Don’t own a boat? You can still get out on the water

If you’re one of these people, there are a number of options available that don’t break the bank when compared with outright ownership.

However, like everything else in life, there’s no perfect solution. All have positives and negatives, meaning what ownership form you settle on will depend on what benefits outweigh which drawbacks.

These include:

We look at each option available, and their relative strengths and weaknesses.

If all else fails, there is a cheaper way to get on the water and get that wind-in-the-face feel – just jump on a ferry or take a trip on a tourist boat. 

Families will often share the ownership of a boat, with different family members chipping in to buy something that everyone can use.

This is clever because it allows those who chip in to buy a better boat than they could if they’d bought the boat on their own.

The other big benefit is that the operating costs of the boat can be shared, so things like engine maintenance and repairs can be split up between owners, making it cheaper than owning the boat outright.

t also means the responsibilities for things such as maintenance and repairs can be split among owners, so if the boat has to be hauled out of the water the responsibility can be handed over to the person who has the time to see it hauled out.

What’s really good, though, is that because a small number of people usually own the boat, you are likely to have better and more regular access with fewer limitations on availability and how and where you use it.

The shared ownership system does come with a few gotchas, though, that you’ll need to discuss with everyone who has a stake in the boat. This will be amplified if the money you’ve tipped into it is more or less than what others have contributed.

Because ownership is spread amongst people, so is control over when maintenance takes place and even who can step aboard and when.

Managing a dispute over something like who steps aboard over Christmas will be difficult. Also, if a family member’s financial situation suddenly changes for the poorer and an asset firesale is needed to bail them out, you may be forced to agree to sell the boat or a stake in it to another family member.

Lastly, part-ownership of a boat makes you equally liable for any injuries or damage while it is being used. 

A way to formalise sharing ownership of a boat is to do it via a syndication. It’s where you buy a share of the boat along with other buyers, usually about one-tenth, giving you an equal share of using it on the water, usually around 30 days. You then pay a monthly fee for mooring the boat which may add significantly to the cost.

It’s a good way of owning a boat because it allows you to step aboard a much larger and more expensive vessel – usually a motor yacht with a couple of bedrooms onboard – than you could have afforded if you’d bought an entire one for yourself.

What you get is a clear-cut, legally binding agreement that spells out things like the size of your ownership, your responsibilities, how you use your share of the boat, and how disputes between syndication owners are resolved.

The other big benefit of syndication is that the boat is managed for you, so a syndication manager takes care of things such as maintenance, cleaning, refuelling, laundry and repairs. All you need to do is step on board, untie and motor out. You can sometimes even have the boat provisioned so that all you need to do is bring a change of clothes.

The syndicated boats are also likely to be kept in the water at marinas, meaning parking is always readily available.

Syndications are also easier to back out of, with the syndicate able to adopt a new paid-up member to replace you on the list – usually only if you can find someone willing to buy you out – or accept a payout to leave.

What’s not to like? Well, you do lose some control over when you do things. For example, the syndication manager may decide that August each year – which coincides with your birthday – is the perfect time to pull the boat out of the water and perform annual maintenance. And if you’re dropping late into a syndicate, all the best times to be on a boat may already be booked out years in advance.

It means disputes are likely if any syndication member feels things are skewed too much to certain other members, which could earthquake across all syndication members. What’s the saying? The fairest win in a dispute is when everyone loses something.

There’s the question of what happens with the boat at the end of its useful life – usually after around five years when maintenance costs start to become burdensome. Will the syndicate sell the boat and pay members out? Will the proceeds go towards buying a replacement boat with a commensurate bump up in syndication fees?

The other thing about this style of ownership is that the experience is totally dependent on the quality of the syndication’s managers. Draw a dud, and the experience will be the same. 

As a rule of thumb, boats used for syndication are usually large and expensive. Read all documents carefully and seek legal advice.

Short-term boat hire is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get out on the water. It allows you the flexibility to choose when you use a boat, and what type of boat.

This can be anything from an electric-powered picnic boat cruising the river for an hour to a day out on a fishing boat. You can even hire a houseboat for all the family to enjoy.

This method of scratching the boating itch is probably best if you only rarely need to hit the water. 

It’s a great method because all you do is jump on the boat, use it, and at the end of it just hand the boat back. You may also have to pay for the fuel used, but otherwise, there are no obligations other than to take your rubbish with you.

It’s also a good way of budgeting; once you’ve paid the hire fee and fuel there’s no ongoing expense. Things like maintenance and storage are all paid for by the company you hire the boat from.

Another big benefit of hiring a boat is that you can go to more locations a lot more easily than if you were towing or mooring a boat. That means every experience can be a new, fresh one compared with leaving from the same cluster of boat ramps or marina each time.

If you’re in the market to one day own a boat, hiring a mix of boats before you spill the money for your own will allow you to work out what style of boat, and what layout, works best for your needs.

Downsides? Well, the most obvious one is that over summer, everyone will want to hire a boat. You’ll need to book early to ensure one is available when you want it.

The other big factor is that hiring a boat is not cheap, with the cost increasing as the size of the boat you’re hiring gets larger. 

It also pays to temper your expectations when you turn up to jump aboard the boat. The images on the hire company’s website may show them looking sparkly and new, but after several years the boat you jump on may have lost some of the shine and started looking a bit careworn.

Another factor to consider is what happens if you damage the boat, such as coming in too hot to a jetty and dinging the side or hitting a rock with the spinning prop. Check to see if you are liable for all potential damage while the boat is in your hands.

Often, as well as the time constraints such as a half- or full-day hire, there are likely to be limitations on where you can take a boat. For instance, bar crossings will be off the radar, as will expeditions into shallower waterways.

A last nuisance with a hire boat is that there is no opportunity to make it yours. Whatever you put on the boat at the start of the hire period you’re pulling off and putting in the car boot at the end of it.

You don’t necessarily need to own a boat to become a member of a boat club. There’s nothing wrong with joining a club and becoming an active member in the hope that one day, a member with a boat will invite you out for the day.

There are other ways to get on the water, such as volunteering for official duties that require a committee boat to hit the water to manage an event.

It’s also a really good place to pick up information such as what owners like, or don’t like, about a boat, as well as ways that they make the most of their time out on the water.

It all gives you good insight that will one day help you to own a boat.

Note, too, that a lot of sailing clubs will often have spare boats in the shed that you can hire for a season. They’ll help you learn how to sail it while joining in on regular races will help develop important skills that will scale up to much larger boats.

The cost of motor yacht and sailing club memberships can vary widely, usually depending on the location.

Another form of boat club is one that owns a mix of boats that you can pick and choose between depending on what you want to do with it.

That means one day you can jump on a bowrider with the family, and the next grab a fishing boat to catch a feed.

Downsides? Well, for starters, the convenience of having access to a wider range of boats can make a club expensive to join, especially if there is the hurdle of an additional joining fee.

You also want to ensure there are not too many members, limiting access to the fleet as competition for boats, particularly on long weekends, ramps up. You may also face restrictions on how far in advance you can book a boat, how many times, and for how long.

You’re also somewhat limited by the club’s operating hours. If staff only work from 8am to 5pm, it doesn’t take into account a noon low tide or calm conditions at sunrise ahead of a southerly buster due in the early afternoon – factors that affect how long you spend on the water.

Again, this style of boat ownership isn’t very personal, so everything you bring on board you’ll have to take with you at the end of the day.

The internet has been a boon for boat owners who don’t go out much, but don’t want to give up a boating lifestyle. It’s where boat-share apps come to the fore.

Privately owned boats can be hired out if they meet certain, almost commercial boat safety standards set by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the same group that coordinates all marine search-and-rescue emergencies such as when a boater sets off a distress beacon.

If a boat meets these standards, which include insurance, the owner can allow paying skippers to borrow it.

These have a big advantage over boat hire businesses in that a hire boat often has an engine with severely restricted performance, as the boats can be used by people without a marine licence. 

However, if you have your marine licence, a boat-booking app can give you access to a decent-sized boat with a more powerful engine pushing it.

Part of the AMSA certification process is stating where the boat can be operated. In most cases, this is inshore waters, which means you’re limited to estuaries, rivers and lakes and nudging outside to the ocean is not allowed.

What’s good with the apps is that they usually allow you to cancel a boat hire without penalty if the weather happens to be bad on the day you want to head out.

The big hurdle to boat-share apps is that owners will ask for a substantial security deposit, a fee that they can tap if the boat comes back damaged. That security deposit can easily be around double the cost of hiring the boat for a day.

If a boat is damaged – an outboard engine can easily suck a floating plastic bag into the water intakes, starving the engine of cooling water and cooking it – the boat hire apps will often offer to resolve a dispute over costs. However, if the hirer or boat owner can’t reach an amicable agreement, it will have to go to court.