If you are like me, you have got yourself certified for ASA 101, ASA 103, ASA 104, and ASA 114, and then you start to scratch your head as to what to do next. I have several suggestions for what you can do next, as I have experienced several scenarios.
Buying A Boat
Now you start looking on yachtworld looking to buy a boat or watch a lot of Youtube and then you start to wonder which kind of boat you want to buy. I am going to list a few but I am sure there are other sites and YouTube that talk about buying a boat. Some of the items could be as follows
- Like everyone else how much money do you want to spend?
- I assumed most people will need to finance
- What kind of sail do you want to do? Day Sail, Racing, Offshore, Cruising, etc…
- Type of boats monohaul vs catamaran
- Length and size of boat
- Insurance
- Slip fee depends on the length and type of boat. Average cost in Marina Del Rey for a 40 feet boat is about $1000 per month.
- Constant Maintenance and haulout which can cost you a huge moneypit
I have a friend who is constantly buying and selling a different used sailboat as he is not happy with the one he just bought. It could be a couple of issues such as
- Rigging needs a new overhaul
- Issue with the heat exchanger
- issue with the propeller shaft
- Boat doesn’t sail the way you like
- The boat is too heavy
- Boat is too small
- Don’t like the Interior
- Boat is not rigged for solo sailing
The list just kept going on and on with the cost of ownership starts climbing.
Charter
Next is a charter, you can charter a boat by perhaps joining a Sailing Club. I live near Marina Del Rey and there are a few Sailing club such as Marina Sailing which requires you to join their membership and then rent out the boat. However, I noticed a lot of their boats are on a smaller scale like 28 feet, and pretty old (Note that this information was researched back in 2021). However, I want to be able to take out bigger boats like 30-42 feet so that I can cruise over to Catalina Island or the Channel Island.
Naos Yacht also has newer boat available for charter and below are some of the charter cost (October 2023)
- Beneteau Oceanis 30.1 – $500 per day
- Beneteau Oceanis 38.1 – $750 per day
- Lagoon 42 – $1880 per day
Hmm.. $500 per day, if you scroll to the next paragraph below, you can join the sailboat membership program for around $800 a month. That sounds like a better deal. Read on to find more information.
Sailboat Membership Program
I took my ASA certification with Naos Yacht, and I like how they maintained their boats. Also, most of their fleet of sailboats is relatively new, as I believe they turn over a sailboat every 5-6 years. It also just happened that Naos Yacht is also a dealer for Lagoon and Beneteau, and they are part of the sailboat membership program called Sailtime. Just an FYI, Naos Yacht or Sailtime are not paying me to write this article.
Sailtime is a membership program for a specific boat with a handful of other members who share the same passion as you. This membership allows you to sail up to 20 times a month on the assigned boat.
Note that I am only giving you information about the location in Marina Del Rey, California but they have fleet all across the US and Australia. Checkout the Sailtime fleet location.
Sailtime Cost
Alright, this is what you are dying to hear as how much will this cost me? I personally picked the cheapest boat in the fleet and I have the option of doing a sailtime plus which allows me to charter out other boats at a discounted price. Before we talk further about sailtime plus, so how much does it cost me to join the program?
The membership breakdown is as follow
- Required Certification of ASA 101, ASA 103 and if you want to do overnight ASA 104
- One time joining fee of $500
- One time training fee of $500 (Waive if you take the training class through Naos Yacht)
- One time Deport: One Month (Min $1000)
- Most importantly.. the Boat.. I chose the Beneteau 30.1 and the cost is about $750 per month before tax (About $821.25 after CA Tax)
You can check out the link to Sailtime Fleet at Marina Del Rey to find out more information on the cost of the individual boats.
Sailtime Plus
Sailtime Plus is a reciprocal program that allows you to charter boats at other Sailtime locations for a fraction of the chartering cost. This is great if you live in LA and want to charter a boat in Southwest Florida.
It will also allow you to charter other boats outside of your regular assigned boat. For example, I wanted to charter a Beneteau oceanis 38 and it cost me $300 extra or a Lagoon 42 which costed me $1000 per day. These rates are discounted in comparison to the full charter cost.
Final Note
I started with the sailtime program on April 1st, 2023 and it has been 6 months since I have been on the program. So far I have no regrets joining the sailing program and when I am done sailing, I do not have to worry about the maintenance of the boat like wear and tear or issues with maintaining the boat. Yes, there are certain you can’t do such as bringing your pets on board and sometimes you have to book in advanced if you want to block certain days so that you can take the boat out to catalina island.
