75' LOA / 60' LOD William Garden Topsail Schooner, 1986

Based in Puerto Williams, Chile, this topsail schooner is ideally suited to conduct charter voyages to Cape Horn and the glaciers and fjords of Tierra del Fuego. The current owner has not pursued this business aggressively, only generating about $40,000 a year in charter revenues up until two years ago, when health problems caused him to stop chartering altogether - but there is considerable potential for the boat to NET five times that much if bookings are actively sought through adventure tourism booking agents.

There are more than a dozen smaller vessels in Puerto Williams that make the same voyage with tourists and they do utilize booking agents. These boats earn about $150,000 per year each during a 7 month season. The 233-ft mini-cruise ship, MARE AUSTRALIS (www.comapa.com/channelsoftierradelfuegoisland.php), has increased bookings to 1500 passengers this season, up from 1000 last year, and is grossing about $3-million. Based on this success and the booming tourist market, her owners are now building their 3rd large cruise boat for Tierra del Fuego and Cape Horn.

Chilean tourism was up 25% last year. All flights are booked solid for Chile and Argentina during January. Part of this is due to the favorable currency exchange rates in these countries, but most of it is attributable to an exploding adventure tourism industry in general and nowhere is the impact felt more keenly than in the Cape Horn / Tierra del Fuego charter boat industry.

This ship is in a perfect position to fulfill her charter potential and only requires some real effort to market her. To net $200,000 a year, she needs about 8 passengers a week for 30 weeks, or 240 passengers per season. This is a realistic number to expect from the professional booking agents. In addition, a very well-known adventure sailing company has expressed interest in booking the vessel\'s excursions and this alone will fill her all season long if a deal is consummated.

When the owner offers the vessel as being \"also available with a $300,000-per-year charter business opportunity,\" the statement is literally true. However, the keyword is \"opportunity.\" This schooner boasts an established, proven charter operation, but only to the minimal extent of the $40k annual net the owner has achieved with very little effort to book the boat. There clearly exists an opportunity for a new owner to develop the bookings so that the vessel can fulfill her $300k-gross / $200k-net potential, but that is something waiting to be done. The boat, the crew, the tourists and Cape Horn are already there.