BORROW A BOAT
If you don’t have all the funds to buy a boat, or don’t want to use the capital, you may be able to lease a yacht on longer-term basis. The owners of Lagoon 380 Kirlana are offering just that in between their own sailing trips. German special education teacher Kathrin Rölker and her husband Tom bought their 2001-built Lagoon 380 for €160,000 in 2019 and spent last year from July to December on board, mainly in the Balearics, with their two children, aged 10 and 12. They had been planning their sabbatical for three years and are planning another in just under three years’ time.
In the meantime, they are talking to friends and acquaintances who may be interested in borrowing the boat on a long-term basis. “When we thought about how to get sailing on a catamaran we would have loved to charter one but it was expensive. In the end we bought this boat, but it took us one-and-a-half years to find it so we don’t want to sell it,” says Kathrin. “We’d love to see another family or couple take our boat and use it for several months. And if we rent it to someone we can invest the money.”
“They will need to take care of maintenance but not necessarily the costs so we’d have to find a way to deal with it. But it definitely makes sense, and anything up to two years would be OK. It would cover the finance for the boat and the maintenance, and we won’t have the storage and marina costs.”
Other owners and some yards are also beginning to explore longer leases and part shares, and Dream Yacht Charter can offer season-long charters.
See Kathrin’s blog at dereigeneweg.net