A Yacht Syndicate

For most people, the capital outlay and ongoing costs of high-end hobbies cannot be justified against expected use. A yacht syndicate will achieve the same as other hobby syndicates, such as owning an aircraft or a racehorse. This will never diminish if you have a passion for owning a yacht.

Therefore, If you identify with this passion, being part of a yacht syndicate where the purchase price and ongoing costs are one-quarter or even a sixth might be very attractive. A Yacht Syndicate is especially relevant if you keep a Mediterranean yacht. Few spend more than a couple of months in one year using a Yacht.

We aim to support the syndicate.

We bring together individuals who want the same goal. Most versions of a Yacht Syndicate will allow you the exclusive use of your share for about 12 weeks per year. An online calendar shows you exactly when your weeks start and finish. You can often exchange allocated weeks or additional weeks when the Yacht is used with other shareholders’ consent.

What we need to know 

Decide which type of Syndicate you would like to join and email us. Some options are below, and we will be happy to send you more information if you are unsure what Syndicate will work for you.

• Company Syndicate, establishing a company with other individuals to save the cost of VAT on a new Yacht
• Agent Managed Syndicate, where we managed it for the first year to help it settle down.
• Self-Managed Syndicate, the individuals look after the boat themselves. 

Forming a Yacht Syndicate

First, an individual will register as an interested stakeholder for a Syndicate. A small refundable deposit is made until other syndicate members are found. We will communicate the progress of the Syndicate discussing Yacht options. When we have a majority of stakeholders, we form a syndicate based on a collective agreement. The syndicates we create are based in Port Ginesta Marina Barcelona.

Each shareholder will have twelve weeks of exclusive use of the Yacht each year. Handover is much the same as if you are chartering a boat. However, all the owners know each other and are financially interested in looking after the Yacht. Therefore generally, yachts in syndicates require much less maintenance than charter boats.

All costs, such as insurance, marina berthing, and maintenance, are divided equally between the shareholders. 

A shareholder can sell a share at any time and leave the Syndicate. The selling shareholder decides the value of the share. Our experience is shareholders usually stay in a syndicate for about three years, but there is no time limit. 

The story of the Mytern

Mytern is a Bavaria 36 Yacht Syndicate that we formed in 2003. It has operated successfully in the UK as a self-managed syndicate for the past 17 years. Syndicate owners have enjoyed 12 weeks of use of the Yacht each year.

The owners of Mytern operate on the system we developed, where we manage the Syndicate for the first year. After the first year, the shareholders elect a member to be the manager and save the cost of our management fee. We kept all the papers for the yacht, so Syndicate owners could sell shares whenever they wished for the appropriate brokerage fee.

Initially, we did not encourage individuals to communicate with each other as we thought owners would like to remain private. Inevitably owners made contact and discovered they were part of a group of people who loved to go sailing. Now they often sail together and support each other as friends. In January 2020, the Yacht was put up for sale. The current syndicate members want to set up a new Syndicate together in the Mediterranean on a bigger Yacht. We plan to help them with this as we opened in Barcelona in early 2017. 

Some simple maths

The Bavaria Yacht MyTern was purchased new from us in 2003.

The cost of each original share in 2003 was £ 18,333.00 plus VAT, making the new boat purchase price in 2003 circa £73,333.00 ex vat (£ 88,000.00 inc vat). 

In 2020 (17 years later), she is for sale at circa £54,000.00, so that’s 13,500.00 per share. £18,000 – £13,500 = 4,500 loss over 17 years. Most owners kept the share for about three years, so the cost for each syndicate member is minimal.

Please contact us to learn more about setting up a yacht syndicate in Port Ginesta, Barcelona, Spain.