Go Big or Go Home?

[Bouba]

Yes you do need to be careful about who you invite onboard! I managed to turn my stepdaughter into a jibbering wreck on one particularly lumpy sea crossing and she had just sailed back from Australia to the UK in a 36ft sailing yacht. Mind you she got her revenge a few years later when one of her kids deliberately scratched the wall coverings in his cabin with his nails which resulted in a massive sense of humour failure on my part. On another occasion we invited a family onboard and again on a lumpy journey they threw up so much in the cockpit that they blocked the cockpit drains. I still remember looking down from the flybridge at the end of the journey and seeing a huge pool of seawater and vomit sloshing around the cockpit. And on another occasion at anchor overnight with my sister in law onboard, the wind turned around in the early hours and made the anchorage quite bumpy. I knew we werent dragging but she decided to wake the whole boat up handing out lifejackets and accused me of being a maniac for endangering the lives of her family

I havent put anyone off here have I? Sometimes its just better onboard with you and your wife

If it wasn’t for the fact that I have thrown up on someone else’s boat, I would agree with every word you wrote ????

 

[julians]

Yes you do need to be careful about who you invite onboard! I managed to turn my stepdaughter into a jibbering wreck on one particularly lumpy sea crossing and she had just sailed back from Australia to the UK in a 36ft sailing yacht. Mind you she got her revenge a few years later when one of her kids deliberately scratched the wall coverings in his cabin with his nails which resulted in a massive sense of humour failure on my part. On another occasion we invited a family onboard and again on a lumpy journey they threw up so much in the cockpit that they blocked the cockpit drains. I still remember looking down from the flybridge at the end of the journey and seeing a huge pool of seawater and vomit sloshing around the cockpit. And on another occasion at anchor overnight with my sister in law onboard, the wind turned around in the early hours and made the anchorage quite bumpy. I knew we werent dragging but she decided to wake the whole boat up handing out lifejackets and accused me of being a maniac for endangering the lives of her family

I havent put anyone off here have I? Sometimes its just better onboard with you and your wife

Glad its not just me that has these sort of experiences with friends on board. My wife says the boat manufacturers brochures should be more real, rather than showing beautifully dressed people with perfect hair and makeup relaxing casually with a glass of champagne at sunset, they should show the reality of getting home in a 'bit of a breeze' , soaking wet, hair knotted, makeup streaking all over their face etc etc.

Which reminds me, she threatened to get me one of these t shirts yesterday

Amazon.com: Sorry For What I Said While Docking The Boat T-Shirt: Clothing

 

[jrudge]

We have long thought about an alternative brochure.

I have only stepped off once like that. We were anchoring and had showered and all changed to go in by tender for dinner.

The weather turned so I called the marina. 2 spaces ( another forum member was with us). Anchor up, arrive at marina.

Pulled into berth. We had crew on board. He did lines and we hooked up power / water and stepped of the boat looking great.

The people next door looked disheveled and were trying to make a power cable up and also a hose connection ( we lent them ours). It is the only time in the history of boating that we have arrived like that. Normally we are the disheveled ones!

 

[markc]

Normally we are the disheveled ones!

That's what I love about being on the boat, I can be dishevelled 100% of the time

 

[Hurricane]

Just a few things to chuck in the mix.
When you have got your boat what are you going to do on it/ with it?
We/I have been all three of Deleted User's med boat types. We are now in the Villa/pool mode and do mostly day boating with a few longer trips over the summer or early autumn on the Spain mainland near Alicante. We now have a 38 foot flybridge but prior to that a 45 foot targa and then a fifty foot flybridge with midcabin, washing machine etc.

Over the last twenty years we have had lots of people on board our various boats and peoples reactions vary enormously when they get on board. Most people love it - well they love zooming along on a beautiful calm day - just like the adverts. Seeing dolphins whilst on a cruise. Messing about with a fast tender or a jetski. They love pulling into a new marina and going out on the town for the evening. They love dining on the flybridge or cockpit. They love sunbathing on the forward deck or flybridge living the dream and hanging around the marina with all the boats etc. Sleeping and living on board is exciting and different. That's all brilliant and why we buy them.

They don't like - a lumpy ride in the afternoon when the wind gets up and the boat starts moving around. People expect a motor boat to move around like a cruise ship. Unless the boat is pretty big with stabilisers they pitch and if you have to slow down, roll. I haven't had anyone throw up in a long time but I have had a few turn green, praying for the journey to end on what I would consider a calm day. People really don't like being at anchor with the boat is rolling around like a pig. If your boating time is limited ideally you need to be based somewhere there is always a place with calm-ish water so you can do some sort of boating activity, and/or things to do/see ashore. If you start going out when it's really a bit too rough to be fun, people get upset/frightened.
Sant Carles has the lagoon, the Costa Blanca has some quiet corners in the north end of the bays and the inland sea the Mar Menor. The Balearics have the Calas and the South of France has a generally favourable wind direction - which are terrific but they are busy and you pay the price! So do some research on that, where ever you are thinking of being based. Some marinas are very cheap - there is a reason for that! They are either in the middle of nowhere so its boating or not a lot else, or the prevailing wind/sea state makes it all hard work too often. If you have teenagers you need to think about that, else they won't want to come along.

Much day time boating in the med is water activities: Swimming in the sea. Some people don't like swimming in the sea - the salt and fear of what else might be in the water - jelly fish and sharks. Sharks are not a problem in the med - humans have eaten pretty much everything. Jelly fish unfortunately are sometimes a problem.
Getting into the sea from the bathing platform. Some people really don't like either jumping in or climbing down the swim ladder into relatively deep water when the boat is anchored or tied to a buoy. The boat will be in 10 - 20 feet of water and usually a bit too far from land for an easy swim if they are not confident swimmers. Getting back aboard can be difficult if people are not reasonably fit either - and if the boat is moving about, a bit intimidating.

Ultimately motor boats, however big, are just posh caravans - so living aboard is not like living in a house. There are compromises. I could quite happily live aboard all the time. However most people have a limit - they start to miss the conveniences and space a house offers (hence our change to villa mode). The thing my wife dislikes is getting a big food and drink shop onto the boat across a passarelle and then finding places for all of it. So if you are going to use the boat as a holiday home go big if you can so it can be more like being in a house than a boat. If it's in the med you want a big fridge/freezer. Flybridges offer more space but for me, more importantly, they are quieter. We tend to cruise @ 18 knots - around that speed you can talk in normal voices and you have very little engine noise. Go faster and you have to start yelling at each other over the wind. My (limited) targa style experience is marred by engine noise - its OK for an hour, but more than that I start to get a headache and again you can't easily converse. Pootling is excellent on a big boat - but it takes time so you need the right day weather wise.

Have fun looking.

Excellent
Do you think you deserve your own category.
Maybe cat 4 - those with villas and I know you aren't the only one.

 

[kashurst]

Glad its not just me that has these sort of experiences with friends on board. My wife says the boat manufacturers brochures should be more real, rather than showing beautifully dressed people with perfect hair and makeup relaxing casually with a glass of champagne at sunset, they should show the reality of getting home in a 'bit of a breeze' , soaking wet, hair knotted, makeup streaking all over their face etc etc.

Which reminds me, she threatened to get me one of these t shirts yesterday

Amazon.com: Sorry For What I Said While Docking The Boat T-Shirt: Clothing

If they did no-one would ever buy a boat. I always remember a Fairline advert from the early 2000's. A "family" sitting around the flybridge table with a lovely healthy looking salad, eating. A chilled bottle of white wine on the go and two perfect children. All immaculately dressed. Husband figure is a silver haired fox, around 50, wife is very attractive and noticeably younger etc. Boat is anchored off Mallorca. The sea is like a mirror. Another ad showed good looking silver haired fox with a bevy of beautiful young ladies in bikinis around the flybridge blasting across the ocean etc.

I now know the reality. I am the silver haired, balding fat bloke, in scruffy T shirt and shorts smelling faintly of diesel. The young wife is actually my daughter and the children are grand kids. The boat is rolling about, the food is on the deck and the grand children are wailing because the wind has changed unexpectedly.
The bevy of young lovelies in skimpy bikinis are daughter and her young friends, whom you, as father and skipper, will be ferrying about the med, taking them off to shopping places to buy shoes and then later footing the bill for dinner and drinks etc in posh restaurant in the marina. I then spend a pleasant evening worrying what the young ladies, who have hit the town, are up to with the locals late at night and deciding if now would be a good time to try and fix the generator again.

Can I have my money back please!

 

[GravyStain]

If they did no-one would ever buy a boat. I always remember a Fairline advert from the early 2000's. A "family" sitting around the flybridge table with a lovely healthy looking salad, eating. A chilled bottle of white wine on the go and two perfect children. All immaculately dressed. Husband figure is a silver haired fox, around 50, wife is very attractive and noticeably younger etc. Boat is anchored off Mallorca. The sea is like a mirror. Another ad showed good looking silver haired fox with a bevy of beautiful young ladies in bikinis around the flybridge blasting across the ocean etc.

I now know the reality. I am the silver haired, balding fat bloke, in scruffy T shirt and shorts smelling faintly of diesel. The young wife is actually my daughter and the children are grand kids. The boat is rolling about, the food is on the deck and the grand children are wailing because the wind has changed unexpectedly.
The bevy of young lovelies in skimpy bikinis are daughter and her young friends, whom you, as father and skipper, will be ferrying about the med, taking them off to shopping places to buy shoes and then later footing the bill for dinner and drinks etc in posh restaurant in the marina. I then spend a pleasant evening worrying what the young ladies, who have hit the town, are up to with the locals late at night and deciding if now would be a good time to try and fix the generator again.

Can I have my money back please!

Brilliant!

 

[Sticky Fingers]

...
The bevy of young lovelies in skimpy bikinis ....

Waiting for Porto .... 10.... 9 .... 8 ....

 

[Hurricane]

Deleted User has outlined a big point.
Not everything is the idyllic boating that we would like to portray.

I fly into Barcelona a lot and just before the plane lands, I look out of the window and mutter "Fridge Door Corner".
This refers to a potentially nice cruise up the coast to the Costa Brava with friends.
Right off the main commercial entrance to Barcelona we hit a huge wave at speed and 50 tons went airborne.
I was in the air above the flybridge and looking down at my seat wondering what would happen.
The port engine shut down.
The fridge fell out of the galley and its door fell off distributing its contents absolutely everywhere.
The washing machine cupboard flew open distributing the washing powder everywhere.
Even hatches under the carpets on the accommodation deck moved.
The reason that the port engine shut down was because the little cork ball float on the ignition key whizzed round and switched the engine off.
The boat was fine - it was the humans that were battered.
Every time that I pass Fridge Door Corner now, either by air or by sea, I remind myself of the incident and pray to teh gods that it will never happen again.

So, it is important if you are considering taking up the very PLEASURABLE sport/hobby that you realise to get good times you have to have bad ones as well.

 

[timbad]

I think this thread is about Going Big.
I do think that the S58 is an excellent size for the Med but, of course, comes with a larger price.

That said, I don't completely agree with Jimmy.
I had the privilege of helping deliver this year, a Phantom 48 from Mallorca to Sant Carles.
The delivery trip took about a week in which half that time was spent living on the Phantom 48.
There were three of us on board and I was given the forward VIP cabin which I found very comfortable.
It isn't fair to compare it to a Squadron 58 or even some of the earlier models.
The Phantom 48 IS smaller but, then again, it IS more affordable.
The mid cabin is nothing like the size of my palatial Princess 67's mid cabin but I didn't find is as small as Jimmy makes out.
We really aren't comparing like for like here.
The Phantom 48 is a very comfortable boat.
We all know that as the boat gets bigger, the costs rise as well.
You have to remember that the Phantom 48 easily fits onto a 15m berth.
A Squadron 58 would need a bigger berth thus increasing the costs of ownership.
I strongly suggest that the OP goes and has a look at the Phantom as well as the other offerings.

Its all about what you are comfortable with spending. Agree not as big as the Squadron 58 but don't discount the P48 as Hurricane said the P48 is comfortable and will fit on a 15m berth which is a significant advantage not just in Marinas in the Med but also in anchorages/buoys.
The third cabin is based on 2 bunks which are the Pullman type so can be popped up if not in use giving great extra storage area.

 

[Hurricane]

Its all about what you are comfortable with spending. Agree not as big as the Squadron 58 but don't discount the P48 as Hurricane said the P48 is comfortable and will fit on a 15m berth which is a significant advantage not just in Marinas in the Med but also in anchorages/buoys.
The third cabin is based on 2 bunks which are the Pullman type so can be popped up if not in use giving great extra storage area.

She was slightly faster cruising that I'm use to as well.
You know how a boat settles down to a speed that it likes - the P48 seemed comfortable at 27 knots.
I remember that we checked the fuel burn between Cala d'Or and Palma - can't remember the exact figures - only that I was jealous of the low fuel rate.

And, for good measure, a pic after we got back into the Sant Carles lagoon.

 

[Bouba]

I was in the air above the flybridge and looking down at my seat

That’s what the Bimini is for

 

[Hurricane]

That’s what the Bimini is for

Thanks

 

[jrudge]

If they did no-one would ever buy a boat. I always remember a Fairline advert from the early 2000's. A "family" sitting around the flybridge table with a lovely healthy looking salad, eating. A chilled bottle of white wine on the go and two perfect children. All immaculately dressed. Husband figure is a silver haired fox, around 50, wife is very attractive and noticeably younger etc. Boat is anchored off Mallorca. The sea is like a mirror. Another ad showed good looking silver haired fox with a bevy of beautiful young ladies in bikinis around the flybridge blasting across the ocean etc.

I now know the reality. I am the silver haired, balding fat bloke, in scruffy T shirt and shorts smelling faintly of diesel. The young wife is actually my daughter and the children are grand kids. The boat is rolling about, the food is on the deck and the grand children are wailing because the wind has changed unexpectedly.
The bevy of young lovelies in skimpy bikinis are daughter and her young friends, whom you, as father and skipper, will be ferrying about the med, taking them off to shopping places to buy shoes and then later footing the bill for dinner and drinks etc in posh restaurant in the marina. I then spend a pleasant evening worrying what the young ladies, who have hit the town, are up to with the locals late at night and deciding if now would be a good time to try and fix the generator again.

Can I have my money back please!

This made me laugh. So so true

 

[EricJ]

A late Phantom 50 may also be worth considering. No full beam mid cabin but two doubles instead and solidly build.

btw very nice and enjoyable to read all these valuable stories again.

 

[GravyStain]

A late Phantom 50 may also be worth considering. No full beam mid cabin but two doubles instead and solidly build.

btw very nice and enjoyable to read all these valuable stories again.

A nice boat. Similar to the Princess 50 though that has the option of a double in the guest cabin.

Yes. I'm really enjoying these tales aswell. I'd like to make some of my own at some point! ?

 

[GravyStain]

Hurricane, as an example, your trip around Majorca (which I watched and thoroughly enjoyed)... I'm guessing the fuel spend was around 5000 euros with the mix of pootling and planing? Is that ballpark.

If the boat were a 50fter what would be the reduction?

I'm trying to get a feel for running cost differences between a 50fter and, say, a Squaddie 58.

I appreciate marina fees / maintenance are all more obviously...

 

[EricJ]

A nice boat. Similar to the Princess 50 though that has the option of a double in the guest cabin.

Yes. I'm really enjoying these tales aswell. I'd like to make some of my own at some point! ?

Yes, the Princess 50 MarkII has a double and bunks as guest cabins. The MarkIII version has the full beam master.
correction on the phantom 50, I think it had one double and one twins as guest cabins.

 

[GravyStain]

Yes, the Princess 50 MarkII has a double and bunks as guest cabins. The MarkIII version has the full beam master.
correction on the phantom 50, I think it had one double and one twins as guest cabins.

The mkIII is a lovely boat which I would love to have but at circa £400k it's just a tad outside my budget long term.
Obviously SWMBO loves it for the aft cabin....?

 

[Hurricane]

Hurricane, as an example, your trip around Majorca (which I watched and thoroughly enjoyed)... I'm guessing the fuel spend was around 5000 euros with the mix of pootling and planing? Is that ballpark.

If the boat were a 50fter what would be the reduction?

I'm trying to get a feel for running cost differences between a 50fter and, say, a Squaddie 58.

I appreciate marina fees / maintenance are all more obviously...

I've just looked up my logs.
JW holds just over 4000 litres

The long late season cruise - this one:-

We started full
After crossing, circumnavigating Menorca and half of Mallorca, we fuelled in Santa Ponsa - with 2348 litres
Didn't need any more until we got home to Sant Carles when I put in 2998 litres
But we hammered it back from Valencia to Sant Carles.

Here's another one - single handed across to meet up with Sant Carles friends - SWMBO flew into Palma to meet me.
Video picks up in Palmanova after my single handed crossing.
Left Sant Carles with full tanks.

The whole trip without refuelling.
She took 2868 litres when we got back to Sant Carles

I might as well throw this one in as well - late 2019 to Ibiza
Full fuel on leaving Sant Carles

The whole trip without refuelling.
She took 2460 litres when we got back to Sant Carles

I would expect a 50 footer to be between 50% and 75% of that burn rate - with similar (50%) Pootling split.

EDIT
Interesting how the video quality gets better as the years go by.