Welcome to Share-Your-Boat.com
At Share-Your-Boat.com we sell legally binding contracts designed to help you share a boat with others. The agreements are available at prices that you can afford and without the time and hassle of having to arrange appointments with solicitors. Whether you want to share a yacht with a work colleague for sailing around the coast, or you want to share a motor boat with your friends, Share-Your-Boat.com can provide a contract that is easy to understand and suits your needs. We also provide detailed drafting and guidance notes so it’s even easier to fill out the agreement and start sharing your boat! On the website you can find loads of free advice and help too.
Our Contracts
We provide two specialist contracts designed for using in boat share arrangements, and more information about them can be found below. They are drafted carefully to take into account the issues that are most important when sharing a boat, such as booking procedures for using the boat, paying for fuel and liability for accidents, and they have been reviewed thoroughly by a solicitor experienced in contract law. Each agreement comes with detailed drafting and guidance notes explaining the operation of the contract, the reasoning for its contents and the help you need to complete the contract to suit your individual sharing situation. These notes also include examples of additional clauses and schedules that are available to customise your agreement, and provide guidance on drafting your own clauses if necessary.
Our Free Resources
To learn more about boat sharing, why not read our free Boat Share Factsheet by clicking here? The factsheet gives an overview of the most important practical and legal issues involved in boat sharing and is a good way to start thinking about whether you want to start a boat share scheme, and if so, how to go about it. The factsheet also points you in the direction of some very useful resources if you would like to carry out more research.
In our forum you can ask other interested people any burning questions that you have about boat sharing, and you could also use the forum to place an advert either offering a share in your boat or asking for a share in someone else’s boat.
Why Boat Share?
Different people are interested in sharing a boat for different reasons. The top three are as follows:
- Limited commitment - It requires less long term commitment to share a boat with other people than to purchase a boat by yourself. Sharing a boat is a good way to assess how much use you are likely to get out of a boat before deciding whether you really want your own. Most people find that they get sufficient time to use a shared boat, so long as the number of sharers is properly regulated.
- Community and social reasons – It can be lonely to own a boat by yourself unless you have friends or family members who are keen to regularly accompany you. Sharing ownership of a boat with others means that when you are unable to make use of the boat, someone else could and the boat will not be sitting around being a wasted investment. The other sharers of the boat can become a handy ready-made crew if you ever decide to race the boat or go on trips together.
- Financial reasons – The purchase price and ongoing running costs can make owning a boat very expensive, so it is far more affordable when these costs are shared with other people. The costs involved in keeping a boat include repairs and insurance, substantial mooring or storage costs, and the cost of any equipment that needs to be purchased. By spreading the cost of boat ownership with other sharers, the group is likely to be able to afford a bigger, better and newer boat than they would each individually be able to purchase.
Case Study
Mr A was part of a boat sharing club that did not go to plan. To regulate their club they used an agreement that had been recommended by a leading yachting organisation, but it was insufficiently drafted. When Mr A wanted to leave the scheme, he served notice on the other sharers as the agreement required, but they refused to sell the boat as they were supposed to, and they also refused to buy his share in the boat either. The contract did not make any provision to help Mr A avoid this situation, and Mr A ended up having to continue paying a share of the costs of the boat for a further two years before it was eventually sold. Throughout this time Mr A had not been getting any use out of the boat at all, and is still owed several hundred pounds by the other sharers.
Our Contracts
If you are interested in sharing a boat, and you want a comprehensive agreement, we provide two different contracts:
D1 – Boat Share Agreement: Large Boat Model
- For use when sharing a large boat (barge, motor boat, yacht or similar boat with living accommodation on board)
- All costs are split between the sharers in proportion to their share in the ownership of the boat.
D2 – Boat Share Agreement: Small Boat Model
- For use when sharing a small boat (dinghy, small speed boat or motor boat without living accommodation)
- All running costs are split between the sharers in proportion to their share in the ownership of the boat.
Click on the links above to buy one of the agreements or to find out more about what they contain and how they work.
