Boat hunting in Greece?

dgadee

dgadee

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I am thinking of going up a size and also wondering about keeping whatever I buy in the Eastern Med (retirement is getting closer ...). This makes me wonder about buying over there. The forum has plenty of information on the legalities/process of buying in Greece, but not much on the process of finding something. My experience is that you need to look at a good few boats, since the pictures never give you the same as actually seeing a boat in the flesh. If I was to arrange a trip to Greece over the coming months, when would be be the best time and where would most laid up boats be?
 
Id suggest looking on apolloduck and narrowing down what you would like and see if you can group them in an area's. There are plenty of liveaboards on the forum so you could maybe ask if they could take a camera down and have a good poke around and give you an idea of the condition etc and then plan your trip round that info. Then at least you wouldnt be wating your time. We will be back in Gouvia in Corfu at the beginning of Sept for example.

Niall
 
I htink 'where' is pretty easy: Preveza. There are three yards there which cumulatively are the biggest in Europe (or so I'm told). There are direct flights from the UK to Aktio/Preveza airport, literally just a couple of km away. Flights are wickedly expensive in high season, but get better into late September. Cleopatra yard (largest of the three at Preveza) even has accommodation for rent. Contact via their website.

As to 'when'...you'll have seen my comment about flight costs, so Sept/October if you prefer to do it this year. I'm not sure when in the season the flights finish, but that will be a factor. Monarch are one of the main carriers, so their web site should tell you. Second part of 'when' is...er,when, lots of boats are on the hard. In other words, mid to late September-on.

Biggest broker in the area is Williams & Smithells, who have a web site. Several Brit surveyors in the area, too.
 
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Neally depends on what sort of boat you are looking for. as already suggested, Preveza/Lefkas is a good place to look, but there are many boats for sale in other parts of Greece. There are a number of active brokers such as Greg Yachts who work all over Greece and Pinnacle Yachts Sales in Corfu. Google will find you more. Many boats are owned by people who live in northern Europe so are often advertised privately or in media in their home countries. You need to follow the procedures for buying and selling in the country the boat is registered or where the owner lives. Very important to see clear documentation, which if the boat is legitimate will probably be very good.

Many boats are also offered for sale by Greek charter companies and newer boats are sold direct by such companies. If buying one of these there are obviously the normal checks and survey, but you also need to be clear who owns the boat, that there is no finance outstanding and the VAT is paid correctly. The actual transfer process is secure, but a bit tedious - lawyers have to get their cut! However, you should end up with good documentation.

September and October are good months to be looking as this is the most common time when people decide to sell or charter companies decide on their replacement programme - some charter boats are actually privately owned and contracts usually finish in October. Spring is also an active period. Nothing much happens in the winter and access is poor unless you fly via Athens.

A good week's itinerary would be fly Easyjet to Corfu - return around £150 and every day. Couple of days on Corfu, then ferry across to mainland, pick up a car and drive down to Levkas for 3 or 4 days and then back to Corfu to get flight home. Obviously good idea to have some boats lined up to view as you can spend ages finding people and boats! You could do a similar trip to the Athens area, but there are probably less privately owned boats for sale there.
 
I did exactly what you're thinking of earlier this year, I'd say you'll need to spend a few weeks minimum, preferably be flexible about when you return. I started off mid April with a week on Corfu, looked at a few boats around there. Then moved on to Lefkas (flight from Corfu to Preveza with Sky Express). IBA Greece, Williams & Smithells & Rachel Mills are based there, you have access to boats moored around Lefkas & also the yards in Preveza (brokers will give you a lift to these from Lefkas). Three weeks in I thought I would be going home not having found a boat or possibly make the decision to increase budget, there's lots of tired boats there at the lower end of the budget. Then I saw a boat advertised in Porto Heli, so bussed over there, saw the boat & bought her. Get a Greek SIM for your phone as soon as you can after arriving, Cosmote have a 10 euro a month PAYG that seemed the best at the time. Keep an eye on the websites every day to see if anything new comes up while you're there, so having a means of accessing the internet with you is very useful - tablet, notebook or whatever, use with free wifi in loads of places. I'm going back in September for 6 months or so & will be around Porto Heli most of that time, I can keep an eye out for anything in that area for you if you like. Bit of a rushed reply but PM me if you have any questions or whatever. Go for it I say...:)
 
Tranona said:
Neally depends on what sort of boat you are looking for. as already suggested, Preveza/Lefkas is a good place to look, but there are many boats for sale in other parts of Greece. There are a number of active brokers such as Greg Yachts who work all over Greece and Pinnacle Yachts Sales in Corfu. Google will find you more. Many boats are owned by people who live in northern Europe so are often advertised privately or in media in their home countries. You need to follow the procedures for buying and selling in the country the boat is registered or where the owner lives. Very important to see clear documentation, which if the boat is legitimate will probably be very good.

Many boats are also offered for sale by Greek charter companies and newer boats are sold direct by such companies. If buying one of these there are obviously the normal checks and survey, but you also need to be clear who owns the boat, that there is no finance outstanding and the VAT is paid correctly. The actual transfer process is secure, but a bit tedious - lawyers have to get their cut! However, you should end up with good documentation.

September and October are good months to be looking as this is the most common time when people decide to sell or charter companies decide on their replacement programme - some charter boats are actually privately owned and contracts usually finish in October. Spring is also an active period. Nothing much happens in the winter and access is poor unless you fly via Athens.

A good week's itinerary would be fly Easyjet to Corfu - return around £150 and every day. Couple of days on Corfu, then ferry across to mainland, pick up a car and drive down to Levkas for 3 or 4 days and then back to Corfu to get flight home. Obviously good idea to have some boats lined up to view as you can spend ages finding people and boats! You could do a similar trip to the Athens area, but there are probably less privately owned boats for sale there.
Click to expand...

That is what I would do but try and get a couple of weeks if you can.
 
Perhaps if you posted generally what sort of boat you're looking for, those of us in the Med could let you know of boats matching that spec in marinas near them? I'd be happy to let you know about the half-dozen for sale here on Crete.
 
Thanks for all the comments - very useful. I do notice from the internet that there are a lot of tired boats out there, but with prices asked being a good bit higher than home. I actually am finding it difficult to pin my ideas down - probably older needing some upgrading (which I am happy to do), 33 -36 foot, ideally 3 cabins, good sailing ability, no deckhouse. And, preferably, little of that horrible treadmaster which seemed to be so fashionable once. That covers all sorts - Freedom 33/35s, the Colvic countess, slightly newer French/German, etc. And, of course, in no hurry to buy.
 
You will find many of the older boats of the type you are looking at very tired. Often they are for sale because the owners have given up after doing the "dream" of sailing down there and now circumstances change so the boat has to go. Hot climates and limited maintenance budgets are hard on such boats. Many are not well suited for the environment being originally built for bashing around the channel rather than floating around the Med. A 10 year old AWB is a much better prospect than a tired 1970's 80's MAB. Don't take too much notice of asking prices for older boats as many are far too optimistic.
 
15%,you having a larf!Owners have highly inflated ideas of the value of thier boats in this market.Unless it's on with a reputable agent(when 15% discount might be right) go for at least 25% discount..after all what have you got to loose.
 
Would depend on how many offers you had had,if any at all.A friend of mine recently had a Bavaria 39(I think or thereabouts )on sale at a South Coast Marina (moved from Southern Ireland as the market there is ckfeu)for a reasonable price (money is not an issue here) but didn't get get one offer so moved it back to Cork and carried on using it.Imagine if they had to sell....NOW DOES 25% off seem unreal..and thier asking price was keen????? not trumped up.
 
We sold our Bavaria 38 via Apollo Duck while it was in Greece. We really did not expect it to sell as it was in Messalonghi over winter, not the easiest place to get to and we put it up for sale to generate interest as we intended to sail it back to the U.K. to sell. We had priced it competitively and within 6 weeks had an offer within 10% of the asking price. It was very well spec'd and in good condition, some one got themselves a very good boat and we were also happy with the deal. When we decided to sell we tried to keep our emotions out of it. There are some very good privately owned boats for sale in Greece and some owners are more realistic than others.
 
Tranona said:
You will find many of the older boats of the type you are looking at very tired. Often they are for sale because the owners have given up after doing the "dream" of sailing down there and now circumstances change so the boat has to go. Hot climates and limited maintenance budgets are hard on such boats. Many are not well suited for the environment being originally built for bashing around the channel rather than floating around the Med. A 10 year old AWB is a much better prospect than a tired 1970's 80's MAB. Don't take too much notice of asking prices for older boats as many are far too optimistic.
Click to expand...

Daft question maybe but what's a AWB and a MAB?

Thanks
 
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