Fractional Sailboat Membership

[Fermion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset Yes, I've thought of that with my cars, often they sit still in the garage. A total waste of money each day

I do wonder how many cars have sat a bit idle during these work at home COVID times.

Our big sailboat has sat idle in the slip for a year now because of COVID travel restrictions and other factors. Just the slip fees and registration/insurance are around $6,000 a year. This is not counting the delayed maintenance since boats are essentially just decaying as they sit in the salt water.

Compare this with our little sailboat, which sits safely inside our pole barn on its trailer, costing us $55 a year in registration...and we actually used it twice last year!

[skyking1]

@out-to-lunch,
That is a good deal. I did that one year with the 22 Catalina. DW got scared when she got blown down while at the helm.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion I do wonder how many cars have sat a bit idle during these work at home COVID times. Our big sailboat has sat idle in the slip for a year now because of COVID travel restrictions and other factors. Just the slip fees and registration/insurance are around $6,000 a year. This is not counting the delayed maintenance since boats are essentially just decaying as they sit in the salt water. Compare this with our little sailboat, which sits safely inside our pole barn on its trailer, costing us $55 a year in registration...and we actually used it twice last year!

COVID travel restrictions meant you could sail the big boat? Do you not bother if you are only sailing out and back with no other destination?

[Fermion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 COVID travel restrictions meant you could sail the big boat? Do you not bother if you are only sailing out and back with no other destination?

We could not go into Canada, which was a key sailing destination, also we did not want to take the risk of traveling to the boat before vaccinations as it would involve interactions with more people on the ~7 hour drive to the coast and the larger population density where the boat is moored.

Should be better this year, except we are still really busy on the house build.

[audreyh1]

I see.

Our marina was a 15 minute drive from home through some pretty hill country. On a lake. It was very usable especially while working, after that we started traveling too much.

Because our marina fees were low and we paid little for the older sailboat when we first got it, we never felt like we had a money hole.

[WestUniversity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion As opposed to full ownership, which means paying for years when you can't find time to sail

For me it was a hole in the water I poured a lot of money into. Never mind the routine expenses of a slip, insurance, utilities at the dock, and fuel. Also all of the “marine duty” parts that regularly failed and all seemed to cost either $50 or $1,000. The endless trips to West Marine. Then there’s the really big expenses. Haul out to scrape barnacles, new anti fouling paint, repacking the shaft seal on the prop, pulling the stick to re-bed the mast plate screws because of a leak that also compromised some of the internal structure of the compression post, maintaining the gel coat of the fiberglass, maintenance on the diesel engine etc, etc, etc.

The old cliche was true for me. The two happiest days in a boat owners life…. the day he buys it and the day he sells it. Particularly if it’s a boat that is always in the water in a slip.

I’ll take a Sunfish on a lake any day…

YMMV

[Midpack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WestUniversity For me it was a hole in the water I poured a lot of money into. Never mind the routine expenses of a slip, insurance, utilities at the dock, and fuel. Also all of the “marine duty” parts that regularly failed and all seemed to cost either $50 or $1,000. The endless trips to West Marine. Then there’s the really big expenses. Haul out to scrape barnacles, new anti fouling paint, repacking the shaft seal on the prop, pulling the stick to re-bed the mast plate screws because of a leak that also compromised some of the internal structure of the compression post, maintaining the gel coat of the fiberglass, maintenance on the diesel engine etc, etc, etc.

That's how I gave up on owning sailboats after 30 years and 5 sailboats from 26' to 35', 20 years racing sailboats. I was summarizing our spending and looked at what the boat cost me in 2018 - multiplied that by 20-30 years - and the total sum was staggering! I worked a lot of extra years for sailing, loved it, but not that much. Now I pay $550 a year to take out small daysailers up to 19' anytime I want, race or cruise, with no maintenance and no added expenses. Good enough...

[Brat]

Last weekend DH and I were dog-sitting on a floating home. A sailboater pulled their boat at the adjacent marina, loaded it on a trailer but failed to drop the mast. The whole area was out of power for 6 hours as PGE untangled the mast from a high-power line. Awful for us but it would have been worse if they had tangled with an overpass on the freeway.

[audreyh1]

OK, I remember occasionally honking at an RV that forgot to drop its TV antenna, but a sailboat mast!?!?

[skyking1]

That is epic fail. i work in heavy construction and one day i saw two trucks take out something with a raised bed or too high a bed. I drive a dump truck myself and always get out and look up before raising the bed.
The one boo-boo, I am waiting on the equipment to be delivered and this dump truck takes out the traffic lights right in front of me. I began to wonder if the job was jinxed.

[WestUniversity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack That's how I gave up on owning sailboats after 30 years and 5 sailboats from 26' to 35', 20 years racing sailboats. I was summarizing our spending and looked at what the boat cost me in 2018 - multiplied that by 20-30 years - and the total sum was staggering! I worked a lot of extra years for sailing, loved it, but not that much. Now I pay $550 a year to take out small daysailers up to 19' anytime I want, race or cruise, with no maintenance and no added expenses. Good enough...

Agreed. I hate to think about how much money I’ve spent over the years. Simply staggering. That’s why I’ll take a Sunfish any day. Super simple design and super easy to learn on, and with a planing hull vs a displacement hull so much fun and so fast on a windy day. I’ve also sailed cats, Hobies, Prindles etc. Lots of fun in my younger days but too much work in comparison…

[Brat]

My son started sailing with a Lazer and he is starting to teach his son. I would never recommend that boat for adult recreational sailers. He moved up to a Balboa when he realized that girls don't like to get wet sailing.

Son and wife own a boatyard. With rare exceptions, they are happy to let sailboat owners use another yard (there aren't a lot of large sailboats on the Columbia/Willamette Rivers), no need to get greedy. What gives me shivers is when a boat owner wants to ocean sail with his family with little ocean sailing experience.

There was a time when we explored sailboat rental as described by the OP and IMHO that is the way to go unless you have the time and financial resources to own the boat you want to use. We rented a sailboat out of Bellingham to sail in the Gulf Islands. Great experience.

[Starsky]

I had an acquaintance who loved the membership format and we looked into it in San Diego. At least there's a start and end to the deal, so you could try it and see if it works for you, and any gear problems are someone else's responsibility.
Boats are not cheap no matter how you slice it. Even the cheapest cruiser needs a slip to store it in, annual registration, and the occasional hull cleaning and maintenance - not to mention having good sails. That's another $5k+ per year, minimum for the most primitive 28' day cruiser.
One other thing to ask about is whether the membership has any reciprocal privileges available with other similar places. The ability to have easy access to nice sailboats in other ports is always something I thought would be very cool.

[Brat]

Thank you for mentioning moorage. In Seattle metro don't buy a boat without a slip. The states are limiting moorage so a place to tie up your boat is critical.

[WestUniversity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brat My son started sailing with a Lazer and he is starting to teach his son. I would never recommend that boat for adult recreational sailers. He moved up to a Balboa when he realized that girls don't like to get wet sailing.

I’ve seen a couple of Beneteau sailboats over the years that I really liked. Have always loved their boats. But then I remember all the work and expenses and come back to my senses…

[skyking1]

They always look fantastic when someone else is taking care of them

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyking1 They always look fantastic when someone else is taking care of them

Each house we've "spruced up", we asked "Why are we selling this?" Cleaning the plane to sell, we did the same thing. I'm sure a boat has the same dynamic, though YMMV.

[Scuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ready My family had motor boats growing up so I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the water. Sailing is somewhat new to me but not to DH. I don’t mind the smaller 22 foot boats but I prefer a boat with a nice interior and a well appointment Lav and galley, especially if we are taking friends out with us. Sailing in So Cal is not as nice as in places like Florida or Virgin Islands. There are not a lot of destinations so it’s mostly just open sailing. We can sail to Catalina and stay overnight, or head down to San Diego. The water is always cold and the weather can be chilly even during the summer.

So given that it’s mostly open sailing and chilly, do you enjoy sailing in So CA enough to get your money’s worth from this program?

[Ready]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scuba So given that it’s mostly open sailing and chilly, do you enjoy sailing in So CA enough to get your money’s worth from this program?

That’s the question I keep asking myself. Realistically if we have to pay for the membership on our own, the answer is probably no. But if we can split the membership with some friends of ours the dollar amount is small enough that I’d probably be willing to give it a try.

[srpuywa]

How much sailing experience do you have?

Southern California is pretty boring place to sail