Anyone familiar with Barcelona ?

[Boatbore]

I am thinking of buying an 18m Ferretti and keeping it in Barcelona and wondered if, with your usual all knowing expertise, forum members would have any views on the best (or worst!) marinas there..... There seems to be plenty of choice and all seem similarly priced. I would also be interested to know if anyone has had success with a local concierge or boat management firm there as well. I am toying with the perennial permanent crew vs seasonal crew argument. In favour of a permanent skipper is the lower monthly salary, but the constant maintenance and cleaning but against is the high fixed annual cost, The seasonal bloke (or lady !) is a higher per month costs then requires using a local managemnet company to take care of her the rest of the time (which will I suspect even out a lot of the cost arguments!) . I am leaning towards permanent (more expensive but probably just easier in the long run !).

As usual. Your insightful (and mocking !) comments are all welcome ?

 

[DavidJ]

Port Vell is of course the place to be for being on the doorstep of Barcelona life. Next I guess is Port Olympic with loads of bars and restaurants and with of course all the accompanying noise. Port Forum and Mataro are bleak. To the south is Ginesta which is near a quarry so your boat will be covered in grit. Barcelona is a great location for the city but very dull boating locally. On the positive you are only 100 miles from the Balearics,
Hope this helps

 

[Boatbore]

Very helpful. Someone suggested I try Sitges which I think is also to the South..... perhaps its too far from Barcelona, or perhaps that is Ginesta that you refer to ? I am really looking for a good quality, safe marina, where the facilities work and the service is as they describe it. The idea of being in Barcelona would probably focus on being able to hire a skipper who lives locally so that he doesnt have to live aboard.

 

[scoty]

Port El Masnou, is for you,

 

[Seastoke]

Sitiges is good if you are gay ,so kawasaki told me.

 

[Cardo]

We've only been there in passing, but one of the best people to speak to will be PaulineB. They've had their motorboat there for years, and were until recently in the process of moving it to Corfu. I'm sure she'll be happy to explain why.

 

[landlockedpirate]

Spent some time in Port Olympic while waiting for a weather window to Menorca. We loved Barcelona, but hated Port Olympic. The noise from the bars and restaurants seems to be amplified by the concrete construction and shape of the marina, 10 garage sized night clubs blasting Euro Pop all night wasnt great for a pleasant sleep. I would avoid and look to one of the many other marina's in the area.

 

[DavidJ]

Usually by this time someone has popped up with Sant Carles. Quite a bit away south of Barcelona but how many times do you really want to visit the city. I've visited a few times and been very well received by lots of lovely forumites there.
I'm based much further north in Empuriabrava, Spain (20 or so miles from the French border) because I like the spectacular cruising ground just ten minutes from the marina (Cap de Creus etc)

 

[Spi D]

Visited Mataro to view a boat. Seemed nice on the day, but not a place I'd keep a boat.

Security and access control was agile. Suggests a somewhat demanding region.

 

[Hurricane]

Yep - David beat me to it.

Why Barcelona?
Great place to visit but I'm not sure I would want to keep the boat there.

As David said, there are quite a few of us at Sant Carles - about 2 hour drive south of Barcelona - we often use Barcelona (El Prat) Airport during the winter instead of our local one.

We have our own boatyard and there is a fantastic lagoon right outside the marina where you can "drop the hook" and sup Spanish Cava as the sun sets over the mountains.
The big difference though would be that Sant Carles is a sleepy Spanish resort - busy in the summer months and really quiet other times.

You could sign up to our Sant Carles Marina Forum and see what berth holders are saying
The web address is www.scmchat.com - free of course.

Here's the promotion video for the marina

 

[scoty]

This is europe..............does anything work ?

 

[lambohill]

Sant Carles is a sleepy Spanish resort - busy in the summer months and really quiet other times.



Not so sleepy at 'lo cafe de port', just back from SCM and can report that it is open till 5am even now pre summer !

But they do have a different time clock in spain.

And yes as Hurricane said Barcelona is under 2 hours, as is Valencia.

 

[John100156]

....and don't forget Reus airport - it's under an hour's drive to SCM and motorway door to door....!

I visited Port Vell for a couple of days; Barcelona is an interesting city of course and I did like the marina but I much prefer to be located in the quaint, safe and secure environment that is Sant Carles. If I wish to visit Barcelona or Valencia, I can coastal hop up or down in the boat, or for a day trip there is a train station just outside SC (10 mins) called L'Aldea which runs regular and fast trains to both cities.

Great marina SCM and excellent facilities, also very helpful staff. I just had my F43 out for annual maintenance/AF/anodes - I popped out via Reus as I wanted to drive her over to the boatyard myself to fit a new trim tab motor (yes you can still work on your own boats in SCM!) had her lifted out at the time we arranged, pressure washed, securely held parked on boat stands for 5 days, I then had to fly back to the UK. The boatyard team arranged to re-launch a day earlier than planned, as all works were completed on time and they even arranged for MDL's marineros to drag the boat back onto its berth. All of this for around £350 including lifts, wash, storage for 4 days, relaunching and carefully repositioning back on her berth - very fair price and an excellent service. Well managed and very friendly marina and Town.

Check out www.scmchat.com for further information, we even have our own berth holders Forum...!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I am thinking of buying an 18m Ferretti

A man with great style and taste! Which model?

keeping it in Barcelona

We had a few days in Port Vell a few years ago and it is indeed right in the centre of Barcelona city life but IMHO, I would be concerned about 2 things. First, when we were there, there seemed to be a few dodgy people hanging around outside the marina and whilst security seemed good, I would be concerned about leaving a boat there unattended for long periods. Second, the coastline north and south is boring and uninteresting. You would have to cruise at least an hour before you got to the Costa Brava and a coastline with any anchorages. Personally I would be considering a Palma marina which has a similar city centre vibe as Barcelona but which is close to a fabulous cruising area

 

[Boatbore]

Thanks to all for your insightful views and opinions as usual. I fully understand the point about Barcelona being a bit "big city" with all the negatives (and maybe a few positives ....at a stretch !) that that entails. I was thinking big city for 2 reasons, 1) very easy for me to get there. Like so many of us, my most valuable commodity is time, so keeping the boat within 45 mins of an easyjet flight is attractive. 2) I am (still) mulling over full time crew, and if I did go down this route might be more likely to find someone who lived in Barcelona to manage the boat when we're not on her but still easy for me to pop down (even for the day) if something needs checking out / 2nd opinion etc. This point is also relevant to cruising, as, if i do go for full time skipper then he/she can deliver to nicer cruising grounds. We will always spend the summer in South of France anyway, so its really for the out of season and lay up period that I want to find a cheap "home" with the advantage of not too far from Mallorca, and from Costa Brava where we have a lot of friends.

 

[Boatbore]

A man with great style and taste! Which model?


The 57, from 1999. Great 3 cabon layout, plus 2 (yes 2 !) crew cabins - so plenty of room for an extra child or whatever, or as is often the case....a giant storage area !

 

[jfm]

Thanks to all for your insightful views and opinions as usual. I fully understand the point about Barcelona being a bit "big city" with all the negatives (and maybe a few positives ....at a stretch !) that that entails. I was thinking big city for 2 reasons, 1) very easy for me to get there. Like so many of us, my most valuable commodity is time, so keeping the boat within 45 mins of an easyjet flight is attractive. 2) I am (still) mulling over full time crew, and if I did go down this route might be more likely to find someone who lived in Barcelona to manage the boat when we're not on her but still easy for me to pop down (even for the day) if something needs checking out / 2nd opinion etc. This point is also relevant to cruising, as, if i do go for full time skipper then he/she can deliver to nicer cruising grounds. We will always spend the summer in South of France anyway, so its really for the out of season and lay up period that I want to find a cheap "home" with the advantage of not too far from Mallorca, and from Costa Brava where we have a lot of friends.

Surely then you're better keeping the boat in Palma or Antibes. Loads of flights daily (with several airlines) from London and a quick transfer airport-to-boat (30mins from plane wheels hitting the tarmac to you being on the boat). also there isa much bigger pool of potential skippers and stewies to hire in both those locations

Thr money you'll save in fuel from being in a nice cruisng ground rather than 100nm away will more than pay for the price premium.

BTW, for swapping between Balearics and SofF, Antibes-Mahon is 268nm fuel berth to fuel berth. Try to get a boat with 300nm range. A lot of P boats wont do this and force you to do a non-direct passage to buy fuel

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

The 57, from 1999. Great 3 cabon layout, plus 2 (yes 2 !) crew cabins - so plenty of room for an extra child or whatever, or as is often the case....a giant storage area !

Nice. Is that the one that Ventura are advertising? Have to agree with jfm. A Palma marina would be even more convenient that Barcelona. Loads of flights, 15mins from the airport, an excellent boating infrastructure much of it run by British ex pats so no language probs, a great cruising area on your doorstep and in a vibrant city. As for delivering the boating to Majorca from Barcelona, its not just the fuel cost but the extra wear and tear on the engines and the extra engine hours costing you depreciation, not to mention weather delays. We had a season in Denia with the same idea of commuting out to the Balearics regularly but after 1 season I'd had enough of the hassle of doing that and decided to berth permanently in Palma, where we stayed for 5yrs

 

[Boatbore]

Thanks JFM, much appreciated, but I was thinking along the lines of trying to expand crusing ground AWAY from South of France, although we invariably will spend a lot of time there. I know it all very well round there having kept boats in Frejus, Port Cogolin, Beaulieu and St Jean, and the reality of an 18.7m berth (assuming I can find one to rent rather than to buy) is probably somwehere in the Euro 18 - 25k per year, vs the same berth in mainland Spain at less than half that. My plan is to permament berth in Spain, and get the benefit of new crusing ground outside the July/August prime time, and then for the summer period to bring her across to SoF (St. Tropez area rather than Antibes which is then hour and a half from Nice on a good day, 2.5 hours on a bad day !) where I can get temporary moorings (in Marines des Cog and Port Grimaud) although admittedly only with a bit of pushing and shoving for the summer months. That way I am only paying the transit costs once (there and back) which should be less in fuel costs than the saving PLUS i get the benefit of almost half price for maintenance and labour in Spain vs ridiculous SoF pricing. I would be very interested if you (violently!) disagree, notwithstanding both Palma and Antibes being very nice places to keep a boat ! I am off down to Antibes tomorrow for the classic sailing regatta (Yes I know and am probably inviting some derision ..... but I go both ways Mobo AND sailing !)

 

[jfm]

Thanks JFM, much appreciated, but I was thinking along the lines of trying to expand crusing ground AWAY from South of France, although we invariably will spend a lot of time there. I know it all very well round there having kept boats in Frejus, Port Cogolin, Beaulieu and St Jean, and the reality of an 18.7m berth (assuming I can find one to rent rather than to buy) is probably somwehere in the Euro 18 - 25k per year, vs the same berth in mainland Spain at less than half that. My plan is to permament berth in Spain, and get the benefit of new crusing ground outside the July/August prime time, and then for the summer period to bring her across to SoF (St. Tropez area rather than Antibes which is then hour and a half from Nice on a good day, 2.5 hours on a bad day !) where I can get temporary moorings (in Marines des Cog and Port Grimaud) although admittedly only with a bit of pushing and shoving for the summer months. That way I am only paying the transit costs once (there and back) which should be less in fuel costs than the saving PLUS i get the benefit of almost half price for maintenance and labour in Spain vs ridiculous SoF pricing. I would be very interested if you (violently!) disagree, notwithstanding both Palma and Antibes being very nice places to keep a boat ! I am off down to Antibes tomorrow for the classic sailing regatta (Yes I know and am probably inviting some derision ..... but I go both ways Mobo AND sailing !)

Ah ok, and I hadn't appreciated you know the ropes so well! Yes, if you keep the Spain/France delivery trip to one return go per year then the cost savings make it just about work. You can cut maintenance pricing in SofF if you get a good network of boat-fixers and do some of the clubbing together that happens including on this forum (eg flying VolvoPaul down to service engines, etc) but I agree it can be expensive

But I'm not sure I'd choose Barca, personally, because it feels to me like there is zero scope for weekend boating due to the flat coastline

As a left-field idea, why not check out an annual berth in Italy like Port Loano, then do a short delivery trip to st Trop each summer. NCE and GEN to Loano are quickish by car, same as St Trop, and same A8 motorway but t'other direction. for long weekend boating you have eastern Cote D'Azur 1.5 hours and Corsica 3 hours

There was much prep going on for the Voiles d'antibes last weekend - all looking good. I plan to be spectating from the boat this coming weekend - I go both ways too (one of my tenders is a Laser ). They have some lovely pictures of Antibes and the yachts from last year's regatta on their website. First pic below is Cap d'Antibes from distance. Second pic reminds you of the need for a non-flat coast line; it shows Garoupe Bay on E side of the Cap in the forecround, with Lerin islands and Esterels in far distance, and St Tropez/Pampelone beach in the far distant mist on the horizon. I'd rather have 16m in this sort of coastline (Cote D'Azur or Palma/S Mallorca) than an 18m on the flat S Spain coastline - meant as food for thought!