How long

[dj43]

Hi all
As always when the weather is not so great in the UK one starts to think about warmer location,s

But how long does it take to get from your house to your boat, at present on average we have a 4 hr commute each way,

For a location say in spain If say 1hr to airport, arrive 2hrs before flight, say 2hr flight ?, 2 hr airport to marina,

Averaging 6 to 8 hrs per trip

Would this be about right .

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Hi all
As always when the weather is not so great in the UK one starts to think about warmer location,s

But how long does it take to get from your house to your boat, at present on average we have a 4 hr commute each way,

For a location say in spain If say 1hr to airport, arrive 2hrs before flight, say 2hr flight ?, 2 hr airport to marina,

Averaging 6 to 8 hrs per trip

Would this be about right .

My boat is in SoF. Takes me about four hours door to door: bike to airport, 25 mins; security, 10 mins; hanging around before flight: 45 mins; flight time (assuming no delays) 2 hours; scooter to boat: 20 mins. Add sundry minutes here and there and you get to about four hours. I've never done it quicker than 3h45. To make it easier, I park in the short stay car park at Gatwick, and I have my French scooter delivered to the terminal buildling so that I don't have any waiting time at the other end. And fwiw I park the scooter on the quai about six feet away from the boat, so zero walking time when I get there.

 

[lionelz]

Its about an hour for me from door to transom, however I am dependant on traffic in Gosport sometimes it can be a nightmare

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

IMHO one of the key things that makes Med boating viable, at least for a full time working person such as me, is to minimise the hassle of getting to your boat. So, for example, you have quoted 2hrs from airport to marina. I wouldn't put up with that. For me, the absolute maximum journey time for me from airport to marina would be 1hr and hopefully less. The last thing you need after a fraught trip on the M25 to Gatwick, wading through the queues and then putting up with sitting next to a screaming baby for 2 hrs on the flight is another 2 hrs of purgatory after that

So I plan on 1 - 1.5hrs drive to either Gatwick or Stansted, arrive 1-1.5hrs before flight depending on whether we have hold luggage or not, 2 hr flight and less than 1hr to boat. Make that 6hrs in total door to door. I have also learnt that to make Med boating viable for me, I have do everything possible to take the stress out of the journey which means valet parking, priority check in/security, lounge access, priority boarding and extra leg room seat. Yup that costs money but in my case, thats the price I'm willing to pay to take the hassle out of the trip otherwise I would find reasons not to do it. I travel a fair bit for my business so travelling to my boat is an extra burden I want to minimise. On the other hand, if I was retired, I would probably put up with a longer journey and not pay for the extras

I moved my boat to the Med in 2003 and whilst I still miss having it on the doorstep in the UK, I wouldn't go back to keeping it in the UK permanently again for the very reasons you give. The weather here is shite

 

[prv]

But how long does it take to get from your house to your boat, at present on average we have a 4 hr commute each way,

Five minutes if the level crossing is open, bit longer if there's a train

We've based Ariam down in Cornwall for a couple of months, which coincidentally is a four hour drive from here. It's been interesting to have a new cruising area, but I've used her far less than I would normally, and I'm looking forward to having her back here. I would not consider being so far away on a permanent basis.

If you're going to be multiple hours away anyway, then why not get the benefit of that travel time by keeping the boat somewhere really nice?

Pete

 

[Offshore57]

Takes us 12 minutes to get from home to Lower Swanwick on the Hamble where the boat is. We stay on her every weekend and take her out when conditions allow, but also have the option of nipping home when we forget something, which seems to happen a lot.
Dave

 

[julians]

Its about 4 - 4.5 hours door to door, I'm in manchester, boat in mallorca. it helps to be a 10 minute taxi ride from manchester airport, and a 25 minute drive from palma airport to the apartment/boat at the other end

 

[burgundyben]

Depends, in the car, about 3 minutes, in the Morris Minor about 4 mins and on the bike about 5 mins.

 

[Spi D]

Takes us 12 minutes to get from home to Lower Swanwick on the Hamble where the boat is. We stay on her every weekend and take her out when conditions allow, but also have the option of nipping home when we forget something, which seems to happen

+1 And driving from Work the time to boat is a few minutes faster than going home

 

[GSL]

Us in Cheltenham, boat in Sant Carles Spain.

5.5 hours door to transom usually, and worth every minute having kept the last boat originally in Shamrock Quay Southampton.
That trip was 1.5 hours but the weather always so disappointing.

As a bonus, much cheaper keeping it is Spain, and the supermarkets for every day living also much less expensive.

Graham

 

[petem]

Its about 4 - 4.5 hours door to door, I'm in manchester, boat in mallorca. it helps to be a 10 minute taxi ride from manchester airport, and a 25 minute drive from palma airport to the apartment/boat at the other end

Julian,

What are the economics of keeping a place in Mallorca? Do you let it out? If so, what's the yield / occupancy like? I guess you must be in the are west of Palma?

Pete

 

[Croftie]

1hr driving, to me that's enough.

 

[Nick_H]

We live about 100 yards as the crow flies from Lymington Marina, but to use the boat we drive 2 hours to gatwick, 1-2 hours wait time, 2 hour flight, and 20 mins taxi. Travel time isn't the only added hassle of keeping a boat abroad either, it's also more difficult to organise maintenance, and as mike says, it limits how much you can do yourself so always ends up costing more. The weather makes all the difference though, as for long periods of the summer it's warm and settled every day, the water is a lovely swimming temperature, and evenings are spent in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirts. You do get periods of wind, in fact the mistral has blown here for the last week, but that's unusual in summer, and it's an offshore wind anyway, so the sea stays flat near the coast and unless it's blowing particularly hard it's still possible to use the boat (unless of course it's broken!)

 

[julians]

Julian,

What are the economics of keeping a place in Mallorca? Do you let it out? If so, what's the yield / occupancy like? I guess you must be in the are west of Palma?

Pete

we're south west of palma, on the coast near'ish to portals vells .

We do let it out, but only really as pocket money, dont intend or really try to cover costs or even make a profit out of it. I couldnt quote an (paying customer) occupancy figure, but its tiny, Its mainly just friends and family that use it. We dont actively market it, theres a local agent who has it on their books, but thats it.

I think it would be difficult to try and maximimise paying customer occupancy and still have the place available for family use, as inevitably the times of year when paying customers would pay top rate for it are also the same times of year that we would want to use it.

So not a very useful answer for anyone considering buying somewhere and letting it out as a commercial concern.

 

[Wavey]

A question for those keeping their boat in the Med. Am I right in thinking you only use it for long weekends or longer periods. I can't quite see how it's workable if you head off after work on a Friday and have to get back on a Sunday for work the next day?

 

[Portofino]

From Antibes 1/2 hour down the A8
From our Swiss base 6 hr drive either down via Geneva through France or over the St Bernard Tunnel via Italy .
Or 1hr train ride GVA -45 mins airport ( no hold bag ) -50 min fgt to Nice , 1/2 hour motorway to boat .
From Uk depend on which Airport door to door as others have said approx 6 hrs .
For Wavey ---
I have previously day tripped it from Gatwick and Standsted to Naples,out on the 7 am arrive back 10 pm ish .
You just have to plan in advance to organise your time ., and " let go " so to speak ,we use a gardienne to look after it .prep it ,clean it , arrange repairs ,etc .With smart phones you can Allways have pics sent along with other technology ,it's not like you have to be there personally
Same applies to properly too - Let go !
We are on it every month in the season 1wk in May ,2x Thur -Mondays June , 2wks stretch July , 1week ,August , 1week Sept ,1week Oct -
I may call in over Winter to look at it - when we are in Antibes , or the weathers not so good in Switzerland And we fancey a bit of Cote D Azur - but we do not go out -it's a Summer thing really-once the water drops below 17-18 oC - we had enough .

 

[Nick_H]

A question for those keeping their boat in the Med. Am I right in thinking you only use it for long weekends or longer periods. I can't quite see how it's workable if you head off after work on a Friday and have to get back on a Sunday for work the next day?

I think to make weekends work you have to live close to the London airports, and keep your boat near Nice, Palma or another highly popular destination. You could get lucky and find flights at the right time from a regional airport, but next year they'll probably change the flight times and they'll be too early or too late. There are over 20 flights a day from London airports to Nice for example, so you'll always find a flight at a suitable time. They'll be pricey flights on Fri and Sunday eve though, so with kids it can work out very expensive even if the times do work.

 

[julians]

A question for those keeping their boat in the Med. Am I right in thinking you only use it for long weekends or longer periods. I can't quite see how it's workable if you head off after work on a Friday and have to get back on a Sunday for work the next day?

for me anything less than 3 days long feels too much of a rush.

we usually do 4 days, We tend to fly out on a 6.30am ish flight out of manchester, then back on a monday night at about 9pm ish from palma. Also fit it around bank holidays where possible so it means less time off work.

Tend to do 3 or 4 four day trips, plus 1 two week holiday and 1 one week holiday.

 

[Princess52]

View from my Garden. 2 minutes to the boat Why move from Plymouth??

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

A question for those keeping their boat in the Med. Am I right in thinking you only use it for long weekends or longer periods. I can't quite see how it's workable if you head off after work on a Friday and have to get back on a Sunday for work the next day?

I try to go down for a long weekend every other weekend in the season, out Friday afternoon (sometimes Friday morning), back Monday night. In addition we have a week late June/early July and a couple of weeks late August/early September. Swmbo does about half the weekends and will tend to truncate them a bit to Friday night/Sunday night (she has a proper job, so has less flexibility).