Contact: Arthur Andersson
Base Manager
SailTime Milwaukee / Racine
office: 1-877-SailTime (724-5846)
cellular: 262-960-1470
e-mail: aandersson@sailtime.com
Company’s Fractional Sailing Memberships Expand Access to Luxury Sailing on Lake Michigan
SailTime, an international company that sells membership-based access to luxury sailboats, has expanded its operations in Wisconsin, adding a Milwaukee base to complement its existing Racine operation for what is termed “fractional sailing.”
“There always has been barriers to entry into this level of boating, but we’re lowering those barriers,” said Arthur Andersson, owner of the SailTime bases in Milwaukee and Racine.
SailTime has a 38-foot Hunter cruiser at McKinley Marina in Milwaukee and a 33-foot Hunter at Racine’s Reefpoint Marina. Both locations have memberships available.
Andersson, a Kenosha County resident, has been a SailTime member for five years, enjoying the experience so much that he decided to purchase a boat and open the Milwaukee base.
SailTime was founded in 2001, patterned after the concept of shared use of airplanes. The Maryland-based company now has locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, with more than 1,000 members. Its membership has risen over the past year, despite the weak economy, said George Bonelli, founder of SailTime. Since April 1, SailTime has added close to 150 members nationwide, a 50 percent increase over the same period of the previous year, Bonelli said.
Each SailTime boat is maintained by SailTime and owned by an owner-member who agrees to share the boat with up to seven other non-equity members, Andersson said. The membership fee, compared to boat ownership, is lower than the total cost of ownership. No long-term contracts are required. While monthly rates vary by location, the average cost of a fractional sailing membership through SailTime is $600 per month, compared to $2,300 to $3,500 for the total cost of ownership of a comparable boat, according to Andersson.
Along with use of the boat, sailing lessons are available through SailTime’s “novice to captain” program that can lead to American Sailing Association certification for trainees.
For some people, fractional sailing is an opportunity to test the waters of luxury sail boating, so to speak.
“Some SailTime members are ‘owners in training,’” Andersson said. “Membership lets them learn what they like and don’t like in a craft and in sailing a larger boat without the cost of ownership. So when they are ready to acquire a boat of their own, they are more informed buyers.”
In the U.S., SailTime uses Hunter boats, selected for their reputation and for offering a lot of amenities relative to the cost of the boats, Andersson said.
The boats offer sailors plenty of cabin comforts and the ability to experience a variety of sailing on Lake Michigan, from the relative calmness inside Milwaukee’s extensive breakwater to the more restive waters of the open lake. A day-trip could get a SailTime member from Milwaukee to Port Washington or Racine, or from Racine to Milwaukee or Chicago for lunch and return to home dock.
The cabin of the Hunter 38 can sleep up to six people while the Hunter 33 can sleep four. Both include a stove, refrigerator, microwave oven, toilet and shower and navigation station. The decks are entertainment-ready. The cockpit can is set up to sail easily single handedly.
Andersson was introduced to sailing as a young boy in Texas. “It was all on small boats until I got a chance to sail on a large boat out of Galveston,” he said. “That experience got me hooked on large-boat sailing.”
He took lessons to sail larger craft 10 years ago, and signed up for SailTime in Chicago five years ago.
###
