help - FAQ
tom ireland
I'm trying to access the FAQ section of this group but my paltry pleas
to Google (FAQ rec.waterways & variations only guide me to walks in the
Lake District. Perhaps someone less technophobic can help...
--
tom ireland
Peter Stockdale
"tom ireland" <t...@newhutte.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:cawt39B0...@newhutte.demon.co.uk...
Just as technothingy - but I remember it from last time it came up !
(courtesy of Ian{cheers} McCarthy)
Try:-
tom ireland
<peter....@btopenworld.com> writes
question. So: has anyone experience of shared boat ownership? I'm due to
look at one of Ownerships boats next week, and am looking for guidance.
TIA
--
tom ireland
Molly Mockford
wrote in <cawt39B0...@newhutte.demon.co.uk>:
It's cleverly hidden away at <http://www.canals.com/FAQ.htm>.
--
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
Ann
"tom ireland" <t...@newhutte.demon.co.uk> wrote in message . So: has anyone
> look at one of Ownerships boats next week, and am looking for guidance.
> TIA
> --
> tom ireland
Several of us who look at this group have shares in Ownerships boats. What
questions would you like us to answer? If I tell you tat we have been with
them for about 14 years does that help? :-)
You could look at the OwnerShips message board where there is no censorship
and owners can and do say what they like. It is at
http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?searchfor%20&usernum=153944258
Ann
--
Ann and Iain Street
NB Gamebird; One tenth NB Copperkins11
Web site http://www.nbgamebird.co.uk
Scottish Inland Waterways Association - http://www.siwa.org.uk
Bridge 19-40 Canal Society - http://www.bridge19-40.org.uk
tom ireland
<ann.s...@btinternet.com> writes
>
>"tom ireland" <t...@newhutte.demon.co.uk> wrote in message . So: has anyone
>experience of shared boat ownership? I'm due to
>> look at one of Ownerships boats next week, and am looking for guidance.
>> TIA
>> --
>> tom ireland
>
>Several of us who look at this group have shares in Ownerships boats. What
>questions would you like us to answer? If I tell you tat we have been with
>them for about 14 years does that help? :-)
>You could look at the OwnerShips message board where there is no censorship
>and owners can and do say what they like. It is at
>http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?searchfor%20&usernum=153944258
>
>Ann
>
>
Can't beat a really snappy title! ;-)
I'll have a look shortly.
Just wondering about snags, hidden charges, potential for disagreements,
practicalities of selling-on, that sort of thing. Fourteen years sounds
quite impressive...
We've been boat-owners in the past, and the present shortest short boat
(3.3m) is a little restricting! Since we sold "Gordale" a few years ago
we have developed other interests - teaching in The Gambia for me and
educational research for Joyce - but the temptation of a few weeks
recreation 0n flat water without having to spend the remaining forty+
weeks scraping rust and breaking bits off the engine seems quite
appealing!
--
tom ireland
Ann
> Just wondering about snags, hidden charges, potential for disagreements,
> practicalities of selling-on, that sort of thing. Fourteen years sounds
> quite impressive...
The big snag is that if the weather is nice you can't just go boating as you
can if you own a whole boat. However, the plus side is, as you say, not
having to worry about maintenance and having a help line available when you
are cruising to sort out any problems.
Not aware of any hidden charges. You pay into your boats fund every year (in
December) an amount which should cover the expenses for your boat for the
next 12 months. This covers things like licence, insurance, mooring ,
servicing, etc and winter maintenance. The owners meet once a year and
decide what work they want done on their boat that winter - full repaint,
partial repaint, new engine, new mattress etc etc. In addition you pay a
fee to OwnerShips for them to manage your boat.
When you are boating, you pay for the diesel you use and you leave the boat
with a full tank of diesel and an empty loo tank. You obviously leave the
boat clean and tidy and you can book a valet service at most bases for
someone to do this for you. You also pay for gas and how this is evened out
between owners varies between boats. On Copperkins, for example, we use very
little and if the gas hasn't run out during your holiday we leave a
donation for the next owner towards the cost if it runs out with them. This
can go one for awhile, in the summer with the money passing form owner to
owner.
With any group of twelve couples, you are bound to have differences of
opinion but this is seldom more than that and is resolved after a
discussion. Most groups of owners tend to communicate with one another by
email and keep in touch and up to date with what is happening on the boat.
It suits us very well as there is no way we could maintain a boat down
south, even if we could afford to own one for the weeks we boat down there.
If you decide to sell your share (which you can do at any time) OwnerShips
will market it for you.
Anything else,just ask!
Bob Wood
tom ireland <t...@newhutte.demon.co.uk> typed:
> > http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?searchfor%20&usernum=153944258
> Thanks!
> Can't beat a really snappy title! ;-)
Slightly snappier is: http://pub2.bravenet.com/forum/153944258 The extra
characters in the URL provided by Ann are on account of the slightly unusual
way in which she views the messages.
> Just wondering about snags, hidden charges, potential for
> disagreements, practicalities of selling-on, that sort of thing.
We're in our fifth year with OwnerShips and bought into a boat that was
already 3 year old.
The worst snag is that you have to give the boat back at the end of your
allotted time.
There are no hidden charges. Everything is explained in the reading matter
that OwnerShips sends to prospective owners.
There's potential for disagreeing about many things - but it just doesn't
happen. Or rarely. All the decisions about our boat have been made with a
large measure of agreement and a small helping of compromise.
A few people do seem to have trouble with selling-on, although there is a
recently introduced scheme whereby OS will in any January purchase (at a
reduced rate) any share which has been unsold for 12 months. Most shares
seem to sell in a quarter of that time - and I have got to say that there
may be clear reasons why some shares are more difficult to sell.
For what it's worth a share in our boat has recently sold for just 5% less
than we paid for ours in January 2001. Not that I have much concern about
how shares sell - I'm keeping mine!!
--
Bob
Richard
> Many thanks - it worked! Sadly it didn't contain the answer to my
> question. So: has anyone experience of shared boat ownership? I'm due to
> look at one of Ownerships boats next week, and am looking for guidance.
> TIA
The ownership boats look really good but for us it was a major
disadvantage that we could not have fixed weeks. So we went with
http://www.boatsharecompany.co.uk/ who do fixed weeks.
--
Richard
Greg Chapman
"Richard" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:42d0d3ae$0$38037$bed6...@news.gradwell.net...
As others have said, OwnerShips is generally a good company who do "exactly
what it says on the can". We bought our share in 2001 and sold it a year
later.
Seeing that you may be fixed to "school holiday share" do read the
conditions carefully. I came across a couple of owners who hadn't fully
grasped how it worked - e.g. you don't get to pick all your weeks when you
like, and that could mean, depending on how your group owner's half terms
clash, it is possible that two out of three years you'll be afloat over
Christmas or the New Year. That was a pain for us because Liz, being in
retail, couldn't take holiday then as it was her busiest period.
In the year that we had our share, the only hassle we had, was that
OwnerShips had to come out to our boat to fix things three times, during our
summer fortnight - an engine hose blew, and the main battery switch melted.
They refused to accept the advice of the local mechanics employed, who
recommended replacement, and insisted that it be "fixed" rather than
replaced, and 24 hours later it was even more thoroughly melted, so they did
replace it.
When we came to sell the share they cocked up big time. Perhaps it was my
fault for relying on telephoned instructions, and failing to follow them up
in writing. Basically, it lost us a week of boating and a lot of hassle
fighting with OwnerShips, who utterly and completely failed to accept there
was any blame on their part, turning a completely blind eye/ear to anything
that didn't tie in to their understanding of what they though MUST be the
case - in spite of the fact that they behaved outside the terms of their
written contract. However, having said that, the share did sell within two
weeks for the asking price, the same as we had paid the year before.
Overall, I would recommend that you view OwnerShips not as being a
part-owner of a private boat, but rather an investor in a hire boat. The
scheme allows you to go boating in weeks when it's not booked out by the
other investors at about half the cost of the hire of a conventional hire
boat.
--
Greg Chapman
http://www.waterwaysguides.co.uk
for updates to Nicholson, Imray and Pearsons Guides - and lots more!
Richard
> "Richard" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:42d0d3ae$0$38037$bed6...@news.gradwell.net...
>
>>tom ireland wrote:
>>
>>>Many thanks - it worked! Sadly it didn't contain the answer to my
>>>question. So: has anyone experience of shared boat ownership? I'm due to
>>>look at one of Ownerships boats next week, and am looking for guidance.
>>>TIA
>>
>>The ownership boats look really good but for us it was a major
>>disadvantage that we could not have fixed weeks. So we went with
>>http://www.boatsharecompany.co.uk/ who do fixed weeks.
>
>
> As others have said, OwnerShips is generally a good company who do "exactly
> what it says on the can". We bought our share in 2001 and sold it a year
> later.
>
> Seeing that you may be fixed to "school holiday share" do read the
> conditions carefully. I came across a couple of owners who hadn't fully
> grasped how it worked - e.g. you don't get to pick all your weeks when you
> like, and that could mean, depending on how your group owner's half terms
> clash, it is possible that two out of three years you'll be afloat over
> Christmas or the New Year. That was a pain for us because Liz, being in
> retail, couldn't take holiday then as it was her busiest period.
Ah no we actual prefer to cruise out of school holiday times so school
holiday share does not work for us. I suppose we are a bit unusual as we
need to set our holiday dates about 18 months ahead so the ownerships
type scheme does not work. With the Boatshare Company (there probably
are others who do the same but I have not come across them, yet) you
actually buy set weeks eg week 28 & 29 so we know well in advance what
time we need to book out in our diaries.
>
> In the year that we had our share, the only hassle we had, was that
> OwnerShips had to come out to our boat to fix things three times, during our
> summer fortnight - an engine hose blew, and the main battery switch melted.
> They refused to accept the advice of the local mechanics employed, who
> recommended replacement, and insisted that it be "fixed" rather than
> replaced, and 24 hours later it was even more thoroughly melted, so they did
> replace it.
>
> When we came to sell the share they cocked up big time. Perhaps it was my
> fault for relying on telephoned instructions, and failing to follow them up
> in writing. Basically, it lost us a week of boating and a lot of hassle
> fighting with OwnerShips, who utterly and completely failed to accept there
> was any blame on their part, turning a completely blind eye/ear to anything
> that didn't tie in to their understanding of what they though MUST be the
> case - in spite of the fact that they behaved outside the terms of their
> written contract. However, having said that, the share did sell within two
> weeks for the asking price, the same as we had paid the year before.
>
> Overall, I would recommend that you view OwnerShips not as being a
> part-owner of a private boat, but rather an investor in a hire boat. The
> scheme allows you to go boating in weeks when it's not booked out by the
> other investors at about half the cost of the hire of a conventional hire
> boat.
>
Half the cost? How much did you pay for maintenance & management? We pay
around Ł200 per week owned, for our weeks a hire boat is somewhere
between Ł800 - Ł1000.
--
Richard
Greg Chapman
>> Overall, I would recommend that you view OwnerShips not as being a
>> part-owner of a private boat, but rather an investor in a hire boat. The
>> scheme allows you to go boating in weeks when it's not booked out by the
>> other investors at about half the cost of the hire of a conventional hire
>> boat.
>>
>
> Half the cost? How much did you pay for maintenance & management? We pay
> around £200 per week owned, for our weeks a hire boat is somewhere between
> £800 - £1000.
I've been out of touch with Shared Owner schemes for a few years now, but I
seem to recall that some of the companies sell you the share in the boat and
then just about wash their hands of it. Owners have to sort out their own
treasurer and do all the management themselves. OwnerShips is not like
that. As you buy your share you also sign up for the maintenance contract
with OwnerShips (Though that is for a fixed period and possible for the
owners to opt out of at the end of the three year (?) term.) OwnerShips
then takes total control of the boat - hence the hassle about not taking the
decision about the replacement of the battery switch!
The result was that I recalled we were paying somewhere around £1100 per
year for a minimum three weeks boating, with opportunities for more if other
owners had to opt out of their pre-booked weeks at short notice, or if you
wanted to go at the back end of the year when only a glutton for punishment
normally boats. (I recalling getting one of those weeks in November!)
Occasionally, there were also "rescue missions" to be had. These might
happen because another syndicate had a crisis and had no one available to
shift their boat to it's winter maintenance base. These might be day trips
or half-week cruises. On a couple occasions in my year in the scheme a hire
base somewhere had requested OwnerShips to find a crew because they needed a
boat shifting for some reason - effectively a couple of extra weeks for the
lucky crew.
Given the price of hire boats at the time, I recall figuring that a couple
of weeks between April and September and one somewhere between September and
March, the OwnerShips fee worked out at about half what it would have cost
to hire a similar quality boat from a conventional hire base - with the
advantage, if you were retired and could go boating at any time and at short
notice there was opportunity for far more than the three week minimum for a
single share.
At the time I left OwnerShips were experimenting with a range of alternative
booking schemes - mainly aimed at the US market, but they all went a little
pear-shaped after 9/11.
As other have said, definitely no hidden charges. In OwnerShips, you may
have paid a little more than some schemes but had absolutely no worries
about the management of the boat, and knew exactly what your annual
outgoings would be immediately after the annual owners meeting.