For owners
Alternatives to selling your boat if you barely use it
Selling is a good option. But there are three other routes to look at first, and none is free to set up.
Join freeFor owners
Selling is a good option. But there are three other routes to look at first, and none is free to set up.
Join freeIf you've paid for a mooring for years while the boat hardly leaves it, it may be time to decide. Here are the alternatives, with what each one demands.
In the US, the Coast Guard's 2018 survey found the average recreational boat goes out 19 days a year (29 for motorised ones), counting those that never leave the dock [1]. It isn't a European or cruising-yacht figure, but the shape is familiar on any pontoon.
If that sounds like you, the question isn't "do I sell?". It's "what am I paying for the days I don't use, and what can I do with them?". You can run your own numbers in the calculator.
The one that brings in real income, and the one with the most paperwork. As an example, the declaration the Balearic government requires to rent out a recreational boat asks for [2]:
Other regions have their own procedure and we haven't checked them: look up yours before you start. Chartering also means strangers on board, more wear, and either running it yourself or paying a company to.
It fits if: you want income, accept the work, and the boat can take heavy use.
You sell a part and keep the boat. Yachting Monthly describes a group of four or five owners as "the sweet spot": over a May–October season (its example is in Greece), each would have about four weeks [3]. The share prices it mentions run from £1,500 to £80,000 for 50% of a boat, depending on the boat. What changes is how costs are split, and how decisions are made: who you choose, who pays for a breakdown, what happens if one partner wants out. That goes in a contract, and a lawyer should read it.
It fits if: you still want a boat, just not all of it, and you trust the other owners.
The Seafolk is a club of owners who swap boats for a few days: you sail theirs, they sail yours. It isn't a rental and no money passes from one to the other. You earn Knots (internal credits with no cash value) when someone sails yours, and spend them sailing someone else's.
What it does not do, so you don't assume it:
What it does: gives you boats on other coasts without buying or renting anything, and your boat, which sits idle most of the year, stops sitting idle all of it. More in swap or charter.
It fits if: you're keeping the boat and what you lack is sailing other waters.
Do it. If you haven't sailed in years and the boat is a burden, selling is a sound decision. This page isn't here to talk you out of it.
With so few boats, I won't promise there will be a free one on the coast you want tomorrow.
Br, Ignacio López, founder — The Seafolk