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maytrix said:
I was planning on setting up a web page for the boat. Already have one now, but it is incredible basic as all the info for Moorings boats were on their site.




As beerMe also indicates - is the charter company going to give you a link to your web site? Seems like they would need to or there is no way a prospective client will find your site unless maybe they did a google search which is unlikely. In my case my web site has a link from the CYOA web page. They've been happy to provide this. I would imagine any charter company should be happy to give you that link assuming they are chartering specific boats.

IMO all boats should have a web page. As a charter guest I would appreciate this. I think the reason this doesn't happen is that for the most part the charter company and owner are on opposite ends of the business due to the way most of these companies compensate the owner. If the owner has a fixed income plan - which I believe is the most common (correct me if I have the wrong impression) - there is no incentive by the owner to do anything to improve or market the boat. In fact the owner is hoping the boat doesn't charter at all - less wear and abuse. The charter company on the other hand has the incentive to use the boat as much as possible - it's an all you can eat buffet and the more you eat the more you get your money's worth.

In my little world, the entire industry - charter company, charter customers, and owners - would all be better served if the charter company and owners where better aligned. You do this by giving owners an upside to making the boat attractive by giving him/her some percentage of revenue, a profit share, or a number of other possible methods that would tie the owner to the revenue being generated. This would cause owners to want to compete for business which would result in better boats and better information to the customer.

I know this is pretty naive. I'm a first time boat owner and have not yet figured out how "it really is". But on the upside I'm also not constrained by how things have worked in the past so I'm willing to work on my little corner of the world to try to improve it. I hope you can improve your corner of the world as well.


Life's short - sail more!