My uncle used to own a fairly large shrimp/crabbing boat, and he ran a fishing crew for nearly 20 years. He said “They say the best days in a boat owners life are the day you buy, and the day you sell. There is a Third option, the day you realize you can rent you boat to a crew, and not have to deal with most of the issues, and still make money.” Yeah, he eventually was in too bad of shape to continue, so he started renting his boat out to crews, they covered fuel, and short term maintenance, while he was responsible for the big stuff. Made a nice side income from it, and started a plumbing business.
In a way yes, however this is rather common for small scale commercial fishing. Boats like that are ridiculously expensive, so a lot of people branching out on their own often rent until they can afford a down payment on their own boat. The loans for which are far more predatory, unfortunately.
My uncle used to own a fairly large shrimp/crabbing boat, and he ran a fishing crew for nearly 20 years. He said “They say the best days in a boat owners life are the day you buy, and the day you sell. There is a Third option, the day you realize you can rent you boat to a crew, and not have to deal with most of the issues, and still make money.” Yeah, he eventually was in too bad of shape to continue, so he started renting his boat out to crews, they covered fuel, and short term maintenance, while he was responsible for the big stuff. Made a nice side income from it, and started a plumbing business.
Sounds like parasitic behavior to me. Literal rent-seeking.
In a way yes, however this is rather common for small scale commercial fishing. Boats like that are ridiculously expensive, so a lot of people branching out on their own often rent until they can afford a down payment on their own boat. The loans for which are far more predatory, unfortunately.