New to Boating

[crbtaylor]

Having recently retired early (45) and after visiting the Boat Show I have decided to invest in a Motor Boat. My experience is limited to Dinghy Sailing!! I have the idea of buying a relatively new boat and mooring it in Mallorca and would preferably like to buy a boat with mooring. A tall question but I need to start somewhere, but where? I have a budget of £150,000. Ultimately I would like to day charter the boat and hopefully make a modest income. I know my question is a little vague but when searching the internet it is a minefield. Can anyone point me in the right direction to start?

 

[oldgit]

Hi Wobbler and welcome to forum.Several posters here will be able to assist you with info on mooring your proposed boat in the Med and the costs and problems involved.Just being a bit of a killjoy tho,do read the recent thread of Medreamer and a further search of forum will give more lots more info on this subject.Suspect that any boat you purchase will need to be fairly big/new /expensive and posh in order for you to be able to make chartering it out down there a sensible option.

 

[Talbot]

Welcome to the Forums. Your bio gives no clue as to your relative experience in yachting, so I am assuming that you are a total newbie. My recommend would be to have some serious training on mobos from one of the numerous companies (e.g. suncoast) and this will also help to firm up the type of boat that you want. once you know that and the amount of money allocated to the purchase, you will find it easier to decide on the boat for you.

 

[Alistairr]

I'm sure something like this would be a good starter boat, and should be ok for charter.
http://www.phantom37.co.uk/

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I moor in Majorca at the moment and the charter market is very active out there and growing. Some points to consider

1. Getting a berth is difficult but not impossible if you buy a boat with a mooring to buy or rent attached. Alternatively you can buy a boat through a local dealer and negotiate a mooring as part of the deal

2. For the charter market, you will need a relatively new or brand new boat with as many cabins as possible with all the goodies such as aircon, gennie etc and including a crew cabin if poss. Even for day charter, guests will expect the use of a cabin. You will need to buy from a recognised manufacturer because charterers look for 'names' like Sunseeker, Fairline, Princess, Sealine, Azimut etc

4. The boat will definitely need to be MCA coded (equipped and surveyed for charter) and licensed. This could cost around £10k on a 40ft boat

5. Choose your charter agent very carefully. You want somebody who is going to look after your boat and not dissapear with your charter income

6. There are some dealers now offering some interesting buy and charter management deals with tax efficient ways of owning your boat

PM me if you want more info

 

[tcm]

good advice below. Bit difficult from total blank sheet - need more about family and what you plan to do fishing, sunbathing, blamming around etc.

I think that there is a high risk of getting a too-small boat - as well as a too-big boat. For this reason it is quite a giood idea to charter (rent) a boat first. Maybe yerv done this a bit and love a particular spot? Majorca has only half (or less) the spaces for the boats that want to be there so prioces are between not cheap and riproaringly expensive - the most expensive longterm lease (30 years) in puerto portals frexample now being around whatever the price of a new sunseeker that fits the berth - £1.2 m for a 73 footer.

If you plan to charter then you need a boat you don't love too much - i did charter in majorca, but i liked our boat too much, and it came back having done 60 hrs in 3 weeks, never cleaned and a bit donked here and there - and decided i didn't need the aggro a second time.

 

[miket]

Sympathies and very nice boat but does not really fit Deleted User's criteria of new or nearly new.

I would think at £150k you will struggle.

 

[Nat]

Hello & welcome to the forum.
I'm not trying to put you off or pour cold water on your plans but I have been looking at doing what you fancy for the last year or so. its a lot more involved than what you think, (to do it legally that is) Unless you just want to do fishing trips you will need much more than £150k budget. All the Charter crowd want the latest top marque boats anything less just wont do(unless its a quick 2 hr round the bay trip) for which you will get 30 euros a head if you lucky. A friend of mine does 2 hr Whale & Dolphin trips on The Costa del Sol & says there's a living in it but no fortunes. someone else I know does skippered charters out of the Mar Menor (Costa Blanca) on a 3 year old 40' flybridge boat & says although the summer season is not bad winter trade is practiclly none existent unless you do fishing trips. Unfortunatly fishing & new boats dont mix, blood, fishscales, mess & hooks caught in upholstery ect. You need to research all the options really well before deciding. I have not looked at the Balaerics because I think there are more than enough peeps doing it out there already I am heading for the fishing side of it as there is no one doing it legally where I am and loads of ex pats love fishing so you are not relying on tourists
Lots of good advice to be had on here hope my input helps.
As an afterthought penaltys for being caught doing illegal charters almost certainly ends with boat being confiscated.........Nat

 

[DavidJ]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Let's put chartering to one side and try and help you with what YOU want (150k is a lot of money to spend on what someone else wants)
Everything is a compromise so I'm not suggesting that mine is in any way optimum but it works for me (at the moment!).
For 150 k you could get a 2-3 yr old 37ft Sealine or Fairline or a new Cranchi. Endless debate on this forum but for the Med I like the sports boat which has loads of open entertaining space, also they are cheaper than a flybridge and lend themselves to single maning. I get about 2mpg and it gets worse the bigger the boat of course and fuel is about €1/litre.
The Med is a choppy place so don't look much smaller than 37ft. On the mainland you will pay €4000/year for a berth which again gets more expensive the bigger you get.
I too am early retired and it's the only way to own a boat in the Med, otherwise it just sits there growing weed for 11 months a year.
hope this helps just a bit in focussing your thoughts.
David

 

[Nick_H]

Retired at 45! My suggestion is go back to work like everybody else, and forget these crazy ideas about chartering out sailing dinghies at £150,000 a day.

 

[jfm]

I appreciate I'm not at all answering your question, but if I guess rightly (as 150k is a roound number and you just retired at 45) you have much more than 150k. In which case you could spent say 700k on a brand new 60footer with lots of living space and charter it for £12000/week, and epxect to get a good 10weeks+ per year for the first few years while the boat is new. Or you could do what someone known to a few hereabouts did and buy a £2.1m sunseeker 82 yacht and charter it for 150days in the first season at £5000/day gross by turning it over to Sunseeker charters to manage. That's £500k net. These charters are South of France, Cote d'Azur.

Getting quality charter business is partly having an attraxtive boat but it's also about having a nice skipper and stewardess. Needs to entertain the guests and know the area, which restaurants to recommend, how to anchor to minimise boat wobble, etc. So you might need to learn the ropes somehow for the first year.

Sorry for answering a different question, I will RTFQ next time

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Yeah, agree with you that if you're gonna charter, your boat cant be an object of desire on which you lavish all your affection but has to be just another piece of hire plant which you own for income/tax loss

 

[crbtaylor]

Hmmmm. Judging by the great and informative response I am thinking that perhaps chartering is in the distant future. First of all I need a boat with a mooring in Spain or the Balaerics. Any suggestions? As for the the comment "get a job", why should I when I can comfortably retire with NO state aid and having never claimed any!!

 

[gjgm]

oxymoron surely-the idea that state aid would provide a comfortable retirement (with or without 150k boat)!!
Bon chance however and the forum looks forward to your special forumite charter discount promo !!

 

[puskin]

Please read your private messages

 

[puskin]

Previous remark was meant for Wobbler

 

[PhilF]

chartering looks all agro to me, it encompasses the worse jobs, cleaning, cooking sucking up, being at someone leses beck and call, so either

do it as a business, get a captian and make a small margin or buy a boat that you can afford to run with no bloody chartering, imho

PS it helps if you fill in your bio a bit, would you have a one side conversation with a stranger?