Bareboat Charter Yacht Management in the Caribbean and Beyond.

Additional Info

• How Does Charter Yacht Management Work:

  There are a few different charter management programs in use today, from low risk, low reward to higher risk, higher reward. On the lower risk are the guaranteed return where you put some money down normally on a new Yacht, you get a monthly income, and that has to keep up with the depreciation. The charter company is responsible for all costs. Here it is important to have a boat that is either simple in design, or have very good charter guests so the boat is treated well. If the boat is very busy the company makes more money. The other end of the spectrum is a revenue split, which is more common in the second tier companies that deal in older boats, where the owner pays for all the costs. We have the best revenue split in the industry with the owner getting 70% of the charter revenue and Seabbaatical gets 30%. Expenses for maintaining the Yacht comes out of the owner's share. Seabbatical covers website, advertising, brokerage, and managing all aspects of maintenance of the Yachts. If the boats are busier, you make more money as it should be.

• Unlimited Owners Usage:

  The amount of time the owner uses his Yacht is unlimited. We have had owners buy a boat and put it in our program for a year while they get us to do a few upgrades, (which are tax deductable) Then go cruising for a year, and we have charters lined up for the boat on return. Also if your yacht is booked and making money you can use another one in the fleet on short notice for 50% of the listed rate. There is no commission on owners time, but the owner has to pay for the turn around. For charters referred by the owner, Seabbatical’s commission is reduced to 15%. Since we have no fixed base, the owner is free to suggest other cruising grounds. So far we have been from Nova Scotia, to Tobago, and we currently operate charters out of BVI, USVI, Bahamas, and Grenada.

• Charter Pricing and Owner Income:

  Although we do offer one week charters for a similar price as the competition, we specialize in Long Term Charters of 4 weeks or more. We try to divide the year up into 4 week segments and stagger the start dates to maximize revenue and minimize costs. We can keep your boat in our program longer than the other programs. We get the same revenue as the competition, by giving away some of the idle time that the boat would be at the dock anyway. But in return we have half as many charters, by more experienced sailors. We target annual gross charter revenue to be over 30% of the value of the Yacht.

• Expenses Paid By Owner:

  All expenses are passed along a retail and are not marked up. So what are the costs of owning a Managed Charter Yacht?

  Insurance is annually 3% of the value of the Yacht. Owner does not have to use our fleet policy but Seabbatical has to be co-insured.

  Dockage is annually about 2% of boat value, but varies by location and Yacht. During the winter charter season when most of the boats are out we try to reduce the number of slips and pass the savings along to the owner.

  Turn Around Cost is annually about 2-3% of the value of the Yacht. It is a flat fee per charter of approximately $12 per foot for Catamarans, and $10 per foot for Monohulls. It includes cleaning inside and out, a detailed check list, preparing the boat for charter, a detailed boat briefing and test sail. Because we have fewer charter turnarounds you save money.

  Maintenance and Depreciation is by far the biggest annual cost of around 10% of the value of the Yacht. Maybe that is on the high side but we would rather be realistic than conservative. We lump the two together since they are almost a constant. New boats depreciate a lot but have little or no maintenance cost. This is good if you can write off the depreciation against your income. Older boats might not depreciate at all but have a higher maintenance cost. Clearly this is the most important category when thinking about putting a boat in charter, and often the least discussed. The company that can keep the boats busy and minimize the maintenance cost is the winner. Because of the nature of the long term charters I think we have a huge advantage here. The general trend in the industry is to newer and more complex and expensive boats with every imaginable toy. If you do not have it your boat does not get booked as often. Not so with Seabbatical. Most of our customers are looking for a well designed fast fun boat that is simply outfit because that will be the most reliable boat with the least problems during a long term charter. Older boats charter well, as long as they are reliable. We can keep your boat working longer than the other charter companies can. Our customers really get to know the boat, and we get a detailed list of what needs attention at the end of a charter which helps us keep the boats in great shape. I am very excited to launch our first Seabbatical DRUA 55 this year. I think it will be a very spacious, affordable, fun fast boat that is designed specifically to be cheaper to maintain. Brace yourself this is a radically new multihull.

  Interest Cost is almost zero if you have money in the bank, and more if you are borrowing it, so annually maybe about 5% of the value of the boat. This equation is the same if it is a new boat or a used boat, except a new boat can be double the cost. We are desperately trying to change that with our new Seabbatical DRUA 55, where you can think of it as a new boat for a used boat price so it won’t have the depreciation of a new boat. And when it is an old boat it will be easy to maintain it so it won’t have the maintenance cost of an older boat. Confused? Call me if you want to learn more.