Can you still sail your own yacht on Pittwater even if you live in a land locked area of Victoria?
Of course you can!
Take Hanse 385 boat share owners Elizabeth and Ian Jenkins.
They’ve reached a stage in their lives where they want to spend a little less time in the office and start to enjoy some of the fruits of their years of hard work.
Ian has always been a keen sailor. He raced dinghies at Safety Beach in Victoria with his dad and then a Vaucluse Junior with his brother.
Ian introduced Elizabeth to sailing and they’ve enjoyed a number of yacht charter holidays.
Ian dreamed of owning a yacht … but as Elizabeth explains …
“We live a long way from the sea and we’re pretty busy. We don’t have time to take care of a yacht.”
I asked Ian why he chose the Hanse 385 boat share from SMART Boating
“Owning a whole boat wouldn’t work for us. We simply don’t have enough free time to justify the expense of owning a yacht outright. We also don’t want the hassle of maintaining and cleaning a boat.
Yacht share is the perfect solution for us. Having an experienced company behind us to deal with unforeseen issues and problems is a great advantage.
And it’s a huge bonus that we haven’t tied up lots of capital. This way we can still take a break overseas each year if we want to.
We chatted to David on a number of occasions before deciding to take the plunge.
David has been great to deal with throughout the whole process. He explained everything fully at every stage and never pushed us.
The other thing that spoke volumes was…
… SMART Boating’s retention rate
“50% of our syndicate is made up from people coming from a previous yacht share.
People don’t sign up again unless they are happy. In the end though it was the boat that sealed the deal.
The 385 is a perfect size for us. There’s heaps of space and yet it’s still easy to handle.
We also liked the swim platform which gives us extra space on deck and the great spec.
For example, the cream leather upholstery looks fantastic. Being out of state, we tend to enjoy short breaks of a few days each time … it feels like a mini-holiday.
So far we’ve stayed in Pittwater to get used to how the 385 sails … but we’re very excited about trips to Sydney Harbour and Port Stephens soon.”
Here are details of the next boat shares launching at SMART Boating.
