Yachting Art Magazine

There are certain ideas which, by virtue of their apparent obviousness, eventually become accepted without proper scrutiny. The ‘economy of use’, which has been applied to the boating industry for a decade, falls into this category. With much fanfare about modernity, it has replaced the act of purchasing with that of subscription, transforming the boater into a user, and the boat into a mere vehicle for an experience, whereas boating is, above all, a passion.

The reasoning, it is true, seemed unassailable. Boats, ever more sophisticated and ever more expensive, were becoming unaffordable. Habits were changing: regular leisure activities were giving way to fragmented consumption, dictated by availability and whim. Mobility was becoming a cardinal virtue, allowing one to change bodies of water as easily as one changes destination. Added to this was a more stark economic reality: stagnation, or even a decline in incomes from one generation to the next, whilst new, more immediate leisure activities began to compete with the sea.

From these premises emerged boat clubs, imported from America, timeshare schemes and shared fleets. A promise of unrestricted access, a disembodied yet accessible form of boating. Yet, when put to the test, the structure is faltering. Apart from a few notable successes, such as Freedom Boat Club, profitability is slow in coming. The costs of management, maintenance and availability weigh heavily. And we are rediscovering, not without irony, that boat hire —an old and tried-and-tested practice— already offered this freedom of use without the new complexities.

Thus, the sharing economy, in its nautical form, remains marginal, attracting a clientele that is certainly interesting but relatively limited. It does not fundamentally transform the market; it merely skims the surface.

And what if that is where the mistake lies?

For another, quieter revolution could be taking shape elsewhere. In China, in particular, where the announcement of massive investments in simple boats, produced using highly automated methods, is sketching out a model that may be radically different. In a country with no nautical tradition, but driven by industrial ambition, the challenge is not to share scarcity, but to make access commonplace.

A simplified, more reliable form of recreational boating —in terms of both product range and port facilities, services and usage— supported by smart technologies —much like the modern car— could well redefine the very concept of boating.

Less complex and less intimidating, it would open up the sea to new audiences, in places where it is still perceived as hostile.

What if, ultimately, the sharing economy did not lie in the sharing of goods, but in the simplicity of their use and their affordability?

This is a hypothesis that, in the future, could get far more people out on the water than any subscription scheme.