Ensuring consistent standards of cleanliness and reporting back

One of the biggest questions we always get on the docks at a boat show regarding fractional ownership or fractional sharing of a sailboat is "what if we get a messy partner?". And the answer is right in our systems that we have built. The iBoat Scheduling and Management system incorporates a handheld PDA that resides on the sailboat. It asks the owner upon boarding about 30 questions. About one third of the questions are about safety of the yacht, one third are maintenance items that may need to be attended to and the remaining one third are cleanliness items from the last owner who used the boat. If anything is astray the PDA sends an email to the appropriate person. For example, if the sink wasn't left clean and the arriving owner marked this - then the last user would get an email from the system indicating so. If the winch handle was missing then there is a clear datestamp of when it went missing and we know who lost it.

If maintenance items are required - for example a cotter pin is missing from a turn buckle on the shroud line then the email is sent to the service department automatically.

When checking off the boat, the owner goes through a similar check list which ensures the boat is put up and cleaned properly.

In using a system as such, there is created a standard whereby all owners adhere to. And ultimately the history data is stored and can be reviewed later for consistent failures. In the owner's agreement there is a fine system for repeat offenders. Any fine money goes into a pool for maintenance.

Once this system is explained, there is usually very little concern regarding the other partners, and experience has shown that this system works very well.

Fractional Ownership Systems

A large misconception in the sailing world is that Fractional Ownership is simply sharing a boat. While it is true that multiple people own and use the boat, the idea that it is simple sharing is a long way off. People have been sharing boats for thousands of years but until the advent of technology and the internet, it was difficult to put high tech solutions in place. These solutions create a series of systems that almost make a fractional owner of a sailboat feel like they have complete ownership of the boat and access to all the time.

Future blogs will go into detail of each system in the Beneteau sailboat fractional owenrship program. However for starters, just the addition of an online scheduling system allows people to feel like they have full control of their usage of their sailboat. The scheduler is a high tech online software program that was designed by Nautic7, a fractional ownership solutions company headed up by Grant Headifen. The scheduler lets owners micro select just a morning, just an afternoon or just an evening - or owners can stack their reservations together to sail their boat for a full day or multiple days at a time even up to a week every month.

Additionally, the 24 hour rule allows owners to use the boat as much as they want when the boat is not reserved within 24 hours from any point in time. In this manner - owners are not limited to just 1/4 of the time.

An online scheduling program is key to sailboat fractional ownership and owners can maximize their time on their sailboat at the click of a few buttons. There are many additional features of the software like online swap requests and waitlist requests, which again, give the owner the feeling of full access to their sailing calendar and consequently, their boat.

For a demonstration of an online scheduler program, prospective owners can fill out a request on the learn more page on the Beneteau Fractional ownership website.