The Ownerships Scheme
Ownerships manages the largest shared ownership scheme in the UK. Owners purchase a capital share of a narrow boat and pay Ownerships a management fee to look after the maintenance of the boats in the scheme, organise moorings and administration and maintain a boat “fund” for each boat. They operate a 7-day-a-week helpline throughout the year for owners out on their boats and in need of assistance.
Each year Ownerships builds approximately six new narrow boats and sells shares in them. They also operate a brokerage for second-hand shares and a buy-back scheme to ensure it is as easy to leave the scheme as it was to enter it.
Owners
Each year, in October or November the boat owners meet to decide what work they want done on the boat during the winter maintenance and also to agree where they would like to moor the following year. We give our instructions to Ownerships who organise the maintenance and mooring arrangements on our behalf. The outcome of these annual meetings determines the amount of money we set aside for maintenance each year. This is divided by the number of shares (in most cases 12) and placed in a fund or “float” for the boat. Any necessary work during the course of the year is deducted and then any surplus carried forward, or deficit made up the following year. In addition to this float owners also pay a flat fee each year to Ownerships for their management services.
Shares
Most of the boats in the scheme have 12 shares and usually they have school holiday shares. Owners such as teachers or parents with school children, are able to guarantee school holiday periods. Owners of these shares pay a higher proportion into the boat “fund”.
Oasis Too is unusual because we do not have any school holiday shares. This means we all pay slightly more, but we also have the choice to book a date in the school holidays if we want to take friends or family out with us that are tied to school holiday dates.
If you have one twelfth share you are guaranteed two summer weeks (April to end September) and one winter week. Weeks are selected according to the place you occupy in booking chart. Once the 36 weeks have been chosen, those lower on the priority order (see below) get first opportunity to chose any remaining weeks available. This means you could have up to six weeks holiday.
Booking Chart
When you buy a share, you also buy its priority order for that year. Each year shares move down the booking chart in pairs. The priority for who choses their weeks first within the pair also changes each year.
This is how the booking system works on Oasis Too.
Share 1 choses first ,share 12 choses last.
Each share has a pair. The first share (1) is paired with the next share (2), share 3 is paired with share 4 etc. Each year the pairs move down the chart two places.
So, shares that are in position 1 and 2 this year, next year become 3& 4. Everyone moves down except 11 & 12 who become 1 & 2. This means a complete rotation takes 6 years.
To make the chosing fair, the right to chose first within each pair swaps each year. So if you are 1 this year, when your pair moves down to 3 & 4 in the next year, your partner share (currently 2) gets the right to chose first and will become 3 while you become 4. The following year you are 5 and they are 6.
Our booking chart order for this year and next is shown on "owners and shares" page.
Buying a share?
With many people being beguiled by the waterways at the moment, more and more shared ownership schemes are popping up, so look around before you choose which one is right for you.
Although it has been experiencing some growing pains as it expands, Ownerships does, creditably, try to respond to members opinions and requests for changes and to sort out anything that goes wrong. They also encourage open debate as you will see if you look at the web forum on their website! While there appear to be some grumbles, boat owners are not obliged to stay with Ownerships as their management company, but they still do. Overall, they are helpful, friendly and knowledgeable.
An excellent example of how useful a knowledgeable organisation can be, was shown clearly when Oasis Too was caught in the 2007 floods. She came adrift and ended up caught aground over Pershore Weir. Ownerships took complete charge of the situation and rescued her for us, they then arranged all the repairs and dealt with the insurance claim. This level of support is invaluable.
If you are thinking of buying a share, try and meet with at least one set of your prospective new co-owners to get a feel of the boat "ethos". Even within the Ownerships scheme some owners view their boat as a holiday let scheme, whereas other owners work comfortably together to maintain and improve their boat.
Most of the Ownerships boats operate a similar annual booking system but rotate in reverse, ie pairs move up the list. There is more information about school holiday shares on the Ownerships Website www.ownerships.co.uk. 
