I am purchasing a boat with a friend and am having difficculty finding
a downloadable legal agreement to use as a template to write our own sharing
agreement. Can you point me to one?

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Clarification of Question by aasnes-ga on 15 Apr 2005 13:36 PDT

Boat is being purchased and kept in NY.

He won"t be your friend for long.

So pessimistic...

I doubt that you will find one as this is an unusual situation and
there would be no "standard" agreement.  It is just a personal matter,
but you do need an agreement unless you always use the boat together,
which I surmise is not intended.
I would define how the sharing is to be defined:  alternate weeks,
fortnights, whatever, and document your agreement about holiday use: 
long weekends, your vacations.  Then you will need to document cost
sharing, docking, maintenance, winter storage, and insurance: and that
the person using the boat when an insurance claim arises pays for
everything (?) the relates, including an increase on the premiums. 
You should keep a signed log book in which any (!) problems with the
boat are recorded (the fridge doesn't work, a seam on the sail is
loosening, the motor had a problem), and in your agreement define who
is responsible for the cost AND for taking care of the problem.  That
could be a sticky point:  one of you ends up doing more for the care
of the boat, and even if the other pays, that is still an unfair
burden.
And you want to agree on what happens if one of you decides to give up
on the share agreement.

If this is a new boat your dealer/shipyard should be able to help you
out. If this is a used one your broker/agent should be able to help
you out. If neither (buying an old one directly from previous owner)
then maybe this previous GA:

http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=193858

Aasnes --

I'm not nearly so pessimistic as my co-researcher.  I owned a sailboat
for 10 years with two, then one, partner.  The two partners apparently
enjoyed it enough that today they own a much bigger boat together. 
There are several key factors:
*  anticipating buyouts
*  unbudgeted maintenance & improvement expenses
*  timesharing arrangements

In fact, for major capital items that get a small percentage of use
during the year (like boats and airplanes), a well-structured
partnership increases useage and cuts the costs for a single owner
enormously.

The one organization that I know has written quite a bit on
partnerships is the Aircraft Owner & Pilots Organization (AOPA).  You
can search their site using "partnership" and you'll see quite a few
articles -- but unfortunately they're "members only" content:
http://www.aopa.org/

Joining AOPA is only about $40 per year.  Other options would include
finding someone who is a member -- or checking dates on articles and
seeing if a local library has back copies of AOPA Pilot Magazine.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Thanks for the comments. I will use your advice as well as some other
info I have culled to make an agreement. So I guess no answer is
needed any longer