I owned a 41-ft motorsailer a while back and, after investing a lot of money to make everything perfect, I decided to sell shares so I could afford to keep the thing. It actually worked very well. Somewhere, I found an article on shared ownership and, using this as a guide, I drew up a detailed partnership agreement and preceded to sell shares. (I considered forming a corporation, but ended up with simple equal shares in a joint partnership). Over the years we had four, then five, partners. One person kept the scheduling book and we would check with him on availability - we could book time up to a year in advance, occasionally we booked joint use, or sometimes a short overlap with another partner. We actually moved the boat from New England in the summer to Florida and the Bahamas in the winter so we had year-round use of the boat. We each paid monthly dues to cover the fixed expenses plus an extra use-factor (based on engine time) to cover fuel costs and to help spread the costs more fairly between the heavy and infrequent users. It all worked surprisingly well - and it cut the cost of ownership by at least 75%. After several years, I sold out my share and the partnership continued on for many more years (I occasionally saw ads for a share of Ushant-41 "Nancy Jeanne" in various classified ads). Insurance was not a problem, certainly a lot less than it might have been if we had chartered the boat. So the answer is YES, it certainly can be done. There are no insurmountable obstacles. Someone needs to act as leader and spearhead the program, but the responsibilities can be spread around. Shared ownership really makes a lot of sense when you consider the cost of owning a boat versus the amount of time most people actually spend aboard. Henry Clews Hanover, NH PS: You can see a photo of Nancy Jeanne at: http://www.geocities.com/hanoverhouse2005/OldBoats1.html In a message dated 4/9/2006 5:11:12 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ron_zeppieri@juno.com writes: Interesting idea but fraught with danger. What do you do if one party causes damage? Will the boat be insurable? How do you get out of the partnership? One party would have to act as administrator and make sure that the maintenance gets done on schedule. The parameters that you proposed make sense and, with those parameters, the "right" people could make it work. The US-made Endeavour Trawler Cat 44 is a better boat than any of the foreign built ones, and less expensive. Mine is on the market for $395,000 right now but maybe with 3 or 4 others forming a partnership, we could still cruise her once in awhile instead of just losing her altogether? Have a nice Bahamas cruise. I wish we were joining you!! - Ron & Judy M/V OdySea