RIB: Total Cost of Ownership

[alwilson]

Afternoon All,

This may sound like an adventurous or ridiculous idea or line of questions, but here I go:

RIB's are quite expensive. Is there a way to lower the total cost, or rather recoup the cost of buying a RIB by renting it out, or loaning it to training centers, charter companies and the like?

I know some people manage to do that with sail boats - I was wondering/hoping there is a similar option for a RIB.

Alternatively is there any way to monetise the ownership of a RIB without having to be a commercial skipper.

I've no desire to make a career from it, just to bring down the cost of buying a boat.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Alex

[Ian M]

There are plenty of shared ownership schemes, although from what I have heard most centre around the south coast for some reason . Rib Shack is one that springs to mind.

[Poly]

Alex,

As others have said shared ownership is an option, although this will tend to give you access to a high end rib stored in a marina (or dry stack) for much less than the cost of owning that rib you could usually buy and operate a much cheaper (smaller, older, scruffier) rib stored ashore for the same or less money.

There are also some people who, as you suggested, charter their boats out in order to recover some of the costs. How much you can make will depend on local demand and competition as well how much effort you put in. Bareboat charter is unusual which means not only does the boat need coded but the skipper needs to be commercially endorsed. If you are thinking "commercial" style ribs then there is probably more demand during the week than at the weekends, so you'd need to be free then. Have a read at MGN280 (on the MCGA website) to see what you would need to do to operate commercially. Insuring a boat for bareboat is presumably harder but not out the question - would you want your new pride and joy driven by any old person?

When operating commercially you can recover the tax from your fuel costs, but you might also find yourself being charged more to use marinas etc.

If you do all this then you can register your business for VAT which will save 20% on the purchase of a new boat; although I think you may need to jump through a few hoops to convince HMRC that the business is genuine and operating commercially.