Boating in North Cyprus.. Not so much..

[wipe_out]

I am on a non-boating holiday in North Cyprus at the moment and have been driving all over the place looking at the ancient ruins and visiting some amazing unspoilt beaches.. The thing I have noticed is there really isn't much boating activity on this side of the island.. I know there is a fair bit on the south.. Even went to the Karpaz Gate Marina for lunch on one of our outings, it's a really nice modern looking marina but it's pretty empty.. Of course this particular marina is really in the middle of nowhere and why they chose to build it all the way out there I don't know..

We found a couple of small harbours that seem to be used by small numbers of fishing boats that could be developed into really nice little marinas.. There are actually so many coves and little bays that could make lovely marinas but it looks like there just isn't any demand.. At the same time they are building houses and retail shopping space all over the place, so much of which is empty so make me wonder why they keep building more..

I can only guess that because of the undeveloped nature of the north it doesn't have any attraction for the boaters or is there some other reason why it's got so little boating activity?

 

[henryf]

Cyprus is not a simple situation but in essence as I understand things the only people who recognise Northern Cyyprus as a legal entity are Turkey. Everyone else sees the invasion / occupation as illegal.

Would you want to invest millions n a place where your legal ownership isn't guaranteed ?

If the money being invested is "easy" money then you'd have a go but I'm not sure many boat owners would be comfortable tying up their valuable asset in a less than stable entity. If something goes wrong where would you turn to? The rest of the world would just assume you were part of the "colourful" mix.

Henry

 

[rafiki_]

North Cyprus is a gorgeous location, unspoilt, quiet, great weather. It has not enjoyed the same level of development and commercialism as the south for the reasons that Henry gives. It is really easy to buy land, but incredibly difficult to confirm ownership, so building by non-Cypriots is very speculative. There remains a huge amount of resentment and pent-up anger, 40 years after the conflict, and this needs to be defused before any serious development takes place. Having said that, a friend of mine has bought a villa there, and is incredibly happy with it. Great place for a chill-out holiday.

 

[Tranona]

Just to add, it is difficult to move by boat between the two parts of the island so there is really nowhere to cruise to easily. Karpaz Gate does attract liveaboards for over wintering, but there is little in the way of an ex pat community.

 

[wipe_out]

It's certainly a gorgeous location and incredibly "raw" and very cheap.. I hadn't thought about the political situation from a boating perspective because if things started getting "iffy" you could just cruise over to the south and tie up there.. I can see the point as a reason the marina's haven't developed though.. You would think that after 40 years they would have all got over it but I guess these type of things never get forgotten..

 

[BartW]

no knowledge about the country,
but our "Karnic" is manufactured in Cyprus iirc
so you should see many of them in their home market I guess ?
good boats by the way.

 

[rafiki_]

no knowledge about the country,
but our "Karnic" is manufactured in Cyprus iirc
so you should see many of them in their home market I guess ?
good boats by the way.

If manufactured on the South side of the Island, you will not see any in the North out of principle Bart. There is still a substantial UN force at the border to try to ensure that peace remains.