Now a year and a bit past being NB syndicate novices I thought I would share our experiences and give a real life perspective on what, for us at least, it’s been like. Hope it’s useful!

Quick introductions so you know what type of folks we are. Happily married for 28 years and both now fully middle aged but not even close to retiring. Very busy work lives and two daughters and a black Labrador (no we didn’t call him Montmoresy, but it was close!). Prefer the nicer things in life when possible, but also happy to semi rough it (I am ex-forces)!

We are not especially experienced boaters. I used to sail and we hired a Thames cruiser a good few years ago which reminded me how much I loved being on the water. Looking for an easy and cheap no frills holiday a few years ago we went on a canal club hire boat on the GU. Hooked immediately and thought how well setup it was. Except when the electrics kept failing and I missed World Cup Rugby matches (still really not amused by that). Venting my frustration at the boat yard on our return they showed us round some more modern NB’s. What a difference. Now we were really hooked. Finally started looking into boat shares as we would realistically only get 4 to 5 weeks a year on board and found this to be the perfect answer for us.

I assume a good number of people using this site ‘would love to be’ NB owners… but a boat share is an good alternative to hiring or fully owning. Some of my comments are a bit negative and that’s life I guess, but keep in mind we will be selling our share to become full NB owners … so it can’t be that bad

Think About What You Want

We were desperate to get back on board and didn’t want to hire as we saw that as dead money. So after a bit of thought we came up with our wish list: – Must be available now or very soon. – Prefer modern light fitout and good spec. – Prefer newer build so ongoing maintenance would be reasonably predictable. – Only need fixed sleeping for two but wanted option for guest beds if required. – Must have *perfect* electrics ! – Must be easy to sell later.

The economics were quite easy for us. As long as we actually used the boat for our allocated weeks then compared to hiring (not that you can hire in the winter as far as I know) we would see a ‘ pay back’ pretty soon even if we went mad a stumped up for a brand new share boat. Which is exactly what we did. Having looked at a few older boats we felt the difference was worth it. We really wanted one that was only 18 months old and was the best of both worlds, but someone else beat us to that.

It helps if you are happy to compromise and can live with that long term without it getting on your nerves every time you are on board. For us it was hydraulic drive. We couldn’t see the point on a NB (it’s not as if you can stick the engine in a cupboard somewhere!) so it just seemed like a lot of expense and added complexity. But that was what was on offer so we shrugged and went ahead. No regrets, we’d just have done it differently if we could.

Real Life… The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

There is no doubt in my mind that sharing is better than hiring, as long as you use it. Most shares are 1/12 so you get 4 weeks a year when it’s yours. Keep in mind this is your boat, not a timeshare. We also love the fact that you are on the cut in the winter, when it looks very different and is less busy. Depending on your budget you’ll get an older character boat or a shiney new one. But over the years the difference will to a degree balance out between initial cost and ongoing maintenance, plus of course the residual value. I won’t insult anyone by doing the sums for you, but at (say) £1000 a week average to hire and even only using it for 3 out of your 4 weeks it’s an easy business case. However you do of course need to factor in the monthly running costs. If you assume £80-£100 per month you’ll be close, plus any major items as they arise. But I think you can cut this significantly if you get a bit creative (see later).

It’s your boat (well the syndacates anyway). And I have to say that we really do feel it’s ours when we are on it. This means you can do whatever you get the majority to agree to. And because you are splitting the cost between 12 it’s much less of a financial lump to swallow. Does most of the syndicate eat on board rather than out? OK, so how about a freezer so you don’t have to keep going to the shops? Cratch or pram cover so you have more space in winter (or a normal UK summer!)?? Deisel rather than gas heating?? Etc etc. I’m sure you get the picture.

Someone said that a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into! As a syndicate you have a least some protection from that, again because you are sharing the cost. Same goes for maintenance, with the added advantage that you don’t really need to get your fingernails dirty. Lastly if and when you do come to sell, I reckon it’s much easier to sell a share than a boat, for obvious reasons.

If your boat is professionally managed it’s all very easy. If you have a busy life or just don’t want to get involved then you can just pay up and turn up at the marina when it’s your week. You don’t even have to go to the AGM if you don’t want to. But there is a down side too (below)!

The Bad

Not surprisingly, the bad is a mirror of the good! I’d sum it up as committee life. In a nutshell you can’t do anything without getting a majority to agree, and there will probably be a number of members who just want to keep the status quo no matter what. So be careful what you buy into, because once you’re ‘in’ your power to negiotiate rests in your 1/12 vote.

It can be really hard to get the full syndicate to engage. The only official time you can put anything to the vote is at the AGM, which has proper rules for absent shareholders.  So if you want to do anything outside then you have to trawl round and get everyone to respond, assuming your syndicate allows that. My advice is at the first AGM establish rules for ad hoc voting during the year.

Unlike hiring when you can pick a different base and route each time, on a share you will have a home marina. That means you cruise the same one week radius from your mooring. Typically a syndicate moves the boat every few years to a new area and you can also do ‘remote handovers’ if you can get the people before/after you to agree, but that needs car shuttle work to pickup and drop off everything for each crew. We have found this a bit restricting, and for us when the Severn goes to ‘amber’ we are stuck with a limited route choice. That said, we don’t mind too much, just getting out is fine and when the Severn is OK we have the joy of going down the Avon to Stratford which we just love.

The Ugly

Fees, fees and more damn fees! So here’s the rub.. If you buy a share in a new boat from a professional management company then you are at the far right of the scale!. They will assume they cannot sell all the shares prior to launch and so will factor that into the price per share. They may also mark up the actual boat build cost (they are managing that to an extent too). At the end of the day they are running a business and have bills to pay and profit to make.

So are there any options? Yes.. plenty. I know some syndicates are run by clubs which will save you the management fee (apprx £3-4k pa) and probably have a cheaper mooring (but you can’t move cheaply). On the minus, someone has to take charge of day/day and the AGM. Please note, if you have professional management they will chair the AGM, but that does not mean they are in charge. As I’ve said, this is your boat. Some people seem to forget that, and take whatever they say as gospel

Last up is the mooring fee. I think there are two ways to look at this. You can pay up and be happy, or scratch your head and say ‘hang on, this boat is out on the cut 50 weeks per year, and yet we are paying full whack for a home mooring, time to get smarter about this!’.

So fees = ugly. But I reckon you can at least halve your monthly costs if you self manage the boat and also become a CC’ing syndicate. Also means you see more of the network. I fully apprecraite this takes more effort and co-ordination between the members but you may find you have a better syndicate as a result. Take your pick, easy but more expensive professional management or more involved and cheaper self management.

Just to be clear, we’ve never done self management. But if the agreement is drawn up by a solicitor and you retain them to resolve any disputes (and make that binding) I think you have a good setup. Oh, and if you are sort of person who likes to be involved that helps too!

Summary

If you have got this far you are clearly hankering for your own NB. We love what we have (not allowed to name her here) and although we feel our syndicate is more expensive than it needs to be, we think we will easily get our money back when we sell the share next year.

But it’s not just the money, very important though that is. We know we will get 4 weeks a year on the cut in all weathers on a really nice NB. Come rain, shine, snow or ice we get to see our country from a wonderfully different perspective. Light the stove and it’s tropical in there, whatever the month !!

We are slowly transitioning to live aboard and the share route proved to us that we love it in winter as well as the few summer months. We had to know that for sure. We are not big fans of marina moorings so it’s the big narrow world of CC’ing for us and having to be self sufficient nearly all the time.