Aquamarine who are agents for the Princess yacht Co seem to be the first few to start this trend. According to Mr Vishal Chaudhry, Director, Aquamarine Leisure, “We are witnessing a lot of interest for shared ownership of yachts from first-time customers.”
Aquamarine Leisure, the exclusive distributor of Princess Yachts in India, has in the past one year already booked four for single ownership, with prices ranging from £2,80,000 to £5,80,000, 35 per cent duty extra.
Club Privada, which launched the time share concept a few months ago, already has 48 members, said Yachting Association of India Joint Secretary General, Commodore Ajay Narang. The costs for renting out these yachts could be could be as low as Rs 16 lakh for 13 days usage per annum for three years. That comes up to an approx Rs41,000 per day for 39 days.
We believe that yachting events have played an important part in generating sales. Also it’s the purchasing power along with the will to spend has risen in the past few years.
The Mumbai Boat show and the upcoming Volvo race are good examples of events that would help in bring about the change in mindset of people who can look at yachts as the next luxury destination.
Now comes the problem –
Although the idea sounds great is an inexpensive method to get the feel of sailing, there are also many problems that come with shared or fractional ownership.
Occasion – this I believe could be the most common downfall factor for shared ownership. An occasion like Diwali or New Year is the perfect time to take your family out to sail in your yacht but the availability factor would be a problem
In our exclusive chat with Mr Gautama Dutta – Director of Marine Solutions who is personally not the biggest fan of shared ownership is not too positive about this concept in India. According to his experience, he has seen many such popular international companies go bust as it’s not lucrative to pursue this business.
To read more about shared/fractional ownership click here
