If a luxury home can be shared via a destination club, why not divide a yacht? Bob Kyle, the founder of Yacht Share, is betting consumers will find the appeal of his new fractional program a better alternative to the upside-down economics of owning your own boat.

From his perspective, the cost of buying and operating a luxury yacht goes something like this:

You find a $800,000 yacht, put $180,000 down, and make a monthly loan payment of around $4,700. The cost quickly climbs to over $6,800 a month as gas, cleaning, marina fees and other costs start to get factored in. Add to that time spent learning how to drive and dock the boat, a couple of major repairs that drive your out-of-pocket expense from $180,000 to over $200,000, and getting caught in a small storm – all conspire to make the process a more expensive hassle than first expected.

Kyle has developed a club-based program that offers a simple way to lease the “yacht life,” with a one year, 1/10th share (28 days of sailing per year) of a 6-person, luxury SunSeeker Manhattan 50 yacht. Monthly cost? $1,200.

You get four weeks of usage of the yacht, a captain on-board, access to a travel concierge, and guest privileges to two yacht clubs in Miami. Kyle started Yacht Share with three yachts and we assume more are planned.

Like destination clubs, the model sounds like a simpler way to get guaranteed access to a yacht – although we want to learn more from Kyle and his members why this is a better alternative than just renting. For the cost of a destination club membership, you can even get access to Tom Perkins’ $100 million Maltese Falcon ($500,000 charter rate).

If there is strong demand for fractional usage of yachts, then the opportunity looks good for Yacht Share, especially as a partner to destination clubs. Already, we’ve seen Dream Catcher Retreats decline buying yachts since they are not appreciating assets, which destination clubs need to back up membership refund obligations.

Solstice, Exclusive Resorts, and Quintess are three destination clubs that currently provide their members with access to yachts. We’ve mentioned The Solstice in the past. We’ll write about The World and The Essence in upcoming posts.