Saving dollars

Go boating and SAVE!

It has been said that b-o-a-t stands for Bring On Another Thousand and I have also heard Broken Or About To. Admittedly, that can hold true with a poorly maintained boat. Put the throttles to the dash and blast to some distant port and you will pay for it. Fly your best racing sails in a gale and you may end up tearing up more than just folding stuff. But leave your boat lying doggo in the water and, nothing surer, a whacking great repair bill will eventually send you under.

Strange as the concept may seem, you need to go boating to save. And save to go boating. I call it economic irrationalism, but it makes dollars and sense. There's fat in just about everything we do, so make some changes to your daily consumption, the services you outsource, and how you spend your spare change. Trim your sails to build your boating slush fund.

It's frightfully expensive to eat out these days, but you can make a homecooked meal fit for a king on a shoestring budget. No one mows their lawns any more, so mowers are cheap and, by doing it yourself, you can help stay fit. No lawn, lucky you. Still, most everyone has services they can cut. Regain control and bring what you can back inhouse, including the boat maintenance.

BOOK OF DREAMS
This got us thinking about other ways to save your valuable boating lifestyle. There are hundreds of bargains in this book of dreams. In fact, it's a buyers market right now. After price corrections of 15 to 20 per cent over the past 12 months, would-be skippers are spoilt for choice. Another case of spend to save.

Remember, diesel engines are robust creatures and good for 10,000 hours before a rebuild, yet boat manufacturers have conditioned us to think that a few thousand hours is a lot. Troll the second-hand cruiser market and you will find oodles of boats with less than 1000 hours on the clock. Although some of the older engines are less efficient and smokier than today's electronic donks, they can be just as reliable.

But you should remember that boats used for only pleasure mightn't be as well-maintained as a boat with more hours that's been used for regular long-distance trips and game fishing. On an infrequently used boat, usually seawater stuffs something up before the engine gives out. Anodes, aftercoolers and exhausts are key components that require due diligence.

All the experts are predicting things will get worse before they get better. With less expenditure on discretionary items like boats, it will continue to be a buyer's market. Battlers are hurting, so the small-boat market is awash with preloved rigs selling for a song. Spend $10,000 and you can get a great family boat.

But a big boat on a swing mooring needn't cost the earth, either. Four partners will, with less than $50,000 each in the kitty, can have a comfortable 38 to 43-foot cruiser or yacht, a boat that was king only a few decades ago. And with the cost of money almost as low as it can go, it's not such a silly time to borrow providing, of course, you can meet repayments.

For those of use who already own boats, there are smarter ways of going about things. Here is how to maintain your boating lifestyle and set sail in the present stormy economy without foundering.

PADDLE POWER
If you have modest income, little disposable income and/or an unwillingness to spend up big on a new boat then a humble kayak is the craft for you. Priced from $600 to $1600, a slippery sea kayak teams convenience and low maintenance with a way to keep fit. Save by ditching the gym membership or the personal trainer and paddle before or after work instead. Troll a lure out the back - 'yak fishing is all the rage ? and catch dinner as you go. On weekends, pack your lunch in the waterproof hold and stage a picnic on a beach or island. A kayak or three on your mother ship is an affordable alternative to a tender.

OFF THE BEACH
The wind is free, so what more do you want? How about an affordable sailing craft? Hobie is at the forefront of smart wind-driven conveyances. Take the Hobie Wave, a 12ft (3.63m) catamaran weighing 88kg that's propelled by a quick furling 7.99m² mainsail. With polyethylene hulls, no dagger board but a kick-up rudder, the cat is easily beached. Plus there's a built-in cooler for storing lunch and drinks. Cost is $5950, trailer an extra $2000. Nothing more to spend.

A NEW ANGLE
Fishing has never been more popular, but not with the old gas-guzzling two-stroke outboard. Repower with a frugal four-stroke kicker and fit an electric motor with foot throttle to the bow. Now you can sneak along the foreshores and ambush unsuspecting fish with your lure or bait. And with fishmongers charging around $40 a kilo for flathead fillets, catch and save.

OFFSHORE FISHER
We have become accustomed to bounding seawards at a great rate of knots to be the first at the faraway fishing grounds. Before long, reaching distant sea mountains seemed like a stroll in the park. But while they remain great fishing spots, you invariably drive over plenty of fishy water to get there. Marlin, tuna, big kingfish and trophy fish like snapper are still caught within cooee of the coast. Troll places and save, drift fish and save even more, and anchor in deep water for yet better catches. Don't be afraid to fish close to home to save on fuel.

DAY BOATER
Fuel prices have retreated at service stations but not nearly as far on the waterfront. Join a boating syndicate (www.docksidebuyersgroup.com.au is a popular model in Sydney) or a motorboat club and you can avail yourself of substantial discounts. I recently filled up our tanks at the Royal Motor Yacht Club at Newport for $1.36 per litre. This includes an 11¢ per litre member discount, which is reason enough to join. I have to go back several years to find a receipt for such cheap diesel.

SMART GRUB
Food and drink costs a bomb these days. Provision at home instead of being at the mercy of waterfront eateries. Get back to the chicken drumsticks, salad, and rolls. Add some towing of tykes on tubes behind the tender, some watersports or beach cricket fund and you have the recipe for an affordable family day afloat.

WEEKEND WARRIOR
We often believe the grass is greener over the fence, but local anchorages take some beating. Instead of blasting to a new port of call, rediscover the great bays, harbours, rivers and creeks on your own backdoor. Spend a weekend aboard in your local waterway instead of that weekend at a winery. And stage the birthday or holidays aboard. Beats forking out at a restaurant or paying high-season rentals.

SAIL AWAY
It's often said that the best boat is someone else's. Lucky for you, the sailing crew, nearly every yacht needs spare hands to sail or race places. Short on skills? Learn the ropes with a sailing school and they will help find you a permanent crew possie. Or put your name on the crew register at your local yacht club for a ride in mid-week non-spinnaker twilight races. Cost is a couple of rounds of drinks.

THE YACHT OWNER
While you don't mind funding your fun, racing or long-range cruising demands you split the costs. This is a win-win situation, since crew get to go boating for a song or shanty and you do it at a fraction of the real cost. Provision the boat from a supermarket and liquor mart and save some more. And add a galleying gourmand who can whip up a five-star meal below decks or on the rail-mounted barbie. Then the crew can wash up while you, the owner, savour that last glass of red. And create a maintenance roster to make even better use of the labour.

THE CRUISER OWNER
Motorboats have been getting bigger and in most cases faster. Lean on the throttles on a modern 60-footer and you can easily burn more than 500lt/h. Unless it's a medical emergency, slow down and smell the seaweed, troll a line and catch dinner as you go. At nine to 10kts, that same 60-footer will use about 50lt/h. In other words, you will save hundreds of dollar every hour. It goes without saying that you should ensure your hull, props and running gear is clean to reduce drag and use less fuel. And see DAY BOATER entry above for ways to buy cheaper fuel.

HOLIDAY BOATERS
Flog off the holiday home, forget the flights to an overseas or interstate destination and vacation afloat instead. Every state and territory is blessed with unbeatable boating playgrounds. Beat airports, traffic jams and pricey rental accommodation. As we said, provision from home and save some more. And should the weather turn turtle or the kids want a change of companions, you are never far from home.

SPEND KIDS INHERITANCE NOW
So the superannuation might have taken a whack, but history shows there's always a rebound sooner or later. Meantime, those SKINS who had the nous to buy a boat before the crash have saved a bundle in otherwise lost investments in the market. With things tipped to get worse, you may as well buy a boat than see your portfolio head south and your fund manager asks for more fees.

It really is a boat buyer's market and the second-hand stage is awash with bargains. Buy a preloved boat now and you will save at least 20 per cent compared with the price of that same boat 18 months to year ago. And with some haggling you can probably drive an even better bargain.

SAVE WITH BOAT SHARE
With a share in a managed boat you get to go boating for a fraction of the cost of going it alone and avoid the dreaded maintenance. Unsurprisingly, that's music to the ears of time-poor professionals for whom a couple of days a month swinging on the anchor or sailing in the twilight splendour is time and money well spent.

While informal syndicates are commonplace at yacht clubs among groups of likeminded sailors sharing the costs of running and racing a yacht, the recent uprising of bona fide boat share companies with good business structures have taken the concept to a more professional level.

There are now boat share companies and syndicated craft cropping up all over the country and abroad. With professional operators, boat share comes in two forms: time share, and equity ownership.

The Leisure Boating Club offers the former. It charges annual membership fees that are converted into Access Points which are redeemed as time aboard the club's communal fleet. There are several different levels of ownership entitling members to more or less time on the bigger luxury boats. The club also provides a comprehensive practical boat-handling course as part of its membership package, 24-hour back-up service, invitations to social functions, and reciprocal arrangements with its interstate fleets.

Though arrangements vary widely, most boat-share operators offer equity in a syndicated boat. They should provide transparent contracts, no hidden costs, conflict resolution mechanisms, and levy owners for maintenance and mooring fees, plus unpredictables. Fuel will probably cost extra, as might activities like yacht racing.

Of course, you should make detailed enquiries before placing your faith in a binding boatshare contract. Run the document past an accountant and a lawyer at least. And if you plan to join a private syndicate then ensure there is a contract, even if you know the proposed co-owners really well.

Whichever way you go, know something about the brand of boat on offer, its expected resale value after the effective life of the boat, and look for clues as to how well it will be maintained. It helps if the co-owners are competent captains and crew. Everyone involved is accountable.

Sydney Boat Share is a good example of an equity model. Each syndicate has a maximum of 10 shareholders with a 10 per cent share or at most, holding two shares or a 20 per cent interest in the boat. This entitles them to 33 or 66 days of boating a year, allowing for maintenance downtime. Owners are charged extra for servicing, maintenance and a contingency fund for unforeseen expenses, plus fuel.

Owners nominate what weekends and holidays they want aboard and have the freedom to take the boat to nearby ports providing they are competent drivers and that the weather is compliant.

Each boat is held for a maximum of three years before being sold. From a technical point, three to five years is the expected working life of a boat in a syndicate. Owners have first right of refusal to buy the ex-syndicated boat, but Sydney Boat Share takes 15 per cent of the resale value as commission before dividing the balance between owners.

Boat manufacturers are also getting in on the act. In fact, our largest yard, Riviera, now has a division devoted to the syndication of its boats, with craft lying anywhere from the Whitsundays to Western Australia.

A share in a new 41 Open Flybridge destined for Hamilton Island, just a few hours flying time from most capital cities, costs $89,000. The entry point is $79,000 for a 38 Open Flybridge destined for Manly Harbour near Brisbane. (Visit www.rivierasyndication.com.au)

Whoever you decide to go with, one thing is certain. Boats in managed fleets and share syndicates aren't likely to be left lying forlorn on a mooring. And that can only be a good thing for everyone involved.