Joint Boat Ownership With a Friend

My best friend and I are considering a boat-owning partnership 50/50. Just curious if anyone has been through this before, and if you have any advice or suggestions. This seems to be the perfect solution. He currently owns a boat, which I ride behind and drive just as much, if not more than he. I pay for quite a bit of maintenance for his boat (repairs, upgrades etc..) and of course gas and wakeboarding gear (ropes/handles/sacs). The only things I don't currently split are the biggest expenses: Payment, taxes, insurance, and registration.

I understand this has the potential to be detrimental to our 10 year+ friendship also if we don't have a clear agreement on how certain situations are handled. Please share your experiences if you have any. Any advice would be appreciated.

A couple buddies of mine did that with a pwc, and it worked out great. They went half and half on everything except gas and oil. The best part of their arrangement was this: they each put $1000 into an account for un-expected expenses, and refreshed the account asap after using any of the dough.

We did that with some really good friends of ours on our 89' Prostar 190. And it worked out better than expected never and problems with who was using it and things of that nature. It was also very nice to split the maintenance costs.

definitely do some searches in the archives as this has been discussed at length.

I think it would be ok as you already know what the person is like so that is not an "unknown". I also think that something that could make it work well is instead of one person taking the boat one weekend and the other the next weekend you come to an agreement that the boat is at the dock on Sat/Sun morning and both are invited every time...you just have to work out how many friends etc. It sounds like you're already riding buddies so that would probably be the case. The slush fund is also key..so that no one is left holding the bag. I would also be hesitant to go into any financing arrangement together. If one person lost his/her job then it could put the other one in a bad position. Also, someone mentioned that you decide in the beginning on the "buyout" value like the Nada guide price so that one person doesn't think it is worth more than the other if you have to part ways.

there is also this same discussion on wakeboarder.com recently I think. There is a guy that has joint-owned an airplane and had an agreement drafted to cover the particulars. That'd be good to look over. I may even have this at home as I had this same question a few years back. I'll see if I can find it...

One more thing...you always leave it w/ a full tank of gas.

My dad did that with a friend, and we still have the boat, the other guy stoped using it after 4 years, also his wife said shed teak the deck every time, she did it once, now my dad has been doing it for the last 16 years we have had it, so dont have anyone be like oh yea ill do that forever

It can work but the problems our famnily has had is that they just didnt take care of the boat and we always got the boat back with no gas. You want to definately have set guidelines

I can see how the joint financing could get complicated if disaster strikes. Thanks for the input.

three things you dont share cars, boats and women. I have owned a half share in a boat before, I did not have any really bad experiences with the other owner but would not do it again. The only time I have seen it work, is when both people are super keen on riding, and you guys ride together now, so it could work.

so whats the probelm that needs a perfect solution? You seem to have the best of both worlds. You got a pull all the time, a costant boat to ride behind... You help him out, gas, repair and such which is very nice... What are you gaining by going 50/50? Beside more bills... seem you got everything?

He's ready for a new boat and he's looking to split the expenses this time, which I understand. I'm there every time his boat goes out. It's fair this way.

His Setter LSV is for sale. We're looking at partnering on a VLX.

i see.... plus having power to take your frinds out...

yep, I'm looking forward to the benfits too.

benefits as in you, me and 6 topless women

that's only 3 each!!

its a start...

My .02. I did own a boat with a buddy and it worked out great. Everything except the INCREDIBLE amount of hours and use it goes through. Unless you two are joined at the hip, there's gonna be times he takes it when you wouldn't and vice versa... example. We pout 240 hours on ours in the first year. So be prepared for more of a depreciation in value...the only way I would do this again would be to buy used...

Just my .02.

J-

good advice Jason. I think we both agreed that a used boat 02 or 03 would be best for us.

We've taken it a step further and share a boat between 3 of us. one thing i would say that helps is to all have roughly similar amounts of disposable income. if you can each spend about the same amount of cash running the thing it saves a lot of hassle when one person can afford to put a bit more in and expects the others to match it. We also have a slush fund that we each chucked a few hundred sterling into to start and each pay a set amount into this fund each month to cover any costs or disasters.

the only extra rules we have is you let each other know if the boat is going out so they can be there if they want, the other is if you're inviting people out let the others know so you dont end up with two boats full of people and only one boat!

our share has worked out fine and dandy, good luck on yours