Thanks very much for your input. Your point regarding joint ownership by husband and wife makes perfect sense. It’s perfectly understandable that they’d wish to portray themselves in the best possible light. I’ll ask Challenger to clarify, and if I get a definitive answer, I’ll let you know.

Andrew Barton claims they have 59 boats, and over 900 customers, so that works out at about 15 owners per boat. I’m unsure why they’re being so evasive with these figures; surely a customer has a right to know this information without being misled.

Does anyone know if there’s a centralised register of ownership where I could verify this information for myself.

Mick,
There used to be on the Advertising Standards Authority website, a slap-on-the-wrist for how the Company displayed this date-of-formation information - and Google used to present the adjudication as the first search result, no doubt to the Company's intense irritation.

So what's the problem you have with them? It's a rhetorical question, given this thread, of course

It should be noted that for legal reasons a response to this message was deleted.

I was also able to track down further details of the complaints that where withheld against challenger by the Advertising Standards Authority. Full details are available on request from the ASA for anyone who's really interested. In summary the complaints where as follows:

The first complaint was due to Challengers claim to be “Number 1 for shared boating ownership in Europe”. As the ASA where not provided with evidence to substantiate that claim, they considered that this was misleading.

The second complaint was due to Challenger claiming to have been “established for ten years”. Again the ASA concluded that this claim was misleading, and Challenger where asked to take more care to ensure claims in future where more accurate.

The latest director’s report and financial statements filed with companies’ house in September 2006 specifically states that the company actually commenced trading on 5th August 2004, having been dormant since incorporation in October 1997.

The accounts show a turnover of 49,140, and Challenger report a net loss for the year of 20,617. These figures and indeed far more detailed information is available in the public domain, should anyone wish to verify these figures for themselves. I dont know the value of canal boats, but Id wager 49K wouldnt buy you very much

The final complaint was due to Challenger claiming “27 boats operating in three countries”. The ASA where concerned that Challenger had failed to show satisfactory evidence that they had 27 boats. I believe that a number of boats that where claimed to be operational, where in fact still under construction.

The ASA asked Challenger to consult with the Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice team before advertising again (http://www.cap.org.uk)

What I have found whilst undertaking due diligence into a number of boat share companies, is that it’s a real minefield, there’s a lot of useful information out there but it takes some digging up, and the more you dig, the more you find

regards
mick