Eric Stahl was working on his master’s degree in business at the University of Colorado when he figured out a way to live his dream of owning a boat.

He and his girlfriend at the time, Jacque, liked the idea of a life on the water, making money by offering charters on the side. He wrote a business plan as part of his coursework, outlining how they could buy a boat, charter it, and spend their 30s tanned and toned in the Virgin Islands.

Now married and graduated, they turned the plan into a reality last year. Their 47-foot sailing catamaran, Tachyon, was purchased in July and completed nearly a half-dozen charters in the Virgin Islands by the end of 2006. Heading into the spring/summer 2007 season, it was fully booked as part of the fleet with Virgins-based Regency Yacht Vacations.

Photo courtesy of Eric and Jacque StahlEric and Jacque Stahl charter their 47-foot catamaran Tachyron as a business.

As the Stahls—and countless boat owners like them—are learning, putting your boat into charter is far more than a quick way to monetize your favorite hobby. Chartering means entering an established industry, with inherent benefits and challenges, and to do it successfully requires a well-thought-out plan.

Indeed, the boat itself is just the beginning when trying to determine whether chartering is a viable option to realize your goals. You also have to consider location, local competition, whether you can or should hire a crew, insurance costs, management company demands, maintenance issues, compromises in terms of using your own boat and much more.

The Stahls figure that they’ll break even on expenses after 10 or 11 charters a year. Everything else they earn will be income, less the maintenance expenses that will come up periodically, as they do with all boats.

Tachyon, actually, was previously part of the fleet at The Moorings, one of the biggest charter management companies in the world, which used it for Signature Vacations that come with skippers. Its previous owner never even had to step foot onboard in order to generate charter income. The Stahls are far more hands on with the boat, but they don’t mind because they are growing a business.

“We don’t just want to go sailing for a little while, or fill in the gaps in our own cruising lifestyle,” says Eric, who is 33. “We want to succeed, buy another boat within the next few years, and build up a clientele to become a larger company.”

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?

While no official statistics are available, experts estimate that some 300,000 to 350,000 weeks of bareboat and crewed charter vacations are booked worldwide each year. Boat owners within such a large group obviously operate in many ways, but most fall into three general categories.

First is the owner who uses his boat extensively and wants to charter in his own backyard. This owner might want to offer the boat just enough to write off expenses for tax purposes, and many of these owners go without the help of a major management company.

Second is the owner who is willing to put his boat in a more popular destination in the hope of generating more charter income, and in exchange is willing to give up control over the boat’s use and upkeep. Owners who put their boats into big fleets like The Moorings or Sunsail fit this description.

Last is the full-time owner-operator, who uses charter as a means to change his lifestyle. Owners in this category live onboard their boats and move them to the most lucrative charter destinations on a seasonal basis.

If you’re thinking about chartering your boat, a good place to start is to consider which profiles best describes you. The experiences of experts and owners within each will help you better understand the benefits and pitfalls of each model.

YOUR OWN BACKYARD

Hope Swift is not your typical charter broker. Yes, she attends boat shows. Yes, she books boats worldwide. Yes, she is a member of the Charter Yacht Brokers Association, one of the industry’s largest professional organizations.

But the bread and butter of her business at Swift Yacht Charters during the past 20 years has been knitting together a fleet of about 25 boats in the 30- to 65-foot size range, all owned by New Englanders who want to offer their boats for bareboat charter while retaining complete control.

“I work a lot with people who want to use their boat for a summer, but they want to defray some of the expenses,” Swift explains. “For somebody who has a boat that’s in nice shape, and they want to keep it in nice shape or even upgrade things like the electronics, they can put it in charter with me and dictate how many weeks they want. It can be three weeks a season or thirteen. And they have full right of refusal about which charters they accept or turn down, unlike with a big management company.”

As with most charter business plans, Swift says, her owners aim to offset their expenses, rather than earning a profit. But she did say that a few end up pocketing some cash.