Our strong background in building both private and hire boats originally caused us to explore the share boat market. Knowing that we had the background skills to build, operate and maintain such craft, we entered the market with our first Share Boat, "Pieces of Eight" completed Easter 1994. This boat together with her sister ships "Eightsome Reel" and "Eight Lords"were all built for Eight owners.
We responded to the needs of those owners who, whilst liking our boats, felt unable to take all the six weeks holiday offered on our first three boats. These later boats each catered for up to Twelve owners enjoying Four weeks holiday every year. These boats were named "Twelfth of Never", "Twelfth Night", "Zodiac", "Alexandrine" & "Maximus", all the names have a connection with the word Twelve owners.
In 1999 the Gailey Marine hire fleet was taken under our wings, this is now run in conjunction with Viking Afloat, an arrangement that works to the benefit of both companies. The combination of our activities means that we are well able to look after the slightly different needs of Share Owners who require some (but not all) of the services provided by Hire companies but also want the individuality of a privately owned boat and the individual service that should go with it..
We acknowledge that mooring space is congested here at Gailey but are engaged with negotiations with British Waterways to improve the situation. It is anticipated that our new Share boat will use Gailey as it's home mooring for at least the first few years but it's also reasonable to expect that owners will extend their holiday options by doing a "change-over" elsewhere from time to time - this seems to happen quite frequently with our existing Share boats.
The company aim has always been to build boats to last, without making compromises in construction methods or materials which would be detrimental to this policy. All our boats have been CE Marked since 1997.
The following specifications should indicate the importance we attach to the "unseen" structure of the boat - the durability of a boat depends on its foundations.
"This takes a little longer to build and costs a little more money but we want you to be proud of your boat for many years".
We have been making the same claims for nearly 9 years now regarding our Share boats and feel that we can easily prove our claims.
We have been building boats designed specifically for Share Operation since 1994. Our first boat was received enthusiastically and has been in almost continuous use since. We do not pretend our product is perfect in all respects, improvements have been suggested by our Share Owners and implemented in later boats. Such improvements have resulted in enhanced enjoyment by the boat owners.
Opinion will continue to be sought from owners on the design and execution of new boats, leading to still further satisfaction.
As examples of suggestions adopted in the past - Portholes fitted to the stern bedroom instead of windows to improve the looks of the boat, a slight penalty being that this bedroom is a little darker during the day. High quality carpet is fitted as a floor covering except in the galley and toilet compartment, these have a vinyl surface. Experience has shown carpet to be durable comfortable, cleaning has not turned out to be a major problem although a vacuum cleaner is essential (and usually forms part of the standard inventory). A sliding extension to the double bed has been provided for those who feel a 4 Foot wide bed is insufficient, the bed can be (quickly) made up each night, but this extension does not have to be used by those owners content with the normal narrow boat double bed width.
Oak veneers have been substituted for the Sapele used in our earlier boats, this reflects the changes we have noticed in boats built for individual clients. These paler shades enhance available light and can be balanced by careful choice of curtain and upholstery fabrics.
We constantly strive to maintain a balance between improvements that are both useful and cost effective rather than "wouldn't it be nice if" items that serve little purpose or cause operational problems and increased long term expenditure.
In order to protect our Owners interests a stage payment system spreading the cost of Share purchase during it's build is adopted, exactly as we do when building boats for our individual clients. All our boats built since 1997 conform to the European Craft Directive, a "Hull Identification Number" identification mark is affixed together with a CE Plate and a detailed Owners Manual is provided. In addition a BW Safety Standards Certificate is issued by an Approved Surveyor at our expense.
All boats are insured during construction by our Boat Building Risks insurance and when completed, separate insurance cover is negotiated on behalf of the consortium.