840
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3000
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Insurance
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$
9,990
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$ 3,600
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3600
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TOTAL
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$ 15,249
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$ 11,000
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Other
Partnership Benefits
The saying “two heads are better than one” certainly applies to boat
ownership. We had each other’s back whether it was shopping for insurance,
finding an elusive part or solving a maintenance problem on the fly. An example
was when I was in the Bahamas and had to replace a faulty raw water pump
impeller. Francisco tracked down the part, put it on a plane and I was back
boating in less than a day. We were each other’s emergency contact on our
DeLorme InReach, (which fortunately we never had to use) and supported each
other in solving any problem that cropped up from IT issues to boat maintenance
issues.
Because I am retired, I can act as delivery captain. This might be of
interest to people contemplating longer trips where they could do a one-way
leg rather than a round trip.
Who is a
good fit?
If you are not planning on living aboard full time, a partnership is
worth considering. This arrangement would be a good fit for folks based near
Florida that want a boat any time from May through January; or someone
considering doing part or all of the Great Loop. I could pick up or drop off
the boat at a mutually agreeable location. Your expenses would be less, and you
would be getting a lot of boat for your money. You would also own a boat which
has been well maintained and upgraded, and benefit from my experience with this
boat and my flexibility to act as a delivery captain. I hope you consider this.
