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Skippers

Brief guide to making your boat profitable

  • IMG-20190701-WA0118
By Álvaro Casanova
11 December, 2019
The big day has arrived: you have finally closed the purchase of a boat. It may be your first ship, or a prominent addition to your current fleet. Either way, you always tend to ask yourself the same question: am I going to get the most out of it?

In most cases, the boat owner only sails on it a few days of the year, usually on summer vacations or holiday. The rest of the time remains useless on land or docked, a circumstance that not only causes a tremendous opportunity cost , but also drains economic resources when carrying out the necessary maintenance to the boat: preparation for storage, periodic cleaning, safety equipment. .. Not to mention the frustration involved in having such a fabulous vehicle and not being able to enjoy it as it deserves, either due to time problems or, as is usually the case, due to the extra expenses that it is necessary to face each time one He wants to go sailing.

The solution to these problems lies in offering the boat to other people who have the opposite disadvantage: they want to sail but do not have a boat or the necessary knowledge to do so. At that moment is when your new ship appears with the objective of satisfying a mutual need . They will enjoy one or several days of navigation and you will be able to receive an economic remuneration when putting your boat at your disposal. If you also offer your services as a skipper, you can have control of the boat on site and, given certain circumstances, also receive the corresponding salary for your services. All of this without excluding the possibility to enjoy the boat privately by yourself or with your family, friends, etc.

You may wonder, however, how to implement this entire theoretical basis in a way that is as comfortable, safe and cost effective as possible. Throughout this article we will try to clear all your doubts so that, through Sailwiz, you clearly understand the best way to get the most out of your boat.
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  • What should I have clear to offer my boat?
  • How can I publish my boat on Sailwiz?
  • How can I increase the success of my proposals?

What should I have clear to offer my boat?

When you acquire a pleasure boat for personal use, it is part of the seventh list among the nine established by law. List 7 is reserved for those ships that will not be used for profit. Therefore, you can only organize outings by yourself, with your close circle of family and friends, or with the goal of sharing expenses . If your objective is to take advantage of the use of the boat, you must move it to list 6, corresponding to those pleasure boats with which you intend to obtain some lucrative performance . When moving your ship to this list, you must meet a number of additional requirements.

When making your boat available to customers, you have two options that are not necessarily exclusive: charter (full boat rental for closed groups) or by spots on the boat (individual sale of each of the places for which the boat can hold) Both options have their pros and cons, so on platforms such as Sailwiz we give you the opportunity to set a price per place and also the rate for the rental of the entire boat.

Although the charter is usually a simple route for many boat owners in order to commercially exploit their boat, more and more employers see that the sale by spots has two clear advantages: the existence of a greater demand (there are more people who travel as a family, as a couple or alone than those in groups of 6 or more) and the possibility of accessing a higher return . To achieve the latter, it is necessary that you properly set the price per seat, so that the sum of the income from all the seats (in the case of filling the boat) is greater than what you would have achieved if you sold the charter. In other words, the full boat rate must correspond to the price that would be achieved by selling a percentage of the ship's seats, not the total ones, so that if you manage to fill the boat you get that extra return.
Sailwiz users, on a shared boat trip
Sailwiz users, on a shared boat trip

How can I publish my boat on Sailwiz?

Most veteran sailors say that a few years ago it was common to observe patrons and captains looking for crew members in the ports. Its purpose was to locate people by sharing the tasks on board and diminish the usual expenses of departure. As it is evident, all this changed radically with the irruption of Internet and, although situations like those continue taking place, today all the traffic moves through the network of networks. Indeed, a simple search is enough to verify that there are dozens of portals where boat owners seek to recruit people for many different purposes.

With the idea of uniting boat owners and crew, Sailwiz was born. In this portal, those boat owners or captains publish their nautical experiences (crossings, courses, getaways, practices, regattas ...) so that people who wish to sail can reserve their place in these activities without having to previously have trained to sail, as was the case with the charter. In this way, a barrier that had traditionally stopped many people from enjoy the sea and nautical breaks is broken.

In Sailwiz we have a customer service team that is responsible for resolving any questions of employers and crew related to nautical activities or the use of the web. In any case, if you want to publish your boat in Sailwiz, the process is free and very simple : register an account on the web (with a real, non-commercial name) and upload the data of both the boat and the navigation outputs What do you do? The Sailwiz team will be responsible for the management, intermediation and marketing activities. For each sale that is made through the web, we have set a commission of 20% plus applicable taxes. After carrying out the activity, we pay the owner the corresponding amount and send the invoice by our commission.
The school boat
The school boat

How can I increase the success of my proposals?

The sale by places can be very successful in view of the profitability obtained by the owner of the ship and also a good way to continue popularizing the nautical activity. However, in order to reach your proposed goals, it is necessary to be very disciplined and complete specific steps that we detail below.

The success of the activities in Sailwiz can come from several business factors (market niche, low prices, good boat ...), but in operational matters there are several aspects that must be respected:
  • Detail the activity extensively . This means describing the key aspects of it, and giving the crew member a program to follow, with schedule and location of boarding.
  • Indicate what is included and what is not . Most people interested in an activity ask about the extra expenses (mainly food and fuel) that they will have to face beyond the stipulated price. In the case of long crossings, such as Atlantic crossings, it becomes even more important.
  • Publish all available dates and in advance . This is perhaps the most relevant issue of all. The more time our marketing team has to promote the activity, the more opportunities potential crew members have to find it. If they decide to sign up, that can make the difference between selling or not. Therefore it is necessary that all the dates you have are uploaded at least 90 days in advance with respect to the date they take place.
  • Upload photos of the ship and the place of navigation . The written information may be good, but many times it will not help the potential crew members if it is not accompanied by higher quality photographs of the ship and, if possible, also of the place where the sailing will take place.
  • Set a suitable price . In addition to respecting Sailwiz's conditions of use, the price indicated in the activity must be in accordance with the minimum number of crew members required to carry out the activity. Many times it is better to increase the price a little and have a minimum of not very high crew members, since above all, the clients seek the security that the trip is going to take place.
  • Be close to the user . Accompanying your profile with a photo and writing a small biography about you are simple actions with which you can convey a confidence that is very necessary especially in this sector.
  • Respond quickly to customers and the Sailwiz team . Most of the time, people interested in an activity contact the Sailwiz team or directly with you (by chatting on our platform) to transfer any questions or queries about it. Providing a quick response (less than 24 hours) is vital to retain the customer and get them to reserve their place.
  • Update external places . The first place is the most difficult to sell. Therefore, it is very advisable that, if you get more crew on your part, update the information of the activity in Sailwiz so that web users see that there are already people signed up and their spirits increase when joining the crew.

Perhaps so many tips can overwhelm you with the naked eye, but remember that in Sailwiz we can assist you with everything you need so that your passage through the platform is as profitable as possible.
  • IMG-20190701-WA0118
    Álvaro Casanova
    Booking manager in Sailwiz. If you are looking for a plan to navigate, you can write to me and I will find what you need. And if you have a boat, you are probably interested in sharing your boat activities with thousands of users.
    experiencias@sailwiz.com
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