Has anyone done a long term charter in the Med?

[BradleyC]

My husband and I are keen to take a year out and sail across the Med, along with our two kids.

It occurred to me that rather than spend a load of money buying a yacht the best bet might be to look at doing a long term charter ie charter a yacht for a year.

Having spoken to a lot of people who have upped and sailed away, most people love the life and the planned one year trip often extends to a five year plus trip. In that case, it obviously makes more sense to buy, but whilst we are trying out the liveaboard life it might be a better option to charter rather than buy.

Has anyone got any views on this? Equally, has anyone done a long term charter and sailed across the Med and if so, where did you charter your yacht from, and how did you find it?

 

[Tranona]

Highly unlikely. A typical 38-40 ft charter boat grosses on average £1500 a week for 20 weeks a year so the owner will have to potentially forgo £30k to lose the boat for a season. Clearly there would be some form of reduction because of the lower costs, but looked at from the opposite end the capital investment is £100k minimum and an owner would look for somewhere between 15-20% pa return to cover cost of capital and loss in capital value.

Your best bet is to buy an ex charter boat, usually 5-6 years old which will be fully equipped and ready to go. Sell it at the end of the year and you will get most of your money back.

Having said all that, there is probably a surplus of charter boats at present so there maybe an operator prepared to do a deal.

 

[EugeneR]

We have been discussing something similar i.e. only 3 months sailing in 2012 which given the shorter period makes it even more difficult to decide between chartering and buying, especially as we won't have extra time to buy a yacht, prepare it for selling, maintain it, etc.

What about buying a yacht fraction where you can convince the others to let you pay the running costs for a year in exchange for most of the season on the boat? No mention of depreciation of course.

 

[rivonia]

Perhaps you can approach some broker and ask if any of the owners would consider letting you hire a yacht for a year. Some yachts are very slow to sell and the owners may appreciate an income rather than sit there?
Just a thought.

Peter

 

[Appleyard]

Perhaps you can approach some broker and ask if any of the owners would consider letting you hire a yacht for a year. Some yachts are very slow to sell and the owners may appreciate an income rather than sit there?
Just a thought.

Peter

Would you hire your boat out to a stranger for a year ? No disrespect intended to the O.P .

 

[rivonia]

Would you hire your boat out to a stranger for a year ? No disrespect intended to the O.P .

I would presume that if an owner was to agree then he would get the broker to do all necessary checks and take a substantial deposit as well as a cut for his commission. Naturally an insurance waver would have to be in place. My view was only a PERHAPS!

When we sold our previous yacht it was stuck in Gib for just over a year and we would have hired it out with the above provisos in place.

Peter

 

[tennisgirl1]

We considered this option very briefly before buying our yacht. The main problem, apart from the astronomical cost, was that most boat owners restrict how far you may sail. They are not keen to let their boats too far from base and certainly sailing across national boundaries was out.
http://yachtvigdis.wordpress.com

 

[nimbusgb]

Would you hire your boat out to a stranger for a year ? No disrespect intended to the O.P .

I could see it working very nicely thank you. I want my boat back from Greece. I'd be happy to negotiate something in return for someone getting it back.

Seems to me to be a clear case of a buyer, a seller and a comoddity.

People house swap million pound homes without knowing each other.Whats so different about a boat?

 

[KellysEye]

As others have said what you are planning is expensive but the killer is charter companies won't let you out of the area. The reason is they have support boats and if things go wrong and they wouldn't be able to reach you. On a charter boat you would have no spares and no tools. It might be possible to cruise all the (say) Greek areas of a big charter company but you would miss the best parts, Halkidiki penisular and Pelpponese.

 

[All_at_Sea]

Borrowing our boat

Hello

We have thought about this ourselves. We have a fully equipped Moody 42 ketch, ideal for a family and we would be open to offers for the use for a year or so. The boat is currently out of the water at Preveza, so would need re-commissioning before hand over.

There are some problems and l don't know how insurmountable they would be, ie insurance, ownership docs, guarantees etc

Happy to discuss with people to see if it could work. We wouldn't want a fortune for it just resaonable fees for the year, to be discussed.

 

[gavin_lacey]

Possible legal problems. eg illegal to charter out a non coded boat if UK flagged. Would insurance be invalidated or impossible to obtain? Ships papers could be a problem if SSR. Must surely be economic to buy, the depreciation during a boats 6th year is really pretty low.

 

[porth]

We looked into this before our year. Decided that charter costs (if we could wind a willing owner) would be equal or greater than buy/sail/sell costs. We bought a 393 in Turkey (a EU registered boat), sailed for a year in Greece, Italy, France Sardinia etc. and left it in Greece. The famous financial crisis hit while we were sailing and the boat was in a stupid place (hard to get too), with the result that the boat took a year to sell. Otherwise worked well. The boat was an ex Sunsail boat, had no real problems but you do have to replace items like toilets and chargers when you live onboard due to wear. These things will happen whether you hire or buy, so they dont come into the sums. We paid 85000 Euros for our boat (tax paid). After a year of living aboard (two adults three kids and a labrador sized dog) and a financial crisis we eventually sold for 60000Euros. Much of this loss due to dead market at the time and bad location. Leave the boat in the Preveza area or somewhere else where charter flights get to.
A magic year which we talk and think about often. DO IT!!!

 

[BradleyC]

Thanks!

Dear everyone,

A big thank you to all of you who have chipped into the debate. Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions!

 

[Mariia]

Borrowing our boat

Hello

We have thought about this ourselves. We have a fully equipped Moody 42 ketch, ideal for a family and we would be open to offers for the use for a year or so. The boat is currently out of the water at Preveza, so would need re-commissioning before hand over.

There are some problems and l don't know how insurmountable they would be, ie insurance, ownership docs, guarantees etc

Happy to discuss with people to see if it could work. We wouldn't want a fortune for it just resaonable fees for the year, to be discussed.

Hey!
I wonder if your boat is still available for a long term rental. Found this old chat when was searching for an advice.

Mariia

 

[All_at_Sea]

Hey!
I wonder if your boat is still available for a long term rental. Found this old chat when was searching for an advice.

Mariia

Hi

That boat was two boats ago! We now have a Contest 46, what are you looking for and where?

Steve

 

[Mariia]

Haha! Hey Steve! I have a very strange request to this universe according to my financial options. I'm staying in Malta. I'm zero experience sailor. But I really want to try this lifestyle! I wonder if it's possible to rent a boat on a very decent price for a year or so. I know that a few weeks charter may cover the whole maintenance of the boat for the whole year. But I wonder if there is a boat that is just staying without any use. So maybe for someone it will make sense to let it for an enthusiastic person like me. Pm me on WhatsApp if you have a good advice for me, please: +35699579678

Thank you!

Mariia

 

[Seastoke]

Haha! Hey Steve! I have a very strange request to this universe according to my financial options. I'm staying in Malta. I'm zero experience sailor. But I really want to try this lifestyle! I wonder if it's possible to rent a boat on a very decent price for a year or so. I know that a few weeks charter may cover the whole maintenance of the boat for the whole year. But I wonder if there is a boat that is just staying without any use. So maybe for someone it will make sense to let it for an enthusiastic person like me. Pm me on WhatsApp if you have a good advice for me, please: +35699579678

Thank you!

Mariia

I am sure he wont charge with all your experience.

 

[Tony Cross]

Haha! Hey Steve! I have a very strange request to this universe according to my financial options. I'm staying in Malta. I'm zero experience sailor. But I really want to try this lifestyle! I wonder if it's possible to rent a boat on a very decent price for a year or so. I know that a few weeks charter may cover the whole maintenance of the boat for the whole year. But I wonder if there is a boat that is just staying without any use. So maybe for someone it will make sense to let it for an enthusiastic person like me. Pm me on WhatsApp if you have a good advice for me, please: +35699579678

Thank you!

Mariia

I think insurance is going to be an issue here. I can't think of many insurance companies that would maintain cover if the boat was 'lent' bareboat to someone with 'zero experience'.

 

[Wansworth]

Charter in Croatia,then Greece then Turkey then where ever,different boats different places

 

[Mariia]

I think insurance is going to be an issue here. I can't think of many insurance companies that would maintain cover if the boat was 'lent' bareboat to someone with 'zero experience'.

Yeah, agree. I should start with gaining experience first. I guess my idea is stupid enough. Thanks for the comments anyway!