Limited Liability Yacht Club
06/01/2007
A lifelong boating enthusiast, Douglas Gray owned a boat before he had a car. It was a humble 14-foot fishing skiff, but it quickly taught Gray the costly truth of the sea.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
The 70 WallyPower is the newest addition to the Barton & Gray lineup and offers a glass-encased salon with a 360-degree view. (Click image to enlarge)"It was sort of an ongoing joke in the boating community about a hole in the water in which you throw money," Gray says. "My boat nearly bankrupted me every year. As I got older, I got bigger boats that would seize any extra income I was making."
Now, as a co-founder of Barton & Gray Mariners Club, he is trying to help others enjoy the luxury of owning a yacht without the financial headache of buying one outright or the physical pain of maintaining it.
For a fraction of the cost, Barton & Gray sells 10 shares of its 36 to 75 foot yachts in Massachusetts and Florida, capitalizing on the growing popularity of fractional ownership.
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What attracts buyers who could well afford to throw money into that proverbial whirlpool Gray mentioned?
"Service. Intimacy. Cost," Gray says. "We call them our value pillars."
Barton & Gray insures the boat, maintains it and provides the crew. While individual ownership would cost more than $1 million over five years, Barton & Gray estimates fractional ownership—including marina fees, maintenance and a $150,000 initiation fee—costs about $225,000.
Yachts spend five months of the year in Nantucket, five months in Palm Beach and two months out of the water between seasonal changeovers for transport and maintenance. Members own 10 percent in either market, which entitles them to the yacht one day each week and half a day each weekend. Barton & Gray hopes to expand to Martha’s Vineyard, Newport, Greenwich, Sag Harbor, Charleston, Naples and the Bahamas.
Shares of two Hinckley yachts—the 36-foot Picnic with a split open-enclosed cabin and the 44-foot Talaria—are available. Also, Barton & Gray recently negotiated a deal to sell shares of 70-foot yachts built by the Italian company Wally, which Gray calls "the Ferrari of the sea."
Barton & Gray Mariners Club
www.bartonandgray.com