How Much Money Can You Make Renting Your Sailboat? A Realistic Guide
Nowadays, renting your belongings such as cars, apartments, and sailboats is becoming more and more popular. Well-known websites such as Airbnb or Uber are gaining popularity and cover both owners’ and clients’ needs. As for sailboats, we certainly love our boats and the sea-way of living, but it’s a fact that a sailboat has a lot of expenses. Some of us don’t use our sailboats regularly or don’t live on the sea, so it seems a practical solution to rent out your vessel, doesn’t it? So, in case your sailboat is sitting at the marina unused, you could totally benefit by renting it out. There are many websites specifically designed to help you do that. In this article, we’re going to see the advantages of renting out your sailboat, the current renting platforms, and other details regarding your sailboat’s rental.
Peer-to-Peer Sailboat Charters
Peer-to-peer platforms are websites that offer rental services to individuals. So, in case you’re a boat owner, you can rent your sailboat through a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) website. You set the daily or monthly price as well as the schedule, and you can choose to whom you’d like to rent it. The amount of money you’re going to make depends on a lot of factors. Firstly, the model, size, and years of use of your sailboat. Secondly, the profile you develop in the peer to peer community. In other words, reviews you take from customers, how often you make your sailboat available for rent, and of course, being an active member of the website.
Rental Service Websites
Sometimes boat owners tend to spend more time out of the water than on the water. But, owning a sailboat has certain expenses such as maintenance, storage, dockage, storage, etc. So, if you belong to this category you can benefit from some successful P2P platforms. Like this, you can defray the costs of the days you’re not using your sailboat. Now, let’s see some of the most popular P2P websites:
- Boat Setter: Nowadays, this website is by far the most popular and used in the sailboat renting community. Boat Bound and Cruizin are some of the startups that merged to form Boat Setter. Moreover, Boatsetter is considerably focusing on the user’s experience. Their rentals also include commercial charter insurance and a list of licensed captains, if needed. If you own a sailboat you can benefit from renting your boat through Boat Setter. You can rent your boat for a full-day, half-day, or even for longer periods of time.
- Get My Boat: This international website is mostly for watersports, water experiences, and adventures. There are many listings here, from renting sailboats, kayaks, and paddles to sleep-aboard charters and dive trips. All water lovers can benefit from the plethora of different water experiences, get new ideas, and make or give some money to live new experiences at sea!
- Share Boat: This is a European website with more than 3,000 members and more than 200 listings. Same way as other websites, you fill in your sailboat’s details, photos and you choose a price (15% of the price goes to Shareboat). It’s really easy to build up your profile and become part of the Share Boat community.
- Click and Boat: Another European website that started in France. Although the Mediterranean is its basic location they have over 250,000 members with vessels in 450 ports. So give it a try even if you’re not in Europe! There are plenty of locations available due to the website’s rapid expansion. Moreover, the website mainly focuses on long-term rentals over a period of days. However, this varies by sailboat and depends on the owner’s preferences.
Bareboating and Chartering
When renting out your sailboat, remember that bareboating and chartering are two different services as regulated by the Coast Guard. Generally, bareboat rentals are the most popular on P2P websites. Bareboating means that you rent your sailboat but you’re not aboard and your client is the skipper. For example, something you can’t do while bareboating is offer cruises or take customers on a day trip. If you want to do this you’d need specific documentation by the Coast Guard as well as a licensed tour guide (if that’s not you). In case you want to do that then this would be a charter service. For these services, a captain’s license is required, as well as certain specific requirements that your sailboat needs to meet.
Insurance
Insurance is an important matter when you’re renting out your sailboat so make sure to check your policy carefully. In other words, there are policies that don’t cover any damages to your sailboat if it’s listed on a P2P website. Others might not cover your sailboat during the rental period. So, always read thoroughly your policy before renting out through a P2P website. There might be some situations where your insurance doesn’t cover any accidents or damages at all. If you want coverage for P2P rentals then you should ask for supplemental coverage. This means that you have insurance that covers your sailboat as well as additional coverage that applies when you rent it out. In any case, insurance is important because it covers any damage, injuries, and accidents so never neglect to apply it to your sailboat.
Other Ways of Making Money Renting Out your Sailboat
- Eco-tours: If you’re a local, love culture and nature, and have a captain’s license this can be an exciting way to make money. From cruises to deserted beaches, flora, and fauna watching to photography tours there are plenty of ways to responsibly promote your area. Ecotourism has become a popular alternative form of tourism that attracts a lot of people. This happens because its principles are based on nature’s and ecosystem’s protection as well as preserving local communities. In order to conduct eco-tours you’d need to have a relatively large sailboat and of course, calculate the expenses of fuel and maintenance costs. Expenses might be a lot but if you are eager to become a mariner eco-tour guide you’ll definitely succeed!
- Run charters: Do you have a captain’s license and love living in the sea? Then be the captain on your sailboat and guide other sea enthusiasts! Chartering is the easiest way of making money by renting out your sailboat. Share your passion and knowledge with others and let the adventure begin! Remember that depending upon the waters in which you operate you might need additional licenses. The downside is that there’s some risk involved in this business. You’ll be constantly exposed to different weather conditions, mechanical breakdowns, etc. But there’s always some risk involved in most jobs, so don’t get disappointed!
And, How Much Can I Make Renting Out My Sailboat?
The most important factors to consider about the amount of money you can make are the type, age, and size of your sailboat, and the area in which you’re renting. Keep in mind that beyond operating costs the rental services (like P2P), also keep their cut. This is approximately between 10 and 30% of the total amount. However, this might or might not include insurance and towing coverage, so always try to compare different websites. But apart from P2P websites, let’s see some other examples.
Renting out a 30ft sailboat for day trips from Nice could be $250 a day whereas renting it out from Corfu is about $120 per day. So, the area you’re renting out matters. Let’s now see some extra fees. A 35ft Bavaria in Brighton for one night in the summer is listed at $200 per night. And the extras are $50 cleaning fees, plus a $250 security deposit, $6 VAT, and $28 service fee.
If you’re a member in a P2P website, you own a 40ft Oceanis and your rental location area is the South of France then you can make around $2000 per week, minus additional costs.
Another example is if you do a sailboat accommodation rental. Let’s say that you charge $100 per night for the whole boat. Remember that there are some additional costs to consider such as cleaning, laundry, Wi-Fi, marina fees, etc so the profit is around $40 per night for a one-night stay or $320 for a week.
Potential Sailboat Rental Earnings
The table here displays the average rental price that is asked for each length and type of sailboat and how much you can expect to make per week. Of course, the age of your sailboat plays a huge factor in determining how much you can ask for your boat but this table should give you an idea of what you should expect.
| Yacht | High Season | Med Season | Low Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Odyssey 32i (2009) | 2,000$ | 1,750$ | 1,500$ |
| Sun Odyssey 33i (2015) | 2,700$ | 2,300$ | 2,100$ |
| Sun Odyssey 37Sun Odyssey 37 (2003) | 2,800$ | 2,400$ | 2,200$ |
| Sun Odyssey 42i (2010) | 5,500$ | 4,700$ | 4,000$ |
| Sun Odyssey 410 (2020) | 6,650$ | 5,800$ | 4,650$ |
| Sun Odyssey 490 (2018) | 8,100$ | 7,000$ | 6,000$ |
| Jeanneau 54 (2020) | 10,500$ | 9,300$ | 7,800$ |
| Jeanneau 57 (2010) | 9,300$ | 8,200$ | 7,000$ |
| Lagoon 420- Catamaran (2008) | 7,000$ | 6,100$ | 5,200$ |
| Lagoon 42 – Catamaran (2020) | 11,200$ | 9,300$ | 8,000$ |
As you see in the table, how much you can charge for renting your sailboat really largely depends on its length and age. This is mostly because some sailboats, like catamarans, come with more amenities and tend to be roomier and a tad more comfortable than monohulls. There are many arguments to be made between monohulls and catamarans and which ones are better but the fact of the matter is that people looking to rent a sailboat prefer getting a catamaran and are willing to pay for it.
Basically, the fancier the sailboat gets, the newer and the more amenities, the higher the price it can be rented out for. Honestly, though, you can still make a decent amount of money renting out your sailboat, no matter the length, age, type, or amenities included.
Also, keep in mind that you will be able to rent out your boat 10-20 weeks out of the year depending on your boat’s location. That means that renting out your boat won’t make you rich but it will sure help you with the expensive upkeep and maintenance and probably leave something in the bank.
Can You Make Money Chartering a Yacht? – Summary
So, yes, it’s true that you can make money renting out your sailboat! But, with what cost? Everything depends on your needs, how much money you aim at making, the way you’ll choose for renting (bareboating or chartering), and finally, the characteristics of your sailboat. For instance, you can make some serious money if you’re a member on a peer-to-peer website, you own a fully-equipped 25-feet yacht, and you rent it in Florida. In case you rent it daily for $200, you can make about $900 per week.
However, if you own a Catalina 309 or any well-maintained 10-feet, and you rent it for $80 daily from the South of Crete, then you’ll make about $50 profit (minus additional costs). However, if you rent it per hour and have many customers, you can make the same money as if renting it in Florida. So, as aforementioned, the amount of money you make varies from a location to another, the price you set, the schedule, the general situation of your sailboat, and of course, your profile on a peer-to-peer website.
As you have probably understood already, many different factors will determine your sailboat’s weekly rate on the market. For this reason, I would encourage you to go search these charter websites for boats similar to yours (length, age, amenities) and see what these boat owners are asking for them. This will probably give you a good idea of how much you should ask for. Another way to determine the rate is to call a local charter broker and tell them that you have a sailboat you want to rent and you want more details regarding how much you should expect to make. He will be able to give you a lot of details since they will know the local market better than me.
