In essence, you only pay your pro-rata share of the running costs. If you own 1/12th equity of the yacht, you just pay 1/12th of any maintenance costs.

Each Pearl yacht syndicate has a co-owner Finance Manager who has a vested interest in keeping costs realistic and is responsible for the maintenance accounting on the yacht’s app.

Using the Fractional Association’s standard accounting and reporting procedures, co-owners have completely transparent visibility, in real time on the yacht’s app to get an accurate handle on the ongoing running costs.

As most co-owners invariably get their capital outlay back, less some depreciation over time when selling their their yacht share, the running costs form the greatest expenditure of yacht ownership over time. By only paying a small percentage of all the maintenance costs it truly is very refreshing in comparison to outright ownership.

Because each co-owner only pays a fraction of the actual running costs, there are many benefits that outright owners can’t avail themselves of. For example, replacing the external upholstery on a 60ft yacht would cost upwards of £8,000 and should really be done every three years or so. That becomes a bitter pill to swallow for an outright yacht owner, but for a 6-weeks-a-year fractional owner that same expense only comes to just £926 instead of £8,000!

The temptation is therefore to replace items sooner, meaning fractionally owned yachts often look in better condition than their adjacently moored privately owned yachts.

This same philosophy applies to the cleanliness of the vessel. By the very nature of the need for a weekly changeover valet throughout, fractionally owned yachts are serviced, cleaned and polished once a week. Privately owned yachts sit unattended for many months at a time, rapidly deteriorating in a salt encrusted, burning sun environment, with the occasional clean only occurring before the outright owners’ next arrival.

The same applies to mooring costs. Fractional Yachts are often berthed in the most desirable and therefore the most expensive mooring locations in the Mediterranean. Again, by only paying for the mooring when you are actually on board, as other co-owners pay their share while they are on board, it suddenly makes good economical sense. To be specific, taking Puerto Portals in Mallorca as an example, a 60ft mooring is about £60k p.a., where an equivalent mooring in a lesser marina in say Palma might cost about £20 per annum less. A significant saving if one only uses ones privately owned yacht for only a few weeks of the year. In contrast, a 6-weeks-a-year fractional owner is only actually paying just over £2000 p.a to have their yacht in Portals over a much lesser marina in say Palma. The fuel savings alone for the shorter distance to the best anchorages from Puerto Portals, against coming all the way from Palma, make it a better financial proposition to be based in vibrant Puerto Portals, aside from all the time saving, enjoyment, convenience and aesthetic benefits.

All in all, one of the most significant benefits of fractional ownership is that one only has to pay a fraction of the yacht’s ongoing running costs.