Leaving boat in the Azores or Canary Islands

[kko]

Hi,

I and my family sail our small (8m) yacht about 2 months in every summer season (in Europe). For 10 months we leave the boat unattended (we can come once or twice for a few days in winter but no more). Thus, until now, we've done hard-standing on shore as a safer option. We prefer low-budget places, but with no too much theft risk. In the next seasons we would like to visit Canary and Azores. So, we want to know if leaving the boat in the islands is practical, or better plan to go there and back to the continent (which unfortunatelly gives little time to visit the placas itself). Please advice with the following questions:

- Is it safe to leave the boat unattended for several months in water on Canary Islands? Which marinas would you recommend?

- Do you know something about Repmaritima boatyard in Madeira? The Imray guidebook recommends it, but the web page seems to be not active any more.

- Do you know any reasonably priced shipyards in the Azores? Or is it more practical to sail there and back to Spain or Portugal for the winter stay?

Generally, we would like to sail for 2-3 seasons in the islands, but if making little bit longer holiday, keeping to the timeline and coming back to the continent every year would make it much cheaper altogether, we would prefere to do so.

Please share your experience in this topic.

 

[Tim Good]

I can’t answer for Madeira or the Azores as I haven’t been yet. In the Canaries you can easily leave you’re boat. We’ve been here for about 1.5 years not and left it in various places. There are private marinas or ports operated via Puerto Canarios, and then there is Las Palmas in Gran Canaria..

The private ones are expensive but some offer good deals if you use it as a base for a year. Tazacorte in La Palma has a boat yard which is very good and cheap but very popular as a result. You have to book in advance and the min stay is 3 months. For a 6 month stay it’s still cheaper than a marina even with the lift fees. Puerto Morgan in Gran Canaria is highly regarded as is Aricife. Many others.

The Puerto Canarios ones have a flat rate which is the same for any of their ports and discounts are given for longer stats. Quality and security vary. Weve left the boat for long periods in Gran Tarajal, Garachico and La Restinga. All fine but GT I hear can get bad in winter if a very rare southerly swell comes in. La Restinga is excellent and friendly. The boat yard also will
Lift you for £65 so storming here is relatively cheap. We stayed 6 months on the hard here. The village of La Restinga and Island of El Hierro is our favourite.

Finally is Las Palmas. Secure, cheap and good connections to flights. However you get kicked out in mid September since the Arc books it up and you can’t return until Early December. If you can be aboard then and go sailing then its perfect.

You can sail all year around here but it can be challenging and anchorages are not that common unless you know how to deal with swell. See Navily for anchorages, many of which I added. Much more sailing friendly than the Azores though which gets hammered in Winter.

I wrote an article in this months edition of Sailing Today’s in Sailing in the Canaries. December issue.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gallant Spirit]

porto santo near Maderia is your best option , cheap and safe, the yard under the runway in maderia is also excellent and under new management.

 

[Bobc]

Terceira is your best bet in the Azores. It's the nicest island, the marina is cheap, there is no crime on the island, and there are flights from Lisbon.

 

[DownWest]

Friend kept his boat in Porto Santo, on the hard, for a year or so. Found it cheap and pleasant.

 

[AndrewB]

Friend kept his boat in Porto Santo, on the hard, for a year or so. Found it cheap and pleasant.

I too like Porto Santo, and the island is interesting, but it's not good cruising territory - there is nowhere to go. It's essentially a useful stopover on an Atlantic crossing.

In the Azores, Horta is an obvious place to consider, a marina with plenty of facilities, pontoon berths for long-stay yachts. The Azores offer interesting cruising. But you must remember that in late summer, they are in the tail-end of the hurricane zone. The islands were quite hard-hit by 'Lorenzo' a month ago which caused serious damage to some of the smaller marinas.

 

[kko]

Thank you very much for all the answers. I have already checked some of the places you mention (using Google, YBW, the Imray book). Still, some information looks to be outdated, thus I have asked this question here. Also, I will start writing e-mails to the possibly interesting places.

I have missed the Tazacorte, and this might be what we are looking for. Thank you for this hint. I will send an e-mail there with questions about price, free places, etc. I will also send question about hard standing to the Puertoscanairos, as you say. The in-water prices in the Canary Islands seem to be reasonable, as well as staying in-water during the winter, but we would prefer the hard-standing if not too expensive.

We definitly don't want to risk staying in water in Azores during the winter.

Still, I can't find information who is now managing the former Repmaritima (the boatyard under the runway)? Could you advice?

I have also checked Porto Santo, which you mention. But generally it redirects me to Marina Quinta do Lorde and the pricelist there gives me over 5000EUR/year for my boat (as far as I understand the pricelists, my boat is little over 8m long). For this year, we pay less than 1700 EUR for 10 months in Vigo. We got similar prices from Viveiro and I think also a boatyard near Lisbon (can't remember the name now, would need to find if someone interested). Povoa de Varzim gave us even lower price, but there is only one very expensive craddle rental service, which makes the price similar to the other options that I mention. Therefore, if we can spare over 3000 EUR by getting back to the continent, we would prefer to do so.

 

[kalanka]

My experiences are from about five years ago. Things may have changed.

I too liked Porto Santo and would have happily left the boat there. On the main island of Madeira I did leave the boat in Quinta do Lorde. There was an unpleasant surge even in the innermost parts of the marina and in really severe weather waves come over the breakwater and have done damage. I left the boat for about 6 weeks. Unfortunately the yard's assurances of constant checking didn't hold up. I arrived back to find my warps worn to a thread by the surge. Would have been a 5 minute job to fix it with the ample spare line on deck.

In the Canaries, Marina Rubicon on Lanzarote was good, efficient and capable of some proper repair work on. a neighbour's boat. I left the boat at Marina San Miguel on Tenerife without problems.

I only went to Porta Das Lajes on Flores in the Azores. Friendly, helpful and good shelter but too difficult to get to by other means as a place to leave the boat. I just pressed on.

 

[Tim Good]

Good luck getting a response from Puerto Canarios. It’s a bit chaotic and depends greatly on which harbour you go to.

Another is La Graciosa. Nice place to leave the boat for sure.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Sorry for the tangential nature of this comment, but IMHO, keeping the boat in the water is safer than on the hard, given a well sheltered marina, in that it cannot in any circumstances be blown over.

 

[Tim Good]

Sorry for the tangential nature of this comment, but IMHO, keeping the boat in the water is safer than on the hard, given a well sheltered marina, in that it cannot in any circumstances be blown over.

I'd usually agree but some of the marinas in the Atlantic islands are so snatchy. You come back after a few months and fenders and lines are buggered. I'm always anxious after leaving it for a while. Las Palmas and Tazacorte in the Canaries are particularly good but others can be horribly snatchy even with the best snubbers.

 

[kko]

Staying in the water can be OK if the marina staff will really keep an eye on the boat. And if the swell from every direction can't get inside. So, it is also helpful if you recommend such places (we may decide to do so). Still, there can be some disadvantages if we leave boat for a long time, especially in a place where frequent storms can be expected. But this is not an only problem.

For example, this year one thru-hull fitting started leaking. For some time I couldn't figure out why I have a bucket of water in the bilge every few days, during the good weather. It is fixed now, but leaks can happen on a quite old boat.

Several years ago we were staying in a not very well sheltered marina (not for a long time, just we could reach it before the heavy wind came) and changed broken ropes every few hours. This may be not a problem in a sheltered marina.

But this year I have seen a yacht in a really well protected place, which stayed there for quite a long time. It must have been hitting the pontoon (could put my fist in the hole in the bow). Someone has already added a new mooring line. But it was almost broken again. I have corrected it, but really was surprised how much nobody cares.