Bailing out of Greece

[nimbusgb]

Anyone else considering bailing out of Greece? The tail end of last year saw provisioning prices in Greece reach silly levels with goods in supermarkets outstripping the local Waitrose here at home.

With the current economic climate in Greece I can only see rampant inflation as the locals try to make up for the fact that they will actually have to pay their taxes, fund their public services and service their debts.

 

[Wandering Star]

I've gotta say it's not just Greece, over the years I've visited Portugal several times and fell in love with the place so decided to keep Stingo in the marina at Lagos without doing any resarch on currents prices (stupid, I know) and the costs are now exhorbitant, I simply can't afford the 12 month contract and had to make do with a 9 month contract. The marina is great, the people are lovely but the costs are unaffordable for me, much higher than the costs in the UK and I can't afford them either!

I recently needed a bit of stainless steel fabrication to extend my steering pedestal in order to install my Raymarine chartplotter at the helm, the boatyard quoted £1800 so I took the pedestal home with me on the plane and have had the same job done locally in the UK for £300. I asked for a quotation from the same yard for a new (fully fitted) VP engine and was quoted €19,000. Out of curiosity I checked the Poole Marine prices and they would have charged £8000 for the same job. Lovely place but crazy prices.

Cheers, Brian.

 

[Appleyard]

Anyone else considering bailing out of Greece? The tail end of last year saw provisioning prices in Greece reach silly levels with goods in supermarkets outstripping the local Waitrose here at home.

With the current economic climate in Greece I can only see rampant inflation as the locals try to make up for the fact that they will actually have to pay their taxes, fund their public services and service their debts.

So where would you suggest...Turkey? read the liveaboard discussions re new regs etc. Prices there are not cheap any more.
Italy? Spain ? France ? how about the good old UK the Solent for instance.

Just adapt.

 

[nimbusgb]

So where would you suggest...Turkey? read the liveaboard discussions re new regs etc. Prices there are not cheap any more.
Italy? Spain ? France ? how about the good old UK the Solent for instance.

Just adapt.

I'll try that on my boss. I need another 20% to adapt to the Greek sailing prices. That'll go down well!

 

[webcraft]

.
It's starting to look as though the UK is now the cheapest sailing area in Europe . . . we sometimes entertain thoughts of moving our boat back to the Canaries, but what are prices there like? I checked out berthing in Las Palmas recently and it gone up substantially since we were there three years ago, but not stupidly.

- W

 

[nimbusgb]

Yup. Hunkering down for the next couple of seasons on the South Coast might not be a bad idea. The money saved on flights and other costs will just about pay for the excess mooring fees

 

[TheCrimsonVicar]

Whatever the outcome of the growing crisis in the Eurozone (its all feeling a bit Lehman-like at the moment; indecision, no clear action, VIX rising, vultures sharpening their claws: switch out of equities into cash till it blows over if I were you) one thing is clear and that is the days of the strong € are over for some time.Relatively prices in Spain, Portugal etc are going to be much more attractive to holders of £ and $ over the next few years simply due to a much improved forex. If deflation hits the Med countries too, almost inevitable I'd say, then there's no reason to be pessimistic.
I'd say that come late summer there's going to be distressed sale bargains galore in the marinas of the Canaries, Ibiza etc for anyone who can pay in sterling. Not only that but the marinas will be absolutely delighted to accept deeply discounted fees in nice crisp £ or $.
A little patience and we'll find the Med a bargain again before the end of this year.

 

[nimbusgb]

I wouldn't want to move before the end of the summer anyway since I have stumped up this years fees already. Will be keeping my eye on things in the meantime. You never know what might happen!

 

[rivonia]

Whatever the outcome of the growing crisis in the Eurozone (its all feeling a bit Lehman-like at the moment; indecision, no clear action, VIX rising, vultures sharpening their claws: switch out of equities into cash till it blows over if I were you) one thing is clear and that is the days of the strong € are over for some time.Relatively prices in Spain, Portugal etc are going to be much more attractive to holders of £ and $ over the next few years simply due to a much improved forex. If deflation hits the Med countries too, almost inevitable I'd say, then there's no reason to be pessimistic.
I'd say that come late summer there's going to be distressed sale bargains galore in the marinas of the Canaries, Ibiza etc for anyone who can pay in sterling. Not only that but the marinas will be absolutely delighted to accept deeply discounted fees in nice crisp £ or $.
A little patience and we'll find the Med a bargain again before the end of this year.

Unfortunately not so. The marinas in Spain will not take Sterling- I tried to pay with it. Only euroes senor.

Peter

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Sailing has always been expensive in Greece; in the 60's 70's 80's and the beginning of the 90's. In the last 10 years or so, prices have gone down a lot, as a result of the organised sailing charter holidays; but it appears that prices are going back to what it was before; the Demand and Supply rule again prevails.

However, why people stick to the Greek islands? the mainland sea coast is even better, especially east and north of Attica and around Evia and cheaper.

Also, those who go to Greece regularly, it will be to their advantage if they could learn a bit of Greek; you will be amazed how much Greeks appreciate it and are willing to negotiate better prices. There are two price deals; one for the Greek speakers and one for the non-Greek speakers, whatever the nationality.

 

[V1701]

...as the locals try to make up for the fact that they will actually have to pay their taxes, fund their public services and service their debts.

...sorry but that comes across as disrespectful to me, do the Greek people owe you something?

 

[TheCrimsonVicar]

Unfortunately not so. The marinas in Spain will not take Sterling- I tried to pay with it. Only euroes senor.
Peter

Sure, appreciate that is the case at this moment in time. However, if I am correct and the Euro, shall we say, loses its strength and credibility over the coming months then you may well find that cash £ or $ transactions become rather popular with the locals. Marinas, with their bureacracy and council oversight may not, but any privately owned business is a different matter.

 

[DownWest]

Disrespectfull, perhaps. Realistic, maybe. According to the news, the greeks owe a lot to many people and are not keen on paying it back. They got into the EMU on bent rules and accepted the goodies, now coming home to roost. I briefly thought of moving to Greece, after a couple of fun visits over 20 yrs. Quickly came to my senses.
As for the prices in Lagos, I was asked to do some SS work for a boat there. I was also told if I wanted to work there I needed to pay a yearly fee to the management for the right. No receipt, just a bung. And not cheap. But not unexpected. I had to pay such things a few times over the my years there.
A

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Sure, appreciate that is the case at this moment in time. However, if I am correct and the Euro, shall we say, loses its strength and credibility over the coming months then you may well find that cash £ or $ transactions become rather popular with the locals. Marinas, with their bureacracy and council oversight may not, but any privately owned business is a different matter.

Hope you are right; but indications are that the £ will get wicker from late summer onwards. The euro land countries don't like dealing with anything but Euros

 

[Ubergeekian]

...sorry but that comes across as disrespectful to me, do the Greek people owe you something?

They're about to owe the Germans and the French a heck of a lot - which could have been avoided if they paid their taxes in the first place.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

They're about to owe the Germans and the French a heck of a lot - which could have been avoided if they paid their taxes in the first place.

Ireland, Portugal, Spain together with Greece were responsible for 8 to 10 % annual growth, which kept EU going for the last 10 years; now is pay back time; incidentally all of which have great sailing waters.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

They're about to owe the Germans and the French a heck of a lot - which could have been avoided if they paid their taxes in the first place.

Whats the betting that a lot of the loans made to Greece and which are now likely to become non performing were made by RBS and B of S ?

 

[Colvic Watson]

...sorry but that comes across as disrespectful to me, do the Greek people owe you something?

No, but their own govt puts the non-payment of taxes at over 40%, that is ingrained in the culture. They passed the Maastricht entry requirements for EMU by including their black economy figures in the headline GDP.

 

[David_Jersey]

No, but their own govt puts the non-payment of taxes at over 40%, that is ingrained in the culture. They passed the Maastricht entry requirements for EMU by including their black economy figures in the headline GDP.

I wouldn't get too keen on Greece starting to collect it's taxes - "Offshore" for Greece means London.

 

[haydude]

So where would you suggest...Turkey? read the liveaboard discussions re new regs etc. Prices there are not cheap any more.
Italy? Spain ? France ? how about the good old UK the Solent for instance.

Just adapt.

Turkey? I would not trust the place, they have an habit to change their laws to favour themselves. See what happened to Sunsail, you may find youself with an impounded yacht one day.

I just looked at Italy. More expensive than the UK. 1,000Euros/month for a berth without finger pontoon.

The trouble is that with the weak Pound we have become the poors of Europe. Will have to sail with patches on sails and oilies soon.