Folksong yacht Lisbon to the UK opinions welcome

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Polly1

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I may be leaving Portugal, either to a job in the U.K. or one further afield and am considering the options for my 26ft Folksong yacht and would welcome your opinions.
It was sailed here by the previous owner, it is quite a seaworthy design and I have replaced, fixed, fiddled with every item on the boat and it is now in good condition with a modern inboard engine. I have sailed, mainly singlehanded, for about three years now and have not ventured far out to sea or made a (30 mile) passage round the coast to the next harbour. But I am ready for this trip and plan on making it this summer. It seems to me that once one has made this step then making longer passages along the coast is just a case of linking these journeys up.
As a school teacher I have a summer holiday to sail the boat back to the UK so the first question is this a reasonable idea given my ability and boat to single handed (mainly) coast hop my way from Lisbon to the U.K. during 6 weeks in the summer?
I have no idea where I would be in the U.K. at the moment. The boat is not particularly valuable, how much are the cheaper readily available options for hard standing or mooring in Britain? In Lisbon I pay 165 euro a month for a good marina and I may be eligible for a yearly fee of 125 euro a month and I believe hard standing is 70 euro a month in a local yard. A second option is to leave the boat here for holidays.
A third option is sell the boat here, as how useful will a fairly exposed to the elements, uncomfortable below decks, fin keel, 1.2m draught boat, be in the U.K.?
A fourth is to get a trailer and tow the boat back to the U.K. Although heavy I have seen these boats towed. I will need to obtain/build a trailer and I may have a suitable tow vehicle.
So to recap. Sail home? Sell? Leave here? Tow home?
 
A friend of mine of 72 singlehandedly sailed his Fulmar from the Algarve to La Rochelle (I think) last Summer.He chose to leave the boat there instead of sailing straight to the Uk but that's a technicality.I can put you in touch with him.I'm sure he'll have loads of tips for you.Having the boat shipped by road is a good option too and I believe not too expensive.Selling in Portugal at the moment won't be particularly easy as no one is buying anything.
 
Coast hopping in a 26' boat will be a bit of a grind as it must be around 1,200nm back to the South coast. Assuming an average of 4knts that would be around 300 hours at sea with quite a lot of motoring. Spanish side of Biscay has quite long gaps between stops but your shallow draft would allow access to smaller place between the ones I had to use.

Try to work out the cost of the trip with 50% or 80% in marinas and motoring 40% or 70%. That will give you a range of cost to get a feel for the likely figure.

If you factor in other costs then you can compare that cost with an estimate for using a trailer. Fuel alone to trail back would be at least £300.

My gut feeling is that sailing back in 6 weeks is possible but will cost at least £500-£600 and trailing would be at least the same. I suspect that the real figures will be much higher when you work them out (instead of making a guess as I have). Trailing might be a better option (depending on route, trailer, ferry costs etc.

Of course that's for day-sailing around the coast. Different story if you gear up for a trip across Biscay and sail on day & night. But that has additional cost in gear if your boat is only used for day trips at present.

Perhaps you'll get some more useful advice with more detail than this. I realise that you might be attached to your boat and then financial matters go out the window (otherwise none of us would be sailing).

Might help if you said where you'd be likely to stay in the UK. Prices in Portugal and Spain vary but I found winter storage costs to be higher than I was used to in Scotland.

Buying in UK should be easy, I suspect that selling in Portugal would be the tricky bit.
 
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Have a cruise back, stopping as often as you like, you can daysail all the way up to the rias picking your weather and then along the northern Spanish coast until you can hop across to western France and then carry on daysailing.

Depending on your attained confidence from getting up to northern Spain you may want to go solo or take amate for the hop to France.

Time to start planning and making a move is right now but study as many weather channels as you can and go for it. Winds look a bit ficle down ther for a while )Passage weather.com) you could be in a different port by weekend.:)
 
I did the trip Algarve - The Netherlands 2 years ago. If you're sailing in the summer, count on - sometimes strong!- headwinds. With 26 ft you wouldn't be able to motor against it, so pick your time and wait for a window. After the Spanish Ria's it gets better - but you will have to decide if you will cross Biscay direct (about 3 days). Not a trip to be taken lightly. Even the 'inside' route can be a long haul.
But on the other hand: a great adventure!
Chris
 
There are many big headlands and quite serious offshore legs on the sector around Spain, which would task a deeply-experienced single-hander. You might find it something of an ordeal.

Have you considered trucking your boat to a good port in Northern Spain - say Santander - putting her back in the water there, then heading for La Rochelle and South Brittany? That might be a satisfactory 'middle path'....;)
 
Gibraltar and the French canals might be safest and most enjoyable if you are coastal experienced, short handed on a small boat. What a nice way to spend the summer.
 
oldbilbo said:
There are many big headlands and quite serious offshore legs on the sector around Spain, which would task a deeply-experienced single-hander. You might find it something of an ordeal.

Have you considered trucking your boat to a good port in Northern Spain - say Santander - putting her back in the water there, then heading for La Rochelle and South Brittany? That might be a satisfactory 'middle path'....;)
Click to expand...

Sounds sensible (not just because he seems to have similar idea I had). As I said, it will be a bit of a grind when daysailing. 1200nm at 4knts, sailing 10 hours every day will take 30 days. You won't be able to make that every day and some legs will be quite long. Weather will be a problem if you only have 6 weeks as tha only gives 12 days spare. It will be easy to get stuck in a few places until weather improves.

As I said, a bit of a grind in a 26' boat going in that direction.

But some people revel in a challenge. Frank Dye did long trips in a wayfarer dinghy. So it isn't impossible, just not everybody's idea of fun.
 
Hello Polly1,

When I was looking for a beautiful boat to sail in the Solent a few people suggested the Folkboat rather than the tubs that don't sail particularly well as they put it - I was looking at some Macwesters, Westerlys, Colvics etc.

I bought a mint Folksong for 5.5K with near new engine in the end :eek: The 3' 9" draft is perfect for The Solent, there are 2-3 Folksongs in the area, another in Brighton and one in Plymouth - probably more dotted around. There is a big Folkboat scene around Lymington also.

Choosing your sailing area and the associated costs may help you with your decision to sell or bring her back. I paid £1200 per year for a swinging mooring in Chichester Harbour and nearly the same again for winter storage and other dues :eek: A bilge keeler with a drying mooring is much cheaper of course and if you go away from the Solent moorings are cheaper again, Cornwall/East coast/North etc. My father pays £190 for a drying mooring in Mylor and full swinging I think are about £700!

Choose your sailing area and have a look at what boats are available for your budget, this may help to decide wether to keep her or not. Have to say though the Folksong is alot of boat for your money, I was able to buy a nice classic car by not spending it all on one larger boat.

You may even find folk willing to help you sail her around, I had many offers from very kind forum members offering to do the same for me :)

Keep us posted...
 
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If you don't know what sailing conditions are like in England you would be well advised to leave the boat here. If you are a teacher with holidays you could find that you sail more and more pleasantly. Many Brits as well as other northern people prefer to keep their boats in Portugal and Spain.
 
It's a common enough passage for yachts returning from the Med, but definitely not the easiest if you are single handed and not all that experienced.

You have the wind against you all the way up the Portuguese coast, with only a limited number of places to stop. The NW of Spain has lots of harbours and you will get fair winds after Finesterre but with many outlying reefs the navigation needs great care if you hug the coast. N Spain is easy enough, but at some point you'll want to "cut the corner" across Biscay. The NW corner of France is one of the trickiest areas to navigate anywhere in the world.

However you manage it, you will probably need at least 3 overnight passages to get back to England. So don't do this singlehanded. The yacht is well capable of it but it will be so much easier if you take a couple of reasonably experienced crew. If necessary you could do it in two legs, one to Corunna, then a second the rest of the way. If you cut across Biscay, a 3 day passage, you could allow about a week for each of these legs.

(Incidentally, the traditionally "easy" way to sailing to England from southern Portugal is via the Azores, since you can count on fair winds in summer and no coastal hazards. That's what an experienced single-hander might consider).
 
Blue Fox said:
I did the trip Algarve - The Netherlands 2 years ago. If you're sailing in the summer, count on - sometimes strong!- headwinds. With 26 ft you wouldn't be able to motor against it, so pick your time and wait for a window. After the Spanish Ria's it gets better - but you will have to decide if you will cross Biscay direct (about 3 days). Not a trip to be taken lightly. Even the 'inside' route can be a long haul.
But on the other hand: a great adventure!
Chris
Click to expand...
Summer will often give predominantly northerly winds along the Portuguese coast, often strong in the afternoons. In a small and hence slowish boat it can as you say be a hard slog. The traditional answer is two tacks, one out to the Azores and then another back to the Channel.
 
AndrewB said:
(Incidentally, the traditionally "easy" way to sailing to England from southern Portugal is via the Azores, since you can count on fair winds in summer and no coastal hazards. That's what an experienced single-hander might consider).
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest the same - although I didn't realise it was a standard answer :)

Just that ocean sailing has to be less stressful than coastal work, and the Azores High sits there with the wind going clockwise around it.

Pete
 
As he says he hasnt been far offshore and hasnt done much over 30mile passages I think the azores route might be a little out of his league.

Getting some willing crew for a coastal passage with less stopover is a far better idea
 
With the long school holidays to play with, I think that I would be tempted to keep your boat in Portugal, at least for a year, going out there for holiday trips and sunshine, and see where you settle down in the UK. It will give you a chance to suss out the local options which, as people have said, vary hugely in terms of cost and the type of sailing from area to area. Trying to sort out a new job, accommodation and somewhere to keep the boat as well may take the edge off the trip. You could always bring her back next year, and built up some experience of longer trips too...
 
Stevev2 said:
As he says he hasnt been far offshore and hasnt done much over 30mile passages I think the azores route might be a little out of his league.

Getting some willing crew for a coastal passage with less stopover is a far better idea
Click to expand...

Agreed, looking again at the OPs quoted experience level. However it will be much more of a hard slog than a leisurely cruise, and willing crew sometimes jump ship if it turns out to be less of a jolly than they had expected.

The other snag with the coastal option is that it would be very easy to get stuck somewhere half way back with time running out on the 6 weeks holiday period. You could end up having to leave the boat there, at unknown cost, convenience and security.

If you really want to get the boat back this summer put it on a truck or trailer, at least to northern France - maybe Cherbourg (saves quite a bit on ferries for a big load compared to actually back to UK).
 
Real problem with a low value boat like that. Road transport would cost as much as the boat is worth. Sailing it back would be a challenge as others have described.

Perhaps the best thing to do is give it away to somebody local with the option to use it in the holidays.
 
If the OP has access to a suitable tow vehicle then looking for a suitable trailer may be a decent option though it will not be a cheap trip which ever route is selected.

It may be worth looking into going up the coast to La Corunna during the Easter break when there are more chances of getting favourable winds, leaving the boat there till the summer and using the long break for the rest of the trip.
 
Going north up the Portugal coast in summer can be very hard work - unless you are very, very lucky and the N/NE Portuguese trades aren't blowing.

The usual tactic is the leave at dawn when the wind is lighter, and be in harbour/anchor by lunchtime when it really starts to blow.

Some have even made a long board out to the Azores!
 
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