yacht and divorce

Give her the house. Wives are only interested in boats as a bargaining tool. I remember one braniac who gave up all to keep his 50' SR Dancer. He then spent about 30K putting in an oil fired heating system with plans to live aboard. He lasted one winter. Really though you should be talking with a divorce lawyer. The person that advises you needs to know the whole situation. I know that what you're probably alluding to is documenting the boat under a corporation, but any attorney worth his salt is going to check back at least a year before papers were filed and bust you cold.

Well, been there done that:
Back in 1988 the X-wife and me lived on a 44' Bermuda in the Virgin Islands.
Joint owners, yacht paid for.
Then we divorced.

I gave her my part, take it honey, go sailing..

I left the boat with a small suitcase and started over taking a job in Germany and never looked back.
Being 31 years old at the time I had plenty of time to recover and had a blast meeting new girls and partying 24/7..Screw the yacht.

The OP's question was perhaps about a big expensive Yacht and if so, get an expensive lawyer, just like the ex-wife will do: Sink a few hundred grand into each lawyer, recover the bits and pieces and lick your wounds..

Have to differ with you on the expensive lawyer. He'll end up with the boat. Sell it and split the money.

Ultimately it may end up if there are no other assets that the only answer is selling the yacht.

In a situation like this though you need to know the laws of your state. Each state is different. Florida, if that is your residence, is an Equitable Property State, not a Community Property State. So things acquired during marriage are not automatically 50/50 owned. It can depend on whose money purchased and how titled and many other factors.

I would say this. There are two ways of ending a relationship whether marriage or business. One is all parties just sit and agree and it's easy. The other is spending lots of money on lawyers. The only one who wins is the attorney, especially if the assets are limited. However, if one party decides to go that route, then the other has no choice. I would just advise you both to get an understanding of how much lawyers will cost and then consider if there isn't a way of agreeing and just getting the agreement drawn up. $10,000 is a small bill in a contested divorce. That's $10,000 each so $20,000 total, and as I indicated that is the low end. Some states too require mediation and it doesn't come cheap either.

Also, if you are able to agree without lawyers, you often can maintain a decent relationship, if not a friendship. Once you go to lawyers, it get's ugly as each is trying to attack the other. So, however things are going in, they get much worse.

Elegant resolution

Perhaps the marital discord could be resolved by a romantic off-shore cruise, in which a discussion of the differences, unfettered by the mundane noise of day to day living, could be resolved. We all know how sea breeze and wave motion can crystallize the most opaque of problems. We also know there is a certain risk of a mechanical catastrophe, in which the amply insured yacht might be tragically lost, and that, in the darkest of circumstances, one's spouse might suffer a fate similar to the vessel. Any noble effort carries with it a certain degree of risk.

Certainly one can never replace a beloved boat, and even less so one's life partner. However, in the bleakest hours of grief, the selection of a new vessel, perhaps upgraded by the addition of a life insurance policy in addition to the yacht insurance, can initiate the healing process.

Now here's where smilie faces could come in real handy. That was tongue on cheek right?

You can either let your soon to be ex have it, or let all the leaches,I mean lawyers, have it... Since many people would do anything not to have an ex get something, the lawyers usually end up winning.

LOL......Easy, find a new girlfriend with a bigger boat.

So size does matter?

I'm not sure, Foriegn Flagging it possibly? Move into it and claim it as your home? Talk to a divorce attorney, not us.

Hi,

I know a guy who is going through a divorce right now in FL. The advice he has received to date would not support this as written above.

Best way to avoid divorce is probably the simplest - Don't get married in the first place.

Divorce

Meet a girl, buy her a house, fancy car give her a million bucks get married have children, get divorced buy her another house even fancier car and another million bucks and then meet another girl and restart the process. After the 4th or 5th time that 40' 1978 island trader will seem like a mega yacht alongside every other divorced guys yacht down in the Keys.

PS. Send me that attorneys number, when money & minor children are involved $20,000 in fees is what you start at.

Great post!

I would just shanghai her lawyer, then toss him overboard tied to an anchor. Or sell him in the dr.

There's an old Ray Stevens song where he concludes after several divorces that next time he's just going to find some woman he hates and buy her a house.

And for the future, remember that if it F....s, F...s or F....s, it's cheaper to rent, plus you can get a new model every time.

Well, my wife is certainly not cheap, but worth every penny. She did come with some of her own money and I honestly do consider her an equal part of everything we've earned since. We consider ourselves very fortunate. I think a lot of it was we were so honest up front and went through the worst things we could encounter plus knew the worst of each other, so everything since has been wonderful. Our start was certainly not traditional, but so much of dating and even early years of most marriages appears to be just presenting your best side. Oh and as to divorce, I can't imagine it, but we've always had a written agreement, actually updated along the way. We actually have a lawyer update it and all we really do is sign it.

When it's good there's nothing better, but these days that's the exception more than the rule. Since we got together when we were both young, poor and stupid no agreements have been needed (in fact there was no such thing back then). Today it should be mandatory. I think the OP is finding out it would have been nice to have one....or to have rented.