The cost of owning a sailboat, large or small, is closely
related to such inescapable expenses as mooring, maintenance,
storage, insurance and financing charges. The additional
cost you incur by sailing an extra day is almost negligible.
So your total annual cost is not closely related to the
number of days actually sailed.
You can find your average cost per sail by dividing your
total annual cost by the number of days sailed. Since your
total annual cost stays almost the same as the number of
days sailed increases, when you divide this total by a larger
number of days sailed, your average cost per sail goes down.
This means the more frequently a yacht is sailed, the lower
is its average cost per sail!!
Although the average cost per sail goes down the more frequently
a yacht is sailed, most owners cannot take advantage of
this fact. Two to three sails a month, or about 10 to 15
sails a season is typical.
Yacht ownership is usually associated with very high costs
per sail because owners can only free up a limited number
of days to sail them. Drive by any harbor and you’ll likely
find ninety percent or more of the yachts in the harbor
rather than out sailing!
SailShare is the answer to the high costs of sailing. Instead
of letting your yacht be one of those that sits idle in
the harbor most of the time, you share your yacht with others.
That way the cost per sail for everyone using it goes down.
SailShare greatly reduces your cost per sail, and theirs
as well. You can use the savings either to reduce your overall
sailing budget, or to sail the larger yacht you really want,
but would otherwise be unable to afford.
SailShare savings are significant. Instead of owning a
small 22 foot sailboat with minimal cabin space and rudimentary
amenities, you could be sailing one of our beautiful Islander
36’s! In addition to the roomy extra space you’ll love in
both cabin and cockpit, you’ll get inboard motor, roller
furling headsail, Dutchman system mainsail, and dodger.
Other touches you’ll like are AM-FM-DVD stereo in the cabin,
foldable lunch table on the binnacle in front of the steering
wheel, propane barbeque on the stern rail. You will also
love the real teak, but don’t worry. You don’t have to do
the arduous maintenance--bleaching, brightening and oiling
periodically, or worse, stripping, masking and varnishing.
Before you even think about buying a sailboat for Lake Michigan,
you need to seriously consider a summer with SailShare!
