Boat shares, or ‘syndicate’ yachts are jointly owned by several parties, who share the running costs and time on board through a pre-arranged scheme laid down in the syndication agreement.

Boat shares are a great way to reduce the cost of your sailing, as the on-going costs of operation are (typically) quartered compared to full private ownership.

Before entering into a boat share agreement, it’s important to ask yourself these questions:

Is this the kind of boat I want to sail – does it have the right number of cabins/heads for the party sizes I envisage sailing with?
How many weeks a year do I want to sail, and how are these divided between the members? What happens if two parties want the same week?
How are decisions made about where to winterise the yacht – where is it kept in the summer and what are the costs?
Who performs any maintenance work onboard, and how are decisions made as to what needs doing?
Who maintains the syndicate bank accounts and what checks and balances are in place?
Does the philosophy and attitude of the other syndicate members match my own?

Most syndicates that are already up and running will have experience dealing with these issues and can take you through their methods of resolving these queries.

Sell your boat share quickly and efficiently with Ionian Yacht Sales

If you’ve got a boat share you want to sell, here’s how Ionian Yacht Sales Ltd. can get it done for you:

We’ll visit the boat at your convenience and fully document it.
It’ll go up on our website the same day.
Overnight the big listing sites like boatshop24.com and Apollo Duck will update their data and the share will be added to their listings.
We’ll pass any enquiries we receive over to you, so you can describe the type of syndicate agreement you have, and the paperwork involved.
If the purchaser wishes to visit the yacht, we can advise them on the best ways to get out to see it.
When a purchaser decides to buy the share, we’ll hold the money in our dedicated client accounts until the paperwork is complete, protecting both the buyer and the seller.
Once the paperwork is done, we’ll forward the proceeds of the sale to your account.

There’s no need for you to be with your boat in order for us to sell your share – you can just sign a ‘Key Authority’ document authorising us to go on board and we can handle everything at our end.

In return for our services, we’ll take a small percentage of the proceeds of the sale

How Ionian Yacht Sales can help

Buying a boat share is a little more complex that buying a boat outright, but Ionian Yacht Sales can assist along the way. We operate between the seller of the share and the potential buyer to ensure that the process goes smoothly.

Proof of ownership of a boat share can be complex and depend on the registration status of the vessel. By holding the buyer’s funds in our dedicated client accounts, both buyer and seller are protected until the necessary documentation has been updated and re-issued.

It is also necessary for a buyer to ascertain whether the price put on the boat share is reasonable – does it genuinely reflect the value of the yacht? This may depend on when the last survey was completed, and, for higher-value shares, a buyer may wish to appoint a surveyor to re-survey the yacht before purchase. Ionian Yacht Sales can provide a list of local surveyors and assist with the logistics of the survey process, as well as give an indication of the value of the boat in the prevailing market.

If you’d like to know more, or have any questions, please get in touch.