The share decides two things: how much someone pays and how much weight their vote carries. Both hold for years — and both can later only be changed by agreement.
Equal heads or according to what was put in
The simplest division is the equal one: four owners, 250 ‰ each. It fits when everyone pays in the same amount and wants to sail about as much.
It becomes unequal as soon as someone brings in more — money, an existing boat, or work. Then the rule is: whatever is brought in must be valued before the share is fixed. With an existing boat that means a survey, or at least a market value someone can follow — not the owner’s own estimate.
Why per mille and not per cent
Per cent does not add up between three holders. 33.33 % × 3 gives 99.99 % — and the missing hundredth turns up in every statement. In per mille, 333 / 333 / 334 is clean, and the sum is exactly 1000.
The same goes for the amounts: count in cents, not in euros with decimals. What gets rounded adds up over the years into a difference nobody can explain any more.
Joining: what a share is worth today
When someone joins, three questions arise:
- How is it valued? Put the method in the agreement — a survey, the average of two offers, or purchase price less an agreed depreciation. Fixing the method matters more than knowing today’s right figure.
- What about the upkeep of recent years? Whoever joins takes over a well-kept boat. It is usual for that to show in the price rather than be invoiced separately.
- Must everyone agree? As a rule yes — a co-ownership is also a matter of the people in it.
Leaving: the point most often missing
This deserves the most care, because the case is certain to arise — at the latest when someone moves away, the family grows, or interest fades.
- Notice period and date. The end of the season makes sense, not the first of the month: leaving in mid-summer helps nobody.
- Right of first refusal for the others. Without this rule the share can go to someone the others do not know.
- What if nobody wants to buy, or can? This is where co-ownerships actually fail. Possible answers: a period within which the share may be sold; a sale of the whole boat; or payment in instalments over several years.
- What happens on death? Otherwise heirs step in automatically — and may sit at the table with no interest in sailing at all.
A share is not deleted, it is dated
When someone leaves, they do not disappear from the books. Their share gets an end date. Only then does it stay traceable which key the earlier years were settled by — and that is exactly what is needed when someone asks years later.
In short. Shares in per mille, amounts in cents. Fix the valuation method, not today’s figure. And settle the departure before it is due — including the case where nobody can take over.