Can I place a used sailboat in Caribbean charter?

[dwmCA]

Hi.

Does anyone know of a Caribbean charter company that will take a used sailboat, like a 2004 Beneteau, into their charter service? The charter companies I see all want new boats. Are there any smaller charter companies taking on used boats?

Thanks!

[CSY Man]

Conch Charters in the BVIs have used boats for rent.

Conch Charters

[dwmCA]

Thanks, Conch. You're on my radar.

[Geoff54]

Always worth a call to Conch because things change but... when I spoke to them a few years ago about offsetting the cost of buying a ten year old Moody (a truly lovely boat) by putting it in charter, they were only will to start a boat in charter that was no more than about 5 years old. They are mostly looking for boats as they come out of the fleets of "first string" companies such as Moorings or Sunsail. A 2004 would be approaching the end of it's second string charter life. BTW, I spoke with a couple of people who had boats with Conch, and the impression that I got was that they are one of the more reputable second string companies.

[Crew of Turning]

I believe that Barefoot in St Vincent still only has used boats in their fleet. Used them some years back. Generally things went quite well. Ivan had just smashed up Grenada and they did not recommend going there....we did.

[Zanshin]

Putting a used boat, especially a 10 year old, into the second tier charter market in the Caribbean is very challenging. You are competing against a very large fleet of 2-3 year old boats coming out of charter from companies such as Moorings/Sunsail where the owners want to recoup as much of their losses as possible while keeping the boats in the Caribbean. So if you find a charter company willing to take on the boat, you'll find that your asking price will have to reflect the steep competition so that it will go out on charters and earn income; this lower income plus the additional maintenance costs of an older boat means that it might not be a good business decision.

[captainjay]

Zanshin nailed it. I am the fleet manager for a first tier company and there is a reason why we don't want boats over five years old. We only take new boats in our fleet and prefer five year or shorter terms for management.

The maintenance costs go up exponentially at the same time that the revenue goes down. The only way to rent an older boat with all the competition is to lower the price. You get the budget conscious consumer spending less money at the same time that all of your systems are wearing out. This is especially true if you are talking about a boat that has already seen charter service.

Conch, Pro Valor and Captains Compass are the only companies that I know of that might consider your boat. As Zanshin said even these companies have a large number of five year old ex moorings/sunsail boats to choose from so they might not be interested either.