oncharter

A Charter
Cat’s
B ob and Kathleen Child
of Tiverton, R.I. knew from the start
that they wanted a mid-sized cat-
MQ was curious how charter cat
ownership really works and if it can
make sense for other cruisers who
have long range plans so we sat

Meow
amaran for their primary cruising
boat when they had the time to down with Bob to hear his story from
do some serious sailing. They had beginning to end.
started with a beach cat and had,
over the years, chartered every MQ – How did you go about decid-
type of cruising cat available in the ing which charter company to work
MQ interviews Caribbean.
Bob is an optometrist and Kath-
with?

the owner of a leen is a software consultant. They

are good planners, savvy investors
Bob – We knew all along that we
had a bigger cat in our future, and
Lagoon 380 that and like doing research before
making big decisions. Knowing that
we had a pretty good idea of what
we needed in a cruising boat. So
was five years they were several years away from
semi-retirement and would have
we spent quite a lot of time charter-
ing in the Caribbean so we could
in the Sunsail only a few weeks a year to sail,
the concept of buying a boat in
try out different designs from differ-
ent builders and boats of different
charter fleet and a charter fleet appealed to them.
They could sail several times a year
sizes.
Once we had homed in on the
is now cruising in the Caribbean or other destina-
tions where their charter company
Lagoon 380, we contacted all of
the companies that had this boat
the East Coast has bases and they could own a
boat that is earning its keep and
in their fleets so we could collect
their sales and contract informa-
paying the boat mortgage along tion for comparison. The points that
the way. were really important to us were:

14 Multihulls Quarterly • Issue Three

1) guaranteed income that would
cover the mortgage, 2) length of
the contract, 3) the size of the initial
down payment, and 4) the number
of weeks of charter that would be
available to us. With both of us still
working full time, the most impor-
tant of these was the income the
boat generated through the life of
the contract.
This was some years ago. We finally
decided that the deal offered by
Sun Yachts was to our liking so we
bought the boat through them
and signed the charter contract.
Not long after that Sun Yachts was
bought by Sunsail who honored
all of the details of our Sun Yacht
contract.
MQ – Did you make a cost compar-
ison between buying a new boat in
a charter fleet versus buying a used
cruising cat?
Bob – We did research the used
boat market for a couple of rea-
sons. We wanted to compare the
overall costs of the two possible
approaches and we wanted to
see which of the cruising cats were
holding their value best in the used
boat market. Back in 1999 and
2000, there were not that many
modern production cats on the
brokerage market, not like today,
so our choices in used boats was
somewhat limited. Even so, the way
our schedules and the overall costs
worked out, buying a new Lagoon
380 for a charter fleet made more
sense to us.
MQ – During the five years you had
your cat in the charter fleet, how
many weeks a year did you actually
use it and where did you charter?
Bob – We were allotted six weeks of
charter a year and could choose
to use an equivalent boat at any of
Sunsail’s charter bases worldwide.
As it happened, we used the boat
three to four weeks a year and
turned back the unused weeks to
the company so they could gen-
erate extra income for us with the
extra charter weeks.
We always intended to get to
Europe for a few weeks of charter
in Greece or Turkey but busy work
schedules and other obligations got
in the way. But we did get to cruise
all over the Caribbean and had a
lot of fun exploring places like the
Grenadines and the Windward and
Leeward islands.
MQ – What was it like owning a boat
in a busy charter fleet?
Bob – You know what it’s like in an
anchorage in the B.V.I. at the end
of the day. Kathleen and I like to
sit in the cockpit where we are
anchored enjoying a sundowner
and watch the charter boat follies
as they try to pick up moorings or
set the anchor. And it really made
us wonder what was happening to
our boat when we were not there,
knowing that the information on
some charterers’ sailing resumes
may not be as accurate as we
would like.
Our biggest concern was how
well the boat would be maintained
over the five years. It was in the
charter company’s interest to keep
the boat running smoothly so the
engines, refrigeration and all of
the pumps were always regularly
serviced and repaired. We are not
sure we always knew what was
being repaired or when and there
are a few places on the hulls that
www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 15
 oncharter

have some slightly discolored gel coat that look

like repairs. But in general, the boat was always
in good condition whenever we used it.
It is important when you enter into a deal like
this that you remember it is a business for you and
the charter company and that you have to be
tolerant of the company and expect that there
will be repairs along the way.

MQ – At the end of the five-year contract what

happened?

Bob – We owned the boat ourselves through-

out the deal so we simply took possession of it
when the contract expired. The company had
specific obligations to make sure the boat was in
good order and they lived up to all of our expec-
tations. The boat was surveyed and any faults
noted were fixed. As it happened, the sails, the
trampoline and the Bimini had been replaced
in the fourth year at the company’s expense, so
we were all set there. The company replaced
the anchor chain, upgraded the primary anchor,
replaced one alternator and replaced the life
raft, which had come as original equipment.
Since then we have cruised the boat in the
Caribbean and then back to the East Coast.
We keep it in North Carolina in the winter and in
Rhode Island in the summer.

MQ – On the financial side, how did you make

out with the boat and what were the tax
implications?

Bob – While we had the boat in the charter fleet,

all expenses were covered by the charter com-
pany and we were guaranteed income to offset
the mortgage so the ownership was cash neu-
tral. Plus we got up to six weeks of charter free.
After five years we owned a five year old boat

16 Multihulls Quarterly • Issue Three

MPY_BWS_OUT_121608.indd 1 12/16/08 2:34:15 PM
 INTELLIGENT
YACHT
that essentially cost us half the price of a new
boat.
It’s hard for me to discuss tax implications for
OWNERSHIP
anyone other than us since everyone needs
to sit down with their own accountant to work
through the impact of new income, new debt
and so forth. For us, the cost of doing business
offset the income and thus presented us with a
neutral tax result.

MQ – Would you do it all over again?

Bob – We certainly would. We are very happy

with our boat and that’s the main thing. But we
really enjoyed using our free weeks in the Carib-
bean for five years and came away happy with
Sunsail for the way they managed the boat and
the contract. If there is one downside it might be
that a five-year-old boat that has been in a bare-
boat fleet has a slightly lower resale value than
a privately owned boat. But we do not intend to
sell our 380 anytime soon, so this doesn’t really
affect us. For sailors like us who have busy work-
ing schedules and a long-term plan to acquire
a boat that may be more expensive than we
would otherwise consider, buying into a charter
fleet program makes a lot of sense.

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www.MultihullsQuarterly.com 17