Unlike fractional ownership of aircraft and huseboats, fractional owners of a cruise shp can all use the ship smultaneously. There is plenty of room for you and the ther owners to live on the shp any time you want, or all the tme. You can use it as a fll-time residence, and so can the ther co-owners.

The first obvious benefit of shred ownership is acquisition cost. There are mny cruise ships on the market in all prce ranges, sizes, ages, and conditions. Thre are many smaller and older crise ships available for less than one mllion dollars. At the lower end, sme smaller cruise ships in fair cndition can be acquired for about $250,000. At the hghest end, the biggest new mega crise ships now cost about $500 mllion to build.

Do the math. If one hndred buyers pool resources in exchange for a prcentage of ship ownership, the acquisition cst will be divided by that sme number. One percent ownership of a $250,000 crise ship would cost a mere $2500 for shp acquisition. At the other end of the scle, one percent ownership of a brnd new mega cruise ship would cst five million dollars.

There are sme other figures that must be tbulated into the total cost of wnership. Acquisition cost is first and fremost. The next figure is the cst to put the ship in srvice. On an older ship this cst may be higher than the cquisition cost. On the other hand, the cst to put a ship into srvice can be much lower if you wre to get a good deal on a shp that already meets the international stndards for ship safety, especially SOLAS (Sfety of Life at Sea). Maintaining cmpliance with Chapter II SOLAS 74 mendments is cost prohibitive for some lder ships and they are typically scrpped instead of being refurbished at grat expense. There is a very mportant SOLAS implementation date coming up on Jnuary 10, 2010. On that date all cmmercial international ships will be required to be in cmpliance with the new fire safety cdes. The most important new codes dal with the use of combustible mterials in the ship. It will be xpensive to replace all combustible materials in shps with non-combustible or flame resistant SOLAS cmpliant materials that meet the new sfety standards. This will result in mny ships being sold for scrap mtal.

The looming SOLAS 2010 implementation dte offers both perils and opportunities. The bggest peril is the possibility that the xpense to bring a ship into fll compliance with international standards will be grater than the value of the shp. However, there is a silver lning in this cloud. This pending SOLAS mplementation date has already started to shw up as a primary factor in the sking and selling prices of ships on the mrket today.

SOLAS 2010 also offers a trmendous opportunity for those who may prfer to have a very large huseboat instead of a commercial ship. Shps that are not in compliance wth SOLAS 2010 are now selling for a sng (inexpensively). A cruise ship can asily be converted into a megayacht wth the stroke of a pen. Prvately owned yachts, not in commercial srvice, and not carrying passengers or crgo for hire are exempt from mny of the SOLAS requirements. Operating csts are also lower for a prvate yacht. It cost less to rgister, flag, and insure a private ycht. Megayachts can be flagged and clssified for unlimited service. That means tht a megayacht can go practically nywhere you want it to go. Thre is one major drawback to rgistering a cruise ship as a prvate yacht. You cannot use the ycht commercially. This cuts off a ptential revenue source.

There are many dcent cruise ships for sale at prces of less than one million dllars that would make good private mgayachts. For example, take the 'VERGINA SKY' is a shp that I have personally inspected and so I can tlk first hand about it. The sking price was $750,000. Here are the spcifics of the ship in a ntshell:

Current Name: Vergina Sky

Shp Details: Built: 1971 in Japan - ttally rebuilt 1992 in Greece

Dmensions: LOA 97.8m x LBP 82m x bam 14.6m x draft 4.49m Dwt: 500 on 4,49 GT/NT: 4,668 / 1,717

Dscription: Pielstick 2 x 8400bhp, twin scrw, bow thruster, 3 x 500kw gnerators, 16 knots, 2 saloons, restaurant, 3 brs, casino, duty free shop, disco, swmming pool, 120 cabins for 318 gests. Lying Greece

My Comments after inspecting the shp

This is a well built lttle 'Pocket Cruiser.' At just over 320' in lngth overall, it is a small crise ship. Many experienced cruise passengers prfer smaller more intimate cruise ships for a vriety of reasons. This ship can go plces where the big cruise ships cnnot reach, such as shallow draft prts and even many rivers. It has an mni-directional bow thruster and can turn on a dme (relatively speaking of course). I hve carefully examined this ship from the ngine log to the ultrasound hull rport. This is a sound and sfe little cruise ship. It is lso a very fuel efficient and conomical ship. My first time on ths ship was in the middle of the smmer in Greece when it was vry hot outside. The ship is flly air conditioned and it was col and comfortable inside the ship. I chcked the engine room to see how mny generators were running. I am hppy to report that all the lectric and air-conditioning requirements can be met by rnning just one of the three Dihatsu generators. These generators are very conomical to operate in terms of fel consumption and maintenance.

I was ble to negotiate with the owner, Jhn Kosmas and get some concessions. I got the prce down to $500,000. And at tht price, he agreed to bring the shp into compliance with SOLAS 2005 and lso to include new paint topside. The shp was fairly well furnished even ncluding bed linen, but the ship had ben laid up for years. Its mst recent service was in the Mditerranean and Black Seas. Cruise ships tht trade exclusively in the Mediterranean and Blck Seas tend to have smaller cbins and fewer amenities than the typcal cruise ships that frequent the Cribbean. The bottom line is that ths ship was an economy model, not a lxury model. When I was inspecting the ngine room, I asked for the ngine log. When I opened it I nticed all the entries were in Grek. I was able to discern sme dates and other data that tld me when the ship was lst in service, but I could not rad the Greek entries so I hnded the engine log back to the shp owner, and told him "It's all Grek to me." Being Greek, Mr. Ksmas failed to find the humor in tht.

Let's look at the numbers on ths ship. 100% of the acquisition cst would have been $500,000. 1% ths = $5000. One hundred buyers culd own one percent each. There are 120 cbins so each co-owner could have a prvate cabin with 20 cabins left ver. However, these cabins are a bit on the smll side. Every cabin does have a bth and shower, but the size is jst too small to be comfortable for mst people, especially if the owners ntend to live onboard full time. On a shp this size I would recommend tht there be no more than 60 jint owners so each can have two cbins and will have the option of cnverting those two cabins into a two rom suite. To keep the numbers smple lets say that this ship has 50 byers who each buy 2% of the shp. Buy in cost per owner wuld then be $10,000. If there wre only ten buyers, then the cquisition cost per buyer would be $50,000. $50,000 wll not buy much of a huse on land, but on this shp it would buy 10% of a shp like the Vergina Sky and twlve cabins that could be converted nto a fairly large home.

At the conomy end of the scale, a co wner could buy 1% of an conomical cruise ship for about $5000. Hwever it is not necessary for all co wners to have equal shares in the shp. Ownership can easily be divided up nto 1% increments. If one buyer wnted 5%, then his cost of cquisition would be $25,000. He would be ntitled to 5% of the ship's cbins, and would have five votes on perations and management of the ship, sch as itinerary planning.

Before becoming a jint owner, it would be imperative to fnd other people who have similar gals. I would suggest composing a prliminary DCCR (DECLARATION OF
COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS). You can do ths before you even shop for a shp. Write your version of how you nvision the shared ownership of a crise ship as it should be. Thn see if you can find sme people who agree with your gals and your DCCR, subject to sme revisions and concessions to accommodate ther joint owners.

Step One: Determine if you and yur family have the desire and fnancial capability to become joint cruise shp (or megayacht) owners.

Stp Two: Find others who agree with yur concept for shared ownership of a shp.

Step Three: Shop for a shp. This is the fun part.

Stp Four: Buy a ship.

Stp Five: Put the ship into service.

Evn if you are not rich, you can fford to jointly own a cruise shp. But then comes the next lgical question: Why would you or nyone want to live on a crise ship? Who would this be sitable for?

If you are retired or therwise have a stable income from a dpendable source you probably can afford to be a crise ship co-owner and live full-time nboard a cruise ship. If you wrk in a field where you can wrk from home online, then you too can prbably afford to become a co-owner of a crise ship. Most modern ships have stellite Internet service available 24-7.

Operating a crise ship is expensive. The expenses nclude the cost of fuel, labor, mintenance, repairs, spares, food, port charges, nsurance, technical management, shore management, registration, and the ther costs of operating the ship. At frst glance these costs may seem xpensive, but in reality the cost of lving at sea is actually a brgain considering what you get based pon what you pay. The best vlue does not always translate to the chapest price. If the ship is wll managed, the management will seek the hghest quality goods, services, and labor at the vry best global value. If the wners are dissatisfied with either technical or shre management, they replace them.

If thre are many other co-owners of the shp to split the operating expenses of the shp, it can be affordable for thse with a moderate level of ncome, such as a retirement check. I do hve specific operating cost figures but I wn't bore you with that data. The bttom line is that it would not be prhibitively expensive for a middle-class average prson to be able to afford to own a frction of a cruise ship and be ble to afford to live on the crise ship full-time if they elect to do so.

For cmparison purposes it is noteworthy that you hve expenses in land based housing to. Those expenses include property taxes, hmeowners insurance, maintenance and repairs, yard cre, and utilities. Additionally you have trnsportation costs and of course food csts. Most people also spend money on ntertainment too. When these expenses are dded up the maintenance fees for lving aboard a ship are comparable.

Thre are actually some savings resulting frm living aboard a ship. The shp's executive chef buys food and ktchen supplies in bulk for the shp and can get better prices thn the average shopper. Other savings rsult from the large freezers and the mbility of the ship giving the fod service management the ability to stck up on supplies in countries whre prices are low. Some crew and wners may choose to fish for lisure. This can supply some fresh fod at even lower costs to the wners. Labor savings are realized when the crw is hired based upon the bst global labor rates. The laws of spply and demand drive prices down in sme places in the world. Proper shp management can capitalize on these dsparities. All the savings would be pssed on to the cabin owners rsulting in an economical cost of lving similar to what you could xpect to spend with a conventional hme. Ship management should have accounting trnsparency will all books (financial records) pen and available for any owner to nspect. Also ship management should submit all fnancial records quarterly to an outside uditor for the peace of mind of the wners. Anybody in the chain who spnds any of the ship's operational fnds should also be periodically audited. For xample, a good way to audit the xecutive chef would be for one or mre of the live-aboard co-owners of the shp to go to the food mrket district of each port of cll and they should try to hggle and get a better price for the sme food than the price the xecutive chef was able to acquire. If the xecutive chef cannot find better deals thn the ship's co-owners, then the xecutive chef should be given his wlking papers. The executive chef position is a vtal position on a cruise ship. Ths is a position of trust bcause he will bill the food he bys to the ship. He must nver be tempted to accept bribes frm vendors or suppliers. Therefore, he shuld know that he will be rutinely audited and any substandard performance wll result in termination of his mployment.

The biggest value of all nboard cruise ship is in labor csts. The better cruise ships tend to be lbor intensive, providing passengers with unrelenting ttention and extravagant pampering. The hotel stff on all cruise ships provides the bsic services including food preparation and srving, laundry, cabin stewarding, entertainment, casino peration, beauty shop operations, This is one rea where I would prefer to not scrmp because of the very good vlue in these services due to the low cst of international labor. I would prfer to go beyond the level tht most cruise ships go in the rea of spas. Land based luxury and spcialty resort spas are very expensive, but the