OwnerShips mourns

OwnerShips boats Shadow and Slipstream on the Shroppie

Yesterday afternoon the death was announced of Allen Matthews, the boss of shared boat company OwnerShips. He had had cancer.

Allen founded OwnerShips in 1990 and remained its managing director. It is thanks to him that I got back into boating after a long gap after our children were born. We bought our share in Shadow in September 2002 and have enjoyed many weeks of excellent cruising, with many more, no doubt, ahead of us. Under Allen's direction the shared ownership scheme has always felt more like a club than a business, with well-organised annual meetings in Birmingham for owners (no compulsion to attend); the unmoderated (but self-controlled) discussion forum where any criticism of the company is uncensored and always taken seriously; and the annual OwnerShips Show at Braunston.

It was the discussion forum which provided the impetus for my joining the scheme. Anyone posting that they were considering buying a share of a boat would receive numerous replies from satisfied members all saying how good it was, yet the same tentative enquirer would read posts on minor quibbles with the company and see how honest were the replies.

At the annual owners' meetings Allen Matthews would, at some point in the proceedings, recount a funny thing that happened to a boater in the summer, or tell a tale of disaster narrowly avoided, in his fairly dry style.

The OwnerShips discussion forum has already received many tributes to Allen Matthews. I'm sure there will be many more.