Previously, I posed the question whether owning a charter yacht is worth it. The response to that article was amazing and surprising … in some cases personal.
Replies included lengthy calculations, tax considerations, interest gains, spreadsheets … but the hardest part was to determine where the information came from.
Did it come from people with actual experience, people who owned boats in charter, people who maintain these yachts or manage them? Or did it come from people who simply want to voice their opinion, not based on facts but hearsay?
After some follow-up work on how valid the below-listed information actually was, here is the outcome of what you had to say:
56% replied with a definite YES.
They believe that owning a yacht in charter is worth doing if:
- you love sailing a lot,
- if you chose the right operator
- you are still committed workwise and want to explore the worlds sailing grounds before setting off into the sunset,
- you are able to look beyond pure financial rewards, $ and cents and,
- you love sailing (did I already say that? Well, it came up a lot)
11% replied YES BUT.
Ownership to ‘make money’ can only work as crewed charters.
4% did it, but didn’t make any money.
Though in some cases it was unclear whether they regretted their decision
29% replied with a definite NO.
Reasons ranged from:
- don’t touch my boat,
- the numbers don’t add up,
- I can invest elsewhere for better returns,
- others earn more money on my yacht than I do,
- the boats get beaten up and are worthless afterwards.
For information: there were a total of 236 replies, with 43 unverifiable comments. Sure, a very small cross section of an otherwise huge industry, but across section never the less.
Dollars and Cents of Charter Yacht Ownership:
Some readers were disappointed that I didn’t include any “hard numbers” in the article. My original intention was in fact NOT to slant the question towards the purely financial aspect of “being worth it”. Not everything in life is about money!
However, I promised that I would share some details of my deal. The information below is publicly available, so no trade secrets here.
All values are in US$, at current exchange rate, based on a 2019 Helia 44 Evolution with DreamYacht Charters in their ‘Dream Easy’ Program. No VAT applicable for me at the end. Naturally, there are other operators with similar programs you could choose from.
$665,000.00 – Contract price for the yacht to specifications.
$232,750.00 – 35% Deposit at the beginning of 66 month contract
$166,250.00 – 25% Balloon payment at end of contract
$399,000.00 – Purchase cost of yacht to me (60% of total value)
Based on 6 weeks of ‘free’ charters per season (2 weeks in high season, 2 in the low season and 2 weeks ‘walk up’ in any season, with some variations possible), allowing for discounted specials, a mix of locations and seasons around the world over the period of the contract and deduction of the $350.00 turn around fee per charter, I receive $189,500.00 worth of charter value for my personal use during the term of my contract.
There are no running cost / expenses to me during the period of this contract.
A search online for resale value of a 5.5 year old Helia 44 ex-charter with similar specifications currently shows a market valued of $420,00.00 ex contract.
Putting that all together, I end up with the following:
+ $189,500.00 worth of free charters
+ $420,000.00 final value of the yacht
– $399,000.00 initial investment
——————————————–
= + $210,500.00 (which funnily enough is close to my charter allowance!)
Is owning a yacht in charter worth it?
Absolutely, because I am going to have the time of my life over the next 5 years.
For those who invested the $399,000.00 at 5% net; they will only get to sail $110,000.00 worth of charter time … but they most likely won’t because they will spend the money on something else. “We’ll do it next holiday”.
After all, I love sailing and sail I will. See you out there…
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