Help for planning for retirement boat in the Med much appreciated.

[Donheist]

We are having a related debate in our family. My retirement plan (ten years or so away) involved selling/scrapping our 1989 OceaniS 390 and buying a 5 year old 39 footer with 3 cabins to live in 6 months a year. Wife wants 3 cabins so our daughters can come visit with other halves (hmm...). I am more and more coming to the idea that it’s better to keep what we have and spend money on it with a mini-refit

logic: our boat is perfect for us - will sleep 6 but is comfortable with 4. Has deep locker for folding bikes etc. lmportant for us to be under 12m - it’s a threshold for getting in to some harbours and it is definitely a big elbow in Marina rate cards. We have a sugar scoop so a newer model with a drop down transom might have got us an extra two feet of interior. But! Our kids might be with us a few weeks a year. It’d be cheaper to charter them a boat every so often.

How relevant: your plan to own for a few years before you go is a good one. We know our boat, we know how it handles and we have confidence in her. Having just done my Yachtmaster on a twin ruddered thing I appreciate my boat more.

it has taken us a few years to get her how we want her - building up a toolkit, reupholstering. That means you will retire to somethinG you know.

I would avoid chartering. Part of the joy of ownership is being able to fly out whenever you like, with no more than a carryon bag (clothes already aboard) and knowing the boat is as you left it. If you charter it you are going to arrive to find a jobs list every time.

just my 2p - I’d rather buy something older than rely on charter income.
But I’d have thought that there might be a few distressed sales this year so you might get a bargain anyway

 

[Sticky Fingers]

As I did my early sailing on 1990s 45-48 footers, I know how they are spacewise but have noticed in my research that more recent smaller boats, due to those square sterns, also seem to use the space quite well.

I still think that a Jen 45.2, 3 cabin version will be about the right size but just as seems to be the case with the Ben 473, they are up for 100k for a 20 year old boat.

True. But you should get something good for that or less, 15 YO possibly too.

 

[jazzdude]

If I plan to buy in 5 years time, outright without the chartering would a 100k Bavaria 45 Cruiser be within my 70k budget, in other words will something that is currently being advertised at 100k, likely to be around 70k when I'm ready to buy.

Looking at it this way a 2010 boat might be possible and the Bav 45 definitely ticks all the boxes re space and accommodation.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Well, maybe. Or maybe not. No way especially at the moment that you or I could reliably guess the market pressures on used prices, but assuming a downward trend it would seem plausible. 5 years a long time to dream though

 

[De.windhoos]

As I did my early sailing on 1990s 45-48 footers, I know how they are spacewise but have noticed in my research that more recent smaller boats, due to those square sterns, also seem to use the space quite well.

I still think that a Jen 45.2, 3 cabin version will be about the right size but just as seems to be the case with the Ben 473, they are up for 100k for a 20 year old boat.

Realize that the E-Tpai (Greek cruising tax) will jump a lot for boats longer than 12mtr. Boats between 10 and 12mtr pay 33EU a month and boats larger than 12mtr pay 8EU PER METER per month. So for a true 48ft boat you would pay 116EU/month.
BTW you only pay for the months that you sail.

 

[dslittle]

My view of this is that it's eminently doable with one major flaw which is the 'charter my boat out' bit. That is certainly feasible but regulation and red tape will likely sink you. if you are determined to do it then buy a boat that's already coded for and used for charter in Greece. My guess is that the cost of maintaining the coding, running the operation and paying the licences and taxes and crew and cleaning and maintenance and insurance and marketing and whatever else, will exceed the money you can make.

A good number of years ago this is exactly how we started out in boat ownership - very successfully. If Jazzdude wants to PM me I’ll fill in the details.