Co-owner group for a sailing boat: get to know each other first, then buy
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A boat of your own that you know, and out on the water more often: that is why sailors have joined together for as long as there have been sailing boats. Whether a co-owner group lasts depends on the people. That is why, with PartABoat, you get to know each other before you buy, ideally sail the boat together once, and set down in writing before buying what you settle among yourselves.
This guide was written for owners and buyers in Germany. Legal, tax and boat-paper points refer to German law and practice; other countries may differ.
PartABoat brings together buyers and sellers of shares in used boats, as fractional co-ownership.
1. What sailors already know about sharing
Among sailors, two things count as ground rules: you have to suit each other, and whatever could cause a dispute later belongs on paper beforehand, though not every last job on board. PartABoat builds on that. What is new is not the sharing but how it comes about: getting to know each other with clear information, a contract you know before you buy, and a payment route on which the purchase price never sits with PartABoat.
2. Get to know each other first
As soon as PartABoat accompanies the purchase, you see, before you commit, who else is buying: their name, the share they want and their planned times of use, roughly by holiday periods. Until then, on request, we introduce you to other people interested in the same boat, if they would like that too. You meet, view the boat and arrange a test sail with the seller. You check the boat yourself, ideally with a surveyor you instruct; PartABoat does not check it. Whether you buy together, you decide for yourselves afterwards.
Who wants to sail in July, who would rather go in September? Who looks after winter storage, who knows their way around the rig? These questions belong at the getting-to-know stage, not in the first summer. How to find co-owners and what to ask them is in Finding co-owners: how it works.
3. Settled beforehand: the Living Contract
The Living Contract (co-owner agreement) settles how you allocate the weeks and split the costs, who may join and how you leave. Our template allocates the high season by share, rotating every year. If you settle on July and August, each owner is entitled to at least 2 weeks under our template. What clean means, who cleans what and how the boat is handed over, you set down in writing before buying.
Sails wear out, so who pays? For that you build up a reserve for maintenance and replacement, and you carry it in proportion to your shares. That is what our template provides.
The handshake counts. The contract settles what nobody plans for: a sale, an inheritance, a dispute over the value. What the template contains is shown in Contract for boat co-ownership: what has to be in it?
4. The money
You transfer the purchase price only on the handover date, once all contracts are signed and keys and papers have been handed over, and never to PartABoat. If you want extra security, choose a notary. You pay nothing to PartABoat until completion.
PartABoat is just starting: listing and enquiries already work. Until PartABoat accompanies the purchase, you buy directly; you then organise getting to know each other and forming the group yourselves. How to secure the purchase price is set out in the information sheet.
5. If someone drops out, and what PartABoat does not do
If someone drops out after the seller is bound, the replacement procedure applies in two stages, together at most 23 days: first the remaining buyers can take over that share by agreement (with two of you this stage does not apply), then PartABoat looks for a replacement buyer, who can join only if the seller and all those remaining agree. The details are in Finding co-owners: how it works.
Option fee: your price for the seller committing the boat to your group alone for 45 days. You owe it to the seller only if you do not buy in the end, and you then pay it when the option period ends.
PartABoat is not a party to your purchase contract. We look at every new or edited listing before it goes live; we do not verify the details in it, nor the boat itself. The checking should be done by someone on your side: a surveyor you instruct yourself. What we do before and after the purchase, and where we are not liable, is set out on the page Who is liable for what.
6. What a quarter of a sailing yacht costs
A boat of your own rarely makes financial sense, as every sailor knows. What it costs can still be stated. Example: sailing yacht Bavaria Cruiser 41, built 2015, 12.5 m, in Croatia, market value approx. €100,000.
| Alone | One quarter | 3 weeks’ charter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | approx. €100,000 | €25,000 | €0 |
| Costs per year | approx. €12,500 | €3,125 | €10,500–12,000 |
| Total costs over 5 years | approx. €162,500 | €40,625 | €52,500–60,000 |
All figures are guide values. Basis: approx. €1,000/m/year running costs (sailing boat, Croatia, from market research). Charter: 3 weeks at €3,000–3,500 each (high season July/Aug, built 2015), with around €1,500 additional costs per booking.
The charter weeks are calculated at high-season prices. With a quarter, you are entitled to at least 2 weeks under our template in July and August; the rest of your 12 weeks on paper fall in the shoulder seasons.
If you charter for three weeks a year, a quarter of a Bavaria Cruiser 41 becomes the cheaper option after around 3 to 3.5 years, not counting major repairs, and at the end you are left with the residual value of your share. How much you get depends on the boat and the buyer; a single share often fetches less on the market than its portion of the whole boat. Would you rather have just one co-owner? Then buy a half; on the same boat you then bear around €6,250 running costs a year. Do the sums yourself
7. After the purchase: the first year
One of you is the contact person for a year: they run the joint account, get quotes and prepare your decisions, then the role rotates. Once a year you adopt a budget and build up a reserve. After every trip you record in the logbook what happened. That is what our template provides. Who organises winter storage and who works on the rig, you decide yourselves. Once the purchase runs through PartABoat, PartABoat helps you in the first 90 days after completion with questions about joining and with planning the first season.
8. You own a sailing boat and sail it too rarely?
If your boat spends more weeks in harbour than out on the water, bring co-owners on board. You keep your part, get to know the interested buyers beforehand and have a say in who joins. You do not have to decide everything at once: bring one co-owner on board first and more later if you wish. From then on they have a say: under our template they can reject a buyer for good cause relating to that person or take over the share themselves. The same applies if you later sell your own share. In the Living Contract you set who sails when; who does what on the boat, you set down in writing before buying. How that works is explained under For owners and in the guide Share your boat instead of selling: a guide for owners.
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About the author: Ekki is the founder of PartABoat and a co-owner of two motorboats, one in Croatia, the other on the Rhine. Together with a friend he has used five boats over the years. Along the way he has seen that shared ownership works when the rules are right, and that is why PartABoat exists.