Narrowboat Holidays - Boatshare as and alternative to Timeshare or Narrowboat hire
What is it?
Boatshare is an economical and practical way of buying and interest in a narrowboat as an alternative to narrowboar hire and providing a boat for your Narrowboat holidays. It gives you partial use sharing both the initial purchase cost and running costs. With the most popular schemes a boatyard or other company is paid to manage the boat, leaving you free of administration and able to spend your time enjoying the boat rather than servicing it.
A share is typically gives you use of the boat for 4 weeks of the year ( probably one in each quarter of the year ), but this may depend on the terms of the particular scheme you are looking at. The weeks you get access too may be drawn by lot, fixed or bookable depending on the scheme.
Weeks can also be swapped between members to enable more flexibility and also allow cruises of more that one week.
Unused narrowboat holiday weeks may not be hired out though it should still be possible to get some benefit from them by swapping with another share owner.
There may be a limit to the number of shares any one individual can hold to prevent any one person having too much influence over the boat. From time to time maybe on an annual basis owners will be expected to meet to discuss the business of the boat on a formal basis. running costs are shared on a "pro rata "basis, and this will cover the costs of breakdown as well, unless the problem is caused by your own negligence such as cilling in a lock. I which case you can be expected to carry the cost of repair. The boat should be fully insured to protect everyone's interests.With a well setup scheme you get to enjoy your canal boat holidays and the membership of your boatshare scheme as well.
How does this differ from timeshare?
You get some say in the type of boat layout etc.. and your views will be taken into account when considering refurbishments etc.
Your individual share gives you the use of say four weeks a year rather than just one.
You have a greater commitment to the boat and are generally expected to take an interest.You cannot swap your week for holidays outside the scheme, you may have friends onboard but only under the supervision of someone named on the share certificate. ( There maybe several names allowed for each certificate)
You cannot offer narrowboat hire to rent out unused weeks.Conditions of course will vary from scheme to scheme , some being far more informal than others, but the above is probably a fair description of typical arrangements. Issues like whether pets or smoking are allowed aboard will probably be settled by census of opinion with due regard to any relevant legislation.
Many people have used Boatshare as a prelude to complete ownership or or taking up full time residence aboard a Narrowboat and found the experience useful as it does give you both access to the boat and some insight into the administration of running of the craft as well. Not first hand but as a party to be consulted on relevant matters whilst someone else does the work. Unless the scheme decides to do administration and maintenance itself in which case your commitment will be much more of a "hands on experience.
