Vid
Active member
Just back from a week sailing from Split - thought it worth posting my comments.
There were seven of us on a Beneteau Oceanis 393 (all adults) which proved excellent for the sailing and living on for a week. I was the skipper - I have dayskipper practical and YM theory, which was adequate for the area (no night sailing attempted). The yacht was booked through LateSail.com, who were very good and got the yacht for us at a good price. The local yacht management was also very good, with friendly and helpful staff at Split marina. There were one or two minor snags on the yacht, but significant attempts were made to fix these before we left Split and the ones not fixed did not interfere with our trip. The yacht equipment was good but nothing special (e.g. B&W chartplotter, danforth anchor that proved harder to use than the CQRs I'm used to).
The sailing area is superb, though as usual the wind was either too strong or too weak and mostly seemed to be coming from where we wanted to go to - the daily VHF streamed weather forecasts were not terribly accurate for the local area. The Bora was in on the first day which provided exciting sailing for me, but a bit strong for the less experienced members of the crew. The rest of the time the wind was provided by sea breezes which meant we only really sailed in the afternoon. At this time of the year the sea is nice for swimming in, once you get used to the initial coolness...
Our itineray was Split - Brac (Milna) - Hvar (Palmisano marina) - Maslinka (Solta) - Trogir - Split. We had one non-sailing day at Hvar. Most of the time was in the ACI marinas, which cost about £25 per night for the seven of us but it was useful to have mains electricity (cold beers) and the on-shore facilities. Staff we waiting for us as we came in and helped with the mooring.
The biggest challenge was definitely stern-to mooring - every time seemed to be unnecessarily exciting, which probably reflects my lack of experience: I should perhaps have waited until later in the day when the wind had died down. I'll be looking at doing a boat handling course before I return. Knowing the area better now I'd look at spending time at smaller harbours (some of which have good facilities) or anchored up in a bay - if I'd had more confidence in the anchor.
Overall, we were all hugely impressed with Croatia: excellent location, plenty of places to go to, good local food, friendly locals, English widely spoken, relaxed atmosphere.
I for one will definitely return.
<hr width=100% size=1>
There were seven of us on a Beneteau Oceanis 393 (all adults) which proved excellent for the sailing and living on for a week. I was the skipper - I have dayskipper practical and YM theory, which was adequate for the area (no night sailing attempted). The yacht was booked through LateSail.com, who were very good and got the yacht for us at a good price. The local yacht management was also very good, with friendly and helpful staff at Split marina. There were one or two minor snags on the yacht, but significant attempts were made to fix these before we left Split and the ones not fixed did not interfere with our trip. The yacht equipment was good but nothing special (e.g. B&W chartplotter, danforth anchor that proved harder to use than the CQRs I'm used to).
The sailing area is superb, though as usual the wind was either too strong or too weak and mostly seemed to be coming from where we wanted to go to - the daily VHF streamed weather forecasts were not terribly accurate for the local area. The Bora was in on the first day which provided exciting sailing for me, but a bit strong for the less experienced members of the crew. The rest of the time the wind was provided by sea breezes which meant we only really sailed in the afternoon. At this time of the year the sea is nice for swimming in, once you get used to the initial coolness...
Our itineray was Split - Brac (Milna) - Hvar (Palmisano marina) - Maslinka (Solta) - Trogir - Split. We had one non-sailing day at Hvar. Most of the time was in the ACI marinas, which cost about £25 per night for the seven of us but it was useful to have mains electricity (cold beers) and the on-shore facilities. Staff we waiting for us as we came in and helped with the mooring.
The biggest challenge was definitely stern-to mooring - every time seemed to be unnecessarily exciting, which probably reflects my lack of experience: I should perhaps have waited until later in the day when the wind had died down. I'll be looking at doing a boat handling course before I return. Knowing the area better now I'd look at spending time at smaller harbours (some of which have good facilities) or anchored up in a bay - if I'd had more confidence in the anchor.
Overall, we were all hugely impressed with Croatia: excellent location, plenty of places to go to, good local food, friendly locals, English widely spoken, relaxed atmosphere.
I for one will definitely return.
<hr width=100% size=1>
