Small Business: Own a slice of a boat - and helicopters might be next for Ownaship

Lead times for the delivery of new boats is long in this part of the world - now 2024 for a growing number of models and manufacturers. Photo / Supplied

Simon Barker, chief executive of Ownaship, talks booming demand for boats amid the Covid-19 pandemic, why this has led to delays in getting new boats to this part of the world and why he has moved into co-ownership of helicopters.

What does your business do?

Ownaship is a boat sharing company, we buy brand new boats and then split them up into shares - the number of shares can be anywhere between a maximum of six or as small as two.

Once a shareholder buys a share in the boat they then get an allocation of days when they can use it and that depends on the number of shareholders.

For example, a one-sixth shareholder can have 57 days a year to use the boat. It is a walk on, walk off proposition. So they come to the boat, we take care of the maintenance, cleaning and valeting, and for that they pay a small management fee.

What was the motivation for starting it?

Ownaship launched 12 years ago, back when this type of concept wasn't common. The business was started by my ex-business partner and he was sitting at the beach in Rarotonga and they had a yacht sitting back in New Zealand and they weren't using it at all.

It was just sitting around costing money, and he thought there must be a better way, so they decided to set up a boat share company where people can own a part of the boat and have only part of the cost but still get good usage of the boat.

How many boats does Ownaship have today?

We have 190 owners and 30 boats. Our shareholders own a luxury brand, Maritimo yachts. They are up to 55ft (17m) and then we have got some sailing catamarans and a range of Rayglass boats from a local manufacturer here in New Zealand, and the Elite, another locally made boat.

We have an entry product for people with a certain budget up to high-end boats. We have a range of products that suit everybody with capital to purchase a share, ranging from $32,000 through to $1 million. Most people buy just one share in a boat.

How big is your team?

The team is at six, but we have between 2-10 contractors working for us on a daily basis.

What's the major focus for the business right now?

We've had reasonable growth recently and we will have four new boats arriving late this year, early next year, and our focus is on getting those boats here and having happy shareholders of those boats, so we're making sure we have a good service proposition.

What's the biggest barrier you are working to overcome?

Getting access to new boats quickly is proving challenging. The lead times are up to 2024 as there has been a big upsurge in the selling of new boats in the last 18 months.

More people, as they weren't able to go travelling, have been spending their money at home. And boating has been one of those sectors which people have been spending a lot in.

The three things that people were doing were buying a dog, a Tesla and a boat over the past two years amid border closures, which has meant for us, it is now harder to get hold of new boats this side of the world.

What are you focused on achieving over the next 18 months?

We're focused on making sure we've got new boats primarily, and looking at a new product line - a new line of boats and also expanding into new locations.

At present, our boats are in Westhaven Marina in Auckland and we're looking at where else we could expand into, potentially some marinas within a couple of hours out of Auckland.

Where do you see the business in three to five years' time?

In three to five years' time we'll probably have another two to three locations. We're involved in sharing ownership of helicopters as well so we are looking to grow into that further whilst also looking to expand into doing the same model with baches.

We started with helicopters last year and for this environment the response has been good. We just have one range at the moment and capital to co-own a helicopter is $375,000 for a quarter of the year share.

What advice do you give to others thinking about starting their own business?

Learn from your mistakes, and to have a good mentor.