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WATERSKI MagazineSo you're drooling over the ads for the new closed-bows, open-bows and sport-V's. You want one. You can see yourself behind the wheel, tooling around at the lake this summer, impressing your friends, being the envy of your enemies.
Then you do a quick reality check, starting with your wallet. (Oops, nothing there!) The boss, pulling out of the company parking lot in his Mercedes, pleads poverty. No money for a bonus or raise. Besides that, your house needs a new roof, the kids need braces, and you're hoping to retire from the rat race in five years. Looks like you're stuck standing at water's edge with your thumb out, right?
Wrong.
You can bring in a few buddies as partners, buy the boat of your dreams and share the fun – and the expenses. That's what diehard skiers Joe Perez and Tim Rohm did a few years back. Now proud owners of a 1995 Malibu Sunsetter, Perez and Rohm are the skiing equivalent of car-poolers, and having a lot more fun.
Tom Hellweg, president of Paradise Ski and Marine in Riverside, California, sees more and more skiers like Perez and Rohm getting into the act of sharing the expenses of owning one of life's more costly ventures. A pilot, Hellweg has seen peers in aviation go the sharing route with planes, and sees similar benefits for skiers. “I've seen a few boaters do the same thing over the last five years. Sometimes, boats have as many as four separate owners.”
While Perez and Rohm advise putting together a written agreement to handle details (see “Partnering Up”), they've been operating on what's essentially been a handshake deal.
“I was in a partnership on a jet boat for five years or so,'' says Rohm, a Yorba Linda, California, contractor who put the Malibu deal together. “The whole idea is that unless you live on a lake or in close proximity to one and you ski every week and can get out and use it yourself every week, the boat will generally go unused, sit in the driveway or storage at least half the weekends or more – and that's during the usable months. So my philosophy was, why let a $25,000 investment sit idle? Use the thing.”
He's had the chance, thanks to Perez, a CPA and Huntington Beach skier.
“It started out as a three-way split,” explains Perez. (Rohm's brother-in-law has since dropped out because of financial reasons.) Initially, the Malibu had a selling price of $26,000. After pooling funds for a down-payment, the three financed the balance through a credit union. The financing was spread out over a long period of time, giving them a total monthly payment of less than a hundred bucks a month each – including insurance. (Rohm has taken up his brother-in-law's share, pending acquisition of another partner.)
But what about other, hidden costs, like gear, gas and (gasp!) repairs? Perez and Rohm decided upon a unique arrangement.
“We created a maintenance pool that's based on usage,” Perez says. “Because, when you think about it, one guy always ends up using it more than others.”
So on each outing, the user keeps track of the engine time and contributes $10 for each hour. As a result, the boat owners have accumulated a tidy fund to help pay for repairs and scheduled maintenance. Since Rohm has logged the bulk of the engine time so far, he has contributed the most to the fund. Both believe such an arrangement has a plethora of advantages.
“The advantage is cost, obviously, versus the amount of time you use it,” Perez says. “If you don't use the boat every single weekend during the summertime, as was the case for me this summer, why not share that cost?” Plus, there's the obvious: “I own a boat,” he says.
“It's worked out fabulous,” agrees Rohm. “I mean, for me, I like the thought of having something and paying something that approximates the time we use it. We haven't had any problems or any squabbles. Should someone want to use the boat, their responsibility is to call the other party in advance and schedule it – that's just proper etiquette.”
Both the Perez and Rohm families have taken the Malibu on joint outings, as well as separate trips to various Southern California lakes. It has also made a fair share of trips to Wet Set in Newberry Springs (see “Desert Dreams,” March), where both are members.
The next step is finding another suitable third partner. To own one of the best pure ski boats on earth for $100 a month, Perez and Rohm shouldn't have any problem finding a third. – Steve Perez, brother of Joe, gets in ski time behind the Malibu – without the payment.
