Have your dreams of standing on a sailing deck in new boat shoes, hair blowing in the wind as you navigate the Mediterranean Sea been quashed, simply because you couldn’t find the funds to buy a boat for your adventure?
Well now, the Danish startup Boatflex will make it easier to captain that sailing trip you’ve always envisioned by allowing you to rent boats from owners looking to earn extra money and get their boat back on the high seas.
Using Boatflex’s peer-to-peer sharing app, Europeans who own a boat – ranging from a kayak to a yacht – can rent them out to people who can’t afford the costs associated with owning one or who would simply like to experience the rush of being out at sea for a day.
“Our research shows that many people would like to go on a sailing holiday, but can’t’ sail a boat. We want to provide everyone with the opportunity to experience the joy of sailing,” explained Boatflex’s founder and chief executive Jakob Bojesen.
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Your sailing escape
Boatflex’s eagerness to “turn everyone into sailors” has enabled the start-up to amass several million kroner in investments and become the leading platform for private boat sharing in northern Europe.
Not restricted by geography, you could be the talk of the family Christmas party and make your partner happy when you take the in-laws on a yachting expedition to the Greek Isles. If that seems a little ambitious, no boat is too small to gather a few friends for beers and a runout on the Copenhagen canals.
Boaty McCashface
According to the Dansk Sail Union, maintenance fees for a 9-metre boat can exceed 100,000 kroner a year, but Boatflex gives you the opportunity to dust off your little-used marine craft and earn some of that cash back.
“Boatflex is on a mission to break down the barriers for sailing by making it more flexible, easy and cheap,” said Bojesen.
“But equally important, Boatflex assists boat owners in bringing down the cost of owning a boat by making it possible to rent it out for sailing or even just for accommodation.”
With that in mind and over 1,400 boats currently registered, Bojesen and the founders Tattodo Mik Thobo-Carlsen and Olympic gold medallist Jonas Høgh-Christensen are eager to move the project to the next level.
