In a recent post we gave you the cheapest possible way to get on the water – in an inflatable. But, knowing that a rubber dinghy is not everyone’s idea of fun and that some people may like to go sailing in a boat that has a loo, this post provides 3 ways of sailing at a fraction of the cost of owning one.

myBoatshare.com is a membership sailing club that provides an alternative to owning a boat. From around £300 a month you can sail boats from 31ft to 39ft for up to 50 days a year.

You actually pay a higher monthly fee the more days you want, so don’t expect 50 days for £300. This is likely to get you 24 days, depending on the boat you sail. Other packages give you 36 or 49 full days sailing a year.

One of the really attractive things about a fractional club (as this one is) or fractional ownership is that the home marina mooring fees, boat maintenance and depreciation are all covered in the costs.

With myBoatshare.com you don’t join an individual boat, but do join membership to a class that best suits your sailing needs. It means you’re not tied to any sailing base, nor to a particular craft. You are free to book and sail any yacht in your membership class from any base at no extra cost.

There’s no capital investment but there is an annual membership of £199 (inc vat) on top of the montly fees (range from £299 – £699) which covers your consumables. There is a security deposit but no joining fee. This is good news as joining fees can be a real turn off, especially since you have to pay the security deposit as a lump sum up front (though you get it back if you do not damage the boat when you leave the scheme).

They have an online booking system which means you can book a single day, a mid-week break, a relaxing long weekend, or a family holiday.

myBoatshare.com is currently looking to expand their fleet and their locations so if you fancy a return of 5.5% (their claim), 63 full days sailing a year, no mooring fees, no insurance premiums, no maintenance costs or anti-fouling to pay then this could be right up your street (or creek).

On the basis that no single boat meets all your boating requirements, most people want to sail in a variety of locations, boats are very expensive and time consuming to own, and most owned boats are hugely underutilised, chartering is a good option. Except that boat charter can be very expensive too.

Pure Latitude looked at boating from every possible angle and set themselves up as a limited membership boat share club based on the Solent. They offer high quality yachts for fractional sailing.

Like myBoatshare.com, they don’t tie you to a particular boat. Instead they have a points system which are used to ‘buy’ the use of the boats in the fleet on a daily basis. Obviously, taking a bigger boat uses more points than a smaller boat, and taking a boat in high season uses more points than low season. Likewise, taking a boat at the weekend or bank holiday uses more points than weekdays.

The Pure Latitiude sailing fleet are split into five categories and membership to three levels from £300 (240 points), £400 (340 points) and £500 (460 points) per month. Each level is a little cheaper if you pay for annually. There is a joining fee to pay of £600 which may put some people off, however this goes towards a full induction and training on the boats so is a good investment.

Below is the points chart per day to give an idea of the way the points can be allocated (correct at time of publication July 2010)

MyBoatingInfo.com

In all cases, the companies and the boats’ owners need to make sure that the sailors using the yachts are well qualified with the best RYA sailing qualifications (or equivalent). To make sure your sialing cv is kept up to date you can use the service at www.myboatinginfo.com to log your qualifications, all your miles and create a printable PDF sailing cv.

Related posts:

1. Find Out All You Need to Know to Start Dinghy Sailing
2. Extreme Sailing Series at Cowes Week
3. Top Sailing Applications for the iPhone

The Ellen MacArthur Trust is one of the first organisations to sign up to Harbour Exchange. Not only will you find their profile on Club House, you’ll also find it in Bid or Buy under Charities & Trusts in the Directory section.

You can support the Harbour Exchange campaign to raise £10,000 by clicking on the button below:

If you don’t know what the Ellen MacArthur Trust does, then you must check out their website www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org

Thanks to generous donations from the public, the Ellen MacArthur Trust can help young people recover from cancer by giving them a thrilling and confidence boosting experience sailing.

Ellen is an inspiration and has set a very high bar, and her charity lives up to the standards set by one of our biggest sailing heroines.

Give whatever you can by clicking on the button above.

Related posts:

1. Ellen MacArthur Trust goes on first long-distance voyage
2. Dame Ellen to start Round the Island race
3. Release your Inner blogger – write for Harbour Exchange