Sheffield Narrowboats

There a a number of considerations that prevent owners from letting their boat on a commercial basis, not least:

• The cost of an Annual (Minimum Term) Commercial Licence from British Waterways.
  (This isn't optional, even if you only let for one week per year, you must have a Commercial Licence)
• The cost of Commercial Insurance for Holiday Hire.
• Additional boat safety considerations.
• The risk of letting to someone you don't know.

The consequences of 'informal letting' leave you and your 'informal customers' highly vulnerable in a number of ways, not least in that your boat, contents and crew will not be insured in the event of a claim - and neither will any Third Party liability.

Entering into a Partnership with Sheffield Narrowboats means we'll look after all of the paperwork and associated expenses.  We'll also ensure that your boat is very well looked after and provide assurances, through our pre-booking checks, that the people experiencing your boat will value it as you do.  We also spend a lot of time during the initial handover to ensure that the crew are fully confident in all aspects of boat handling and safety.  For longer term hire we offer customers a free RYA Helmsmans Course in addition to our extensive handover, so you can rest assured that your boat will be in very good hands.

Remuneration is obviously dependent upon how long you'd like to let your boat.  We work on a basic 50/50 split on all income and expenses, effectively halving your liability and expense for the Commercial Licence and Holiday Hire Insurance.  We would generally suggest you make your boat available for a minimum of 4 months in order to ensure economic viability.

Complete transparency leaves you fully in control at all times via your on-line Partner Account.  You can see the total income, associated expenses, payments you've received and what will become due.

If you have Satellite Tracking (we can arrange to have this installed) you can even see where your boat is at any point in time.

Because of our unique model, offering customers a totally flexible choice of their final destination, you can benefit from having different start points for your personal cruises, enabling you to see far more of the Inland Waterways Network than would normally be possible with a static mooring and maybe only a few weeks cruising during the year.  You may even save significantly on permanent moorings as you could change your boat status to a Continuous Cruiser, paying only for 'resting' at secure marinas when your boat isn't in use.

Please feel free to contact us for an initial exploratory discussion.