Berths on Costa Blanca

[Oceanranger]

Later this year we are moving to Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca and plan to take our 11.5 metre Westerly (draught 1.52 metres) to Spain the following year. Preliminary enquiries have drawn a blank regarding marina berths. Does anyone know of any marinas along that coast which might have a permanent berth available? Are there any limits on the time a UK yacht can stay in Spain, given that we will be resident there?



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[tcm]

In the med, the situation is quite unlike UK marinas. in the uk, the marina operator rents out the spaces for a year or a night, and controls what's what. Except for about 3% of UK berths, all of them are held by marina operators and rented for max 1 year at a time.

In the med, an average 80% of berths have been sold on a long lease 25- 50 years - and by "sold" i mean that teh "subletting and resale" rights have been sold to an individual. That means it's a private as your house. Even when you're not there- nobody can just nip into your driveway and stay the night can they? No. Even the marina operator can't use these berths. it's yours.

The "number of visitors berths" is actually the "number of berths" in uk-speak - and all of them might be rented out on an annual contract.

Anyway, if you speak to a marina operator, who says no, he's just talking about the berths that he controls - which mite be only a fifth of them. Ask around the marina, ask the brokers who themselves buy berths so that they can run a brokerage business, all of these will have a berth that they *coiuld* let you have.

BUT having got a berth thru a broker, pls do not imagine that you can keep it, together with grumbling rights, for the rest of your life as in UK. You can't. The marina operator might or might not run in strict rotation (and anyway you ain't spanish or french so you8 aren't at front of that queue and may never be) and everyone else will move people/mates/their own boat in and out of their own berths from one year to the next.

long term solution is buiy your own berth somewhere, then you are sorted for life. Also, berth prices go up. Well, actually ahem they have done the going up already, praps 200-300% in last 6 years. Cos they are hardly makig any more berths, but lots more boats.

Its all feels a bit shady and dodgy. Because it is.




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[sailorgirl]

You could try one of the yacht clubs - we overnighted at several on the Costas during our trip to the Med 2001-2002. Very friendly and even when busy were happy to find space for an above average sized boat.

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[nicho]

Had a couple of hours to kill in Alicante this week, so went to the (huge) marina. It is modern, easy to walk into town, and has a huge main pontoon that you can drive down to unload directly from your car!. The individual pontoons have fingers for easy berthing. It is surrounded by reasonable restaurants etc.

I checked out the cost for our 11.4 metre boat - £2300 (2003 prices), not bad compared to the UK South Coast! Certainly worth a look - I think there are vacancies still for this year, but you would need to check.

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[Escapeii]

Sorry to ask the obvious but have you tried the Marina Internacional de Torrevieja, not to be confused with the Club Nautica .......
Ask for Eduardo +34 965713650.

We left our boat (11.3m) their last summer, high season 300 euros per month. The annual cost would have below £2000. The Club Nautica was considerably more expensive.

As one of the other contributors said a lot of the berths are privates owned and cash deals can be made, this is definitely the case in Torrevieja.
If we had lived nearer I would have been very happy to keep our boat there.

Minor point but the loo & shower block is one of the cleanest I have ever had to pleasure to use.


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[lezgar]

If you are resident in Spain you have to register your boat in the Spanish Register and this can be a nightmare. More information: (Spanish)
http://www.mfom.es/marinamercante/subdireccion_trafico/procedimentosregistro.htm
http://www.aeat.es/aduanas/normativa/ley381992/titulo_2.htm
http://www.mfom.es/marinamercante/subdireccion_trafico/titulaciones.htm
http://www.mfom.es/marinamercante/s...eccion_reglamentaria_embarcaciones_recreo.htm

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