Almost everybody shortlists a boat one size larger than the one they will use. Here is how to work out the size that matches the days you will actually book.
A BSA booking runs one to five consecutive days from the days you were allocated for that four-month cycle. That single constraint should shape the whole decision, because it tells you the trip you are buying a boat for is a long weekend — not a fortnight up the coast, and not a summer.
So size the boat for three days with the people who will really come. Then check the answer against the other thing that actually happens: the short run. Most owners take far more two-hour trips than three-day ones, and a boat that is wonderful at anchor for a weekend can be a lot of work to take out for a swim before dinner.
Marketing gives you a continuum. In practice there are four boats, and they are separated by what happens at night rather than by feet.
Where the vessel lives changes the right answer more than most buyers expect. The Spit sits on Middle Harbour with 14 BSA boats, sheltered water and Chinamans Beach and Grotto Point a few minutes away. That is a berth that rewards a boat you will take out on a whim, which usually means a smaller one.
Rushcutters Bay is the same argument with a better address: Shark Island, Rose Bay, Chowder Bay and Camp Cove are all short runs, and the harbour is busy enough that a nimble boat beats a stately one. Pittwater is the opposite case — Refuge Bay, America Bay, The Basin and the whole of Cowan Creek are anchorages you want to stay in overnight, and a boat you can sleep four on genuinely gets used that way.
Sanctuary Cove is a short run down the Coomera to the Broadwater and South Stradbroke, flat protected water where a long day is easy and a big boat is comfortable. Airlie is a passage berth: the Whitsundays are the point, and the boat that suits it is one you can live on for the whole five days.
Shares in the fleet come in 10%, 12.5% and 25%, and prices run from around $19,500 for 10% of a Garnet Offshore 270 at one end to about $625,000 for 12.5% of a Longreef 90SX at the other. Between those two extremes sit 42 active boats, and current pricing for every one of them is on the fleet page.
The comparison worth making is not price against length. It is price against days. A 25% share of a mid-size boat and a 10% share of something much grander can land at a similar number, and they are not the same purchase at all: the quarter share gets you a quarter of the year's days, and the tenth gets you a tenth of them on a boat you will be more nervous docking.
Overbuying is the standard mistake, and it is not really about money. It is that a boat which feels like an occasion is a boat you save for occasions, and occasions are rarer than Saturdays. Owners who use twenty days a year are almost always the ones on a boat that takes fifteen minutes to get going.
There is also a case where none of this applies, and it deserves saying plainly. If you will genuinely use the boat five or six days a year, a share is an expensive way to get those days and chartering is cheaper and simpler. Syndication earns its keep when you use your allocation — that is the whole basis of it. Buy the size you will use, or do not buy at all.
Answer these about last year rather than next year. Last year is the only data anybody has about how they really behave around boats.
One to five consecutive days, taken from the days allocated to you for that four-month cycle. If your plans change, owners swap days with each other directly in the owner app, so the calendar keeps moving between allocations.
No. Your days follow your share size — 10%, 12.5% or 25% — not the length of the vessel. A larger boat costs more to buy into and more to maintain, and gives you exactly the same proportion of the year.
At the time of writing, around $19,500 for a 10% share of a Garnet Offshore 270. Pricing and share availability change as boats sell, so the fleet page is the only reliable source rather than a figure quoted in an article.
Yes. If you will realistically use a boat only a handful of days a year, chartering is cheaper and involves no commitment. A share pays off when you use your allocated days, so be honest about how many of those you will book.