hi
im thinking to buy a tour boat , 13 m x 5.4 m with 30-40 pax capacity for sydney harbour cruise.
does anyone have any experience in charter boat business / operating a tour boat business. happy to share your thoughts and experience in this.
alternatively im also open to coorperation , me supply the boat, 3rd party manage the rental and operation and share the profit.
my background is travel consultant, i can help with some marketing to tourist group client from overseas. its the operating the boat, day to day operation of the boat im not familiar.
any advise/comment is appreciated.
thank you
I will give you a tip......do not buy a boat!
Boats are not for normal people, boats are for people who like boats, They are prepared to spend lots of money (and lots of sweat or both) for the privilege to say they own a boat.
If you think you can fill a boat with paying customers to cruise the harbour, there would be countless boat owners in the harbour who would love to see you, before the bank takes their boat back.
The easy part is buying a boat...the hard part is filling it with paying punters.
As Wise Sailor once said to me B.O.A.T.
B= bring
O= on
A=Another
T=Thousand
and you will easily spend that in the first week a Thousand is chicken feed
Owning a BOAT is like filling a bucket with water but it has holes in it so you have to keep filling the bucket till you don't own it
Select to expand quotenods said..
I will give you a tip......do not buy a boat!
Boats are not for normal people, boats are for people who like boats, They are prepared to spend lots of money (and lots of sweat or both) for the privilege to say they own a boat.
If you think you can fill a boat with paying customers to cruise the harbour, there would be countless boat owners in the harbour who would love to see you, before the bank takes their boat back.
The easy part is buying a boat...the hard part is filling it with paying punters.
This very true but misses the important part. You have to talk to these people and there will be very few you actually like. Talk to a few charter boat operators, they will regale you with tales of these complete arseholes who roll up drunk and obnoxious and the males are even worse!
Select to expand quoteAli789 said..
does anyone have any experience in charter boat business / operating a tour boat business. happy to share your thoughts and experience in this.
any advise/comment is appreciated.
thank you
Yes, I owned and operated a very nice charter yacht (42 ft ex racing yacht ) out of Airlie Beach, Cairns and Mooloolaba.
I found it to be a most efficient way of defraying money, wasting time and sending oneself crazy.
Wow thanks for the info all.
i didnt realise its such a painful experience owning a boat.
will certainly reconsider.
but there got to be some positive side of it? no ?
It seems like good money . you can get charter from 2000 aud per 4 hours . peak season even more.
it may be good idea to talk to charter boat owner but wouldnt they take me as competitor thus wont be giving the best advise ?just a thought.
but i will do that. Thanks for the advise all..
Select to expand quoteDAMA said..
Will it have a mast and a sail?
No it does notnhave mast and sail . Its more like houseboat style.
Select to expand quoteRamona said..nods said..
I will give you a tip......do not buy a boat!
Boats are not for normal people, boats are for people who like boats, They are prepared to spend lots of money (and lots of sweat or both) for the privilege to say they own a boat.
If you think you can fill a boat with paying customers to cruise the harbour, there would be countless boat owners in the harbour who would love to see you, before the bank takes their boat back.
The easy part is buying a boat...the hard part is filling it with paying punters.
This very true but misses the important part. You have to talk to these people and there will be very few you actually like. Talk to a few charter boat operators, they will regale you with tales of these complete arseholes who roll up drunk and obnoxious and the males are even worse!
perhaps better if i outsource the management to boat charter company. So i just buy the boat and let them manage it ? Share in the profit ?
I'm not sure how much experience you have in the industry but I would say it would take a lot of guts to try to get a new tourist boat operating in a place like Sydney harbour.
Really if you have a dream and disire to start some business venture like that you need to crack a booming town that has the tourists but not the established business.
The tour company's on Sydney harbour have years of charter experience under there belts. Unless you can find neich in the market or something completely different to what's already exisiting I personally wouldn't even waste my time thinking about it.
