Alternatives to the Pure Latitude boat share club

Pure Latitude boat share club is an innovative concept, designed to take the best features from various boating options and combine them into one. It’s worth comparing the Pure Latitude boat share club against the alternative ways of satisfying your boating needs - ownership - yacht share syndicates - boat charter - other fractional sailing schemes.

Ownership

The old fashioned way to get boating is to buy a boat. But, unless the boat is used for many weeks throughout year, the ‘day rate’ cost of ownership is high. Just as importantly, you get no flexibility in boat type or location, and still have all the management and maintenance headaches.

Yacht Share Syndicates

Yacht share syndicates have all the drawbacks of ownership but the cost (and availability) is divided by the number in the syndicate. In addition, syndicates need establishing and running, and exit often carries restrictions around when, how and at what price.

Boat Charter

The primary alternative to ownership is boat charter. At first glance yacht charter seems to have everything – take whatever boat, wherever and whenever you want it. Reality is different. Availability is often an issue because owners want their boats at peak times, the condition of boats varies widely, you need to be briefed every time you charter a boat and then it takes time to discover its idiosyncrasies (and you return the boat just when you feel you’ve got to know it). Add in the substantial cost of chartering a boat and the time spent organising your charter and we think the Pure Latitude boat share club is a substantially better model.

Fractionals

Various new fractional sailing schemes are available, offering a simple attractive financial proposition. The main drawbacks are the restrictions in terms of boat choice and availability i.e. typically one boat between seven or eight owners.

Our Approach

The Pure Latitude boat share club provides greater choice at lower cost - the best of all worlds. We think it’s Pure Logic.

Compare the Costs

Ownership

Both capital and running costs are high. Typical annual ownership costs for a £90,000 boat equate to:

	Annual Cost
Total	£22,500
Capital cost at 7%	£6,300
Maintenance	£4,000
Mooring in prime Solent location	£5,000
Depreciation (8% average over first 5 years)	£7,200

Depreciation clearly reduces with time but maintenance costs increase. Direct ownership costs more than three times the cost of level 1 membership with the Pure Latitude boat share club, and offers none of the benefits in choice.

Boat Charter

Firstly, you simply can’t charter some of the boats at Pure Latitude boat share club. But if we take a commonly available boat type, say a £60,000 yacht, it will typically cost £400 for weekday and £850 for weekend. These rates vary +/- 20% depending on by location, boat, condition, etc but are a reasonable guide. The exact cost of a Pure Latitude boat depends on your cost of points and can easily be calculated but is generally 15% less than the cost of charter.

In summary, The Pure Latitude boat share club offers lower cost, good availability and, most importantly for relaxed sailing, you’ll quickly become familiar with the boats.