Wow... a couple of days away from looking at the Ownerships discussion board and I return to see the post regarding the state of the Ownerships company by the person asked to sort out the situation. As I read in Ownerships will shortly be in liquidation - not even administration .
I really truely feel for those who were so happy with the scheme as we were - it was a great way to extend your boating. It seems, and this is my interpretation, we had a Robert Maxwell of the canals and so many were taken in by his apparent business acumen when in fact he was seemingly using money that was not his to maintain and develop schemes to feed his ambition to be a someone in the canals.
There are people who will have put big money down for boats that will never be produced or finished without further money being found, what an introduction to boat ownership for those people.
I'm not sure what this says about shared ownership schemes, challenger and Ownerships both now defunct and those two were the biggest in my understanding. I would guess that the owners of the boats will be rallying to operate them themselves, something that can be done and might be the best way forward if there is one of two owners who can give more time to organise and plan.
RIP Ownerships - we had a great few years with NB Sylph. The scheme feed our desire for boating to the point we got our own. I hope that those affected find a way out of the mess which includes keeping them on the cut.
Nev
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(RFQ) P.O (#E769224939)
2 days ago
4 comments:
We weren't affected but it is dreadful news. We got into boating via shared ownership (with The Boatshare Company). It was a great way to find out whether boating was for us (it was!) and to pick up design ideas for our own craft, Indigo Dream.
I agree that episodes like this can only damage the industry - what a shame.
Sue, Indigo Dream
At least there can be no more bombshells at the meeting this Saturday - can there?
Halfie,
I really hope all the skeletons are out of Alan Matthews’s cupboard now.
When are you next on Shadow and have you had problems with your boat yard as others have?
Good luck on Saturday,
Nev
We're supposed to be on Shadow at the end of July. Fortunately we've had no problems with the boatyard: Tattenhall Marina has been really good. The managers at Tattenhall and Great Hayward (the same company) posted on the discussion forum that "for the foreseeable future" it is "business as usual" at both marinas. Andrew Cooley, the OwnerShips Local Manager there has also been most encouraging. We're obviously going to all dip our hands in our pockets to pay again for all the things which the sinking fund should have paid for.
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