Potential Med Cruise Advice

[James L]

I am working on a plan to take paternity leave and spend a summer cruising the Med in the next 1 to 3 years.
Currently have a Sunseeker Jamaican 35 in the south west of Ireland, my plan would be to sell up, buy something a bit bigger in the south of France/Spain (maybe a Guy Couach 1401, love the side doors), spend 2 months in the med and a few weeks cruising back home with a couple of long legs.
Next year the kids will be 1, 6 & 8 so trying to get it done while they would still be willing to spend a full summer with us

So the first of many questions are.

Is there a minimum size you would recommend for 2 - 3 months liveaboard? Does a bigger boat actually make much of a difference if you have the same number of cabins and only one saloon?

How practical is it to marina hop around the Med, from all the threads on here it seems pretty busy.
Would expect to be 50-50 marina/anchoring to keep swmbo on board.
Would I be able to get visitor berths at marinas at short notice? How far in advance would you need to book in popular spots?
What kind of price range are visitor berths?
Is it easy enough to find safe spots to anchor?

I'd like to know now if I'll be spending 2 months stressing about where we're going next

Thanks.

 

[Whitelighter]

I would suggest the sweet spot for a trip like that is 15m.
You’ll want space to spread out, no matter how much you like your kids. Also something if that size can accommodate useful things such as washing machines, dishwashers etc etc

15m also a good size fir getting in places. Not too big not too small, and with three cabins non will be a squeezed in bunk cabin if you buy the right one

 

[James L]

Thanks, good to know.
We've never spent more than 5 nights in a row on board, so short enough that the kids never got sick of it. 2 months will be a different story.

 

[markc]

We do 6 weeks each summer on the boat with 2 kids {currently 5 and 9} and it works very well on a 17m boat. We just make sure we spend plenty of time ashore as well as on the boat. We don't do long journeys and spend a lot of time at anchor.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Is there a minimum size you would recommend for 2 - 3 months liveaboard?

I would have thought the minimum size will be dependent on the number of cabins you need and with 3 kids on board as well as yourselves IMHO you need at least 3 cabins plus a reasonable size saloon for them to play in. Agree with Whitelighter that a 15m boat sounds about the minimum. Of course you also need a boat thats seaworthy enough to stand up to passages in moderate seas and stable enough not to roll around too much at anchor and again that points to 15m minimum

How practical is it to marina hop around the Med, from all the threads on here it seems pretty busy.

Depends entirely where and when youre planning on doing the marina hopping. Avoid high summer and avoid the real hotspots (SoF, Balearics, N Sardinia, Amalfi) and thats viable

Would expect to be 50-50 marina/anchoring to keep swmbo on board.

50/50 marina/anchoring is entirely viable but its all going to depend on how good you are at entertaining your kids on board whilst at anchor. I suspect you'll need a good tender for regular shore excursions + lots of water toys

Would I be able to get visitor berths at marinas at short notice? How far in advance would you need to book in popular spots?

Booking ahead is always preferable but as I said above if you avoid the hotspots in high season, you should get into most marinas on spec but its always wise to turn up early afternoon to give yourself the best chance of finding a berth

What kind of price range are visitor berths?

Depends entirely when and where you are but anything from €50 to €500/night. For a 15m boat out of high season youre probably going to average €100/night

Is it easy enough to find safe spots to anchor?

No problem if youve got good charts and a pilot book and plan your trip accordingly but the big unknown is the weather. Heavy mistral winds in the W Med and bora winds in the Adriatic occur occasionally so always watch the forecast and plan to be tied up to something concrete if anything above a F6 is forecast. Some areas are more susceptible to high winds than others (eg Golfe de Lion, Costa Brava, Bonifacio Strait, N Croatia to name a few)

 

[Hardmy]

We are also organizing ourselves to take a 8 month parental leave next year. I cannot answer for SoF/Spain, my experience is limited to the Adriatic/Ionian/Aegean seas.

Is there a minimum size you would recommend for 2 - 3 months liveaboard? Does a bigger boat actually make much of a difference if you have the same number of cabins and only one saloon?

My boat is nearly 15m with 3 cabins and we feel it as enough. She's also easy to handle for two adults. Indeed I wouldn't choose a 2 cabins boat. Your galley should ideally have full size appliances.

Is it easy enough to find safe spots to anchor?

When I started boating in the med I had only 60 meters with an average anchor. I quickly upgraded to 100m. with the biggest (and modern) anchor which can fit to the bow. An unexpected 40kts while being on anchor can happen!

 

[Portofino]

Getting in anywhere for a berth will only be problematic during the summer school hols .
It’s late May now and yesterday @ St Tropez the visitors berths were 1/2 full .
A 15 M slot was €96 , to night in Cogolin it’s €63 .
We have just temporarily moved away from Cannes film festival and the F1 circus this W/E on the Cote d Azur .
Your limiting factor re anchoring off for extended periods ( weather aside ) will be water .
A large Family , aft showers coming out of the sea , toilets , cooking , washing etc etc will consume a fair few L .
Three choices
1- fit a water maker - and make sure the geny is up to scratch to cope .
2- look closely at the tankage and if inadequate, and you have space retro fit extra capacity.
3 - Nick water as and when -we used to do this with the Sunseeker as it only had 180 L for a family of 4.
Current Itama has 500 L which lasts wife and myself 5/6 days .

You pop into marinas during there lunch find an empty berth tie up , could be fuel of visitors, send wife round to book in , say at 12.30 only to find the office opens @ 1400 .
Meanwhile top up with water .
Then sail away sort of change your mind .

You might want some fuel anyhow ?

Back to machinery ideally the boat needs a quiet geny install and be all electric .
That way as well as the safety aspect of a none gas boat , you will not run out or have hassle resupplying the gas bottles.

You will most likely at anchor need to run the geny to cook and recharge the domestic bats and in high summer run the aircon .
Running the aircon for a couple of hours in the summer removes a slug of heat that built up during the day so folks can get off to sleep in the cabins.
Any cabins next to the engine room will suffer heat soak and open side windows will not be enough to chill them down .
Humans wake up over 22 degrees or never drop off - same difference.

It’s will all get crotchety very quickly after a few nights of sleep deprivation.

You can’t really run a geny all night on a 15m ish boat because it’s just never far enough away to be none intrusive.

In a marina you can run the AC all night normally.
There’s AC and AC ?
Ideally you want a separate chiller in the engine room or Lazerette with quiet air handlers .
Self contained units under bunks or sofas are just noise intrusive and power hungry . So it’s cool but the racket now keeps everyone awake .
In peak periods it’s not unknown for either your shore power to trip or the whole “ visitor “ pontoon temporarily to trip out , because of high loads some AC need .

It’s the sum of many little details that will make or break the experience.

 

[James L]

Thanks all for the great info.
Looks like 15m it is, a bit of a jump from what I'm used to but I guess I'd get the hang of handling it after a bit.
Just have to come up with a budget now and see what would be available.

Depends entirely where and when youre planning on doing the marina hopping. Avoid high summer and avoid the real hotspots (SoF, Balearics, N Sardinia, Amalfi) and thats viable

50/50 marina/anchoring is entirely viable but its all going to depend on how good you are at entertaining your kids on board whilst at anchor. I suspect you'll need a good tender for regular shore excursions + lots of water toys

Unfortunately we have to work around school holidays so it would be end of June to end of August.
We'll just have to arrange a route that avoids the major hotspots, maybe with the option to detour if we can arrange a berth for a few nights. I don't think the kids will be too bothered where we are as long as they have sun and warm water.

We are also organizing ourselves to take a 8 month parental leave next year. I cannot answer for SoF/Spain, my experience is limited to the Adriatic/Ionian/Aegean seas.


My boat is nearly 15m with 3 cabins and we feel it as enough. She's also easy to handle for two adults. Indeed I wouldn't choose a 2 cabins boat. Your galley should ideally have full size appliances.


When I started boating in the med I had only 60 meters with an average anchor. I quickly upgraded to 100m. with the biggest (and modern) anchor which can fit to the bow. An unexpected 40kts while being on anchor can happen!

8 months - I'm very jealous
When we find something I'll see what ground tackle comes with it and whether it needs upgrading, I imagine not many would have 100m. My past 2 boats I have changed to a modern anchor, there does seem to be a massive difference.

Your limiting factor re anchoring off for extended periods ( weather aside ) will be water .

My limiting factor will be SWMBO, I've already been warned that we won't be spending the summer at anchor, 3 nights will probably be the limit.

Back to machinery ideally the boat needs a quiet geny install and be all electric .
That way as well as the safety aspect of a none gas boat , you will not run out or have hassle resupplying the gas bottles.

In a marina you can run the AC all night normally.
There’s AC and AC ?
Ideally you want a separate chiller in the engine room or Lazerette with quiet air handlers .
Self contained units under bunks or sofas are just noise intrusive and power hungry . So it’s cool but the racket now keeps everyone awake .

I'll keep that in mind when we start looking but to be honest regarding AC we'll have to take what we get, if we bring the boat back to Ireland there's unlikely to be much call for AC (but who knows with global warming) so we won't be looking at retrofitting anything.

Thanks.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I'll keep that in mind when we start looking but to be honest regarding AC we'll have to take what we get, if we bring the boat back to Ireland there's unlikely to be much call for AC (but who knows with global warming) so we won't be looking at retrofitting anything.
.

A/C (air conditioning) is virtually essential in the Med especially for N Europeans like us not accustomed to 30degC + temperatures and especially since you intend to cruise in the June-Aug period which is the hottest time of the year. And dont think that you can live with all the windows open all the time especially at night because in many areas you will want to close up the saloon to keep the mosquitos out. And if you've been cruising during the day you will have 2 big engine lumps under the saloon emanating heat into the boat

Having said this, you'd have to try very hard to buy a 15m motorboat in the Med which doesnt have A/C fitted so dont worry too much about this

 

[Hooligan]

A/C (air conditioning) is virtually essential in the Med especially for N Europeans like us not accustomed to 30degC + temperatures and especially since you intend to cruise in the June-Aug period which is the hottest time of the year. And dont think that you can live with all the windows open all the time especially at night because in many areas you will want to close up the saloon to keep the mosquitos out. And if you've been cruising during the day you will have 2 big engine lumps under the saloon emanating heat into the boat

Having said this, you'd have to try very hard to buy a 15m motorboat in the Med which doesnt have A/C fitted so dont worry too much about this

Totally agree. AC is a must especially with young kids. I fit a watermaker onto my boat and frankly this made a massive difference, far bigger than I thought. I can almost guarantee that with a wife and 3 kids on board - apologies if any offence caused - the chance of lasting three days on anchor without you spending every day checking on water usage and nagging everyone (which in itself generally used to caused enough stress) is pretty small. The watermaker just makes the whole thing far more enjoyable - long hot showers every day!!

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Totally agree. AC is a must especially with young kids. I fit a watermaker onto my boat and frankly this made a massive difference, far bigger than I thought. I can almost guarantee that with a wife and 3 kids on board - apologies if any offence caused - the chance of lasting three days on anchor without you spending every day checking on water usage and nagging everyone (which in itself generally used to caused enough stress) is pretty small. The watermaker just makes the whole thing far more enjoyable - long hot showers every day!!

I used to switch the waterpump off if I felt guests were using too much water in the showers until I got a watermaker

 

[Hooligan]

I used to switch the waterpump off if I felt guests were using too much water in the showers until I got a watermaker

Tried that with the wife.....once!!!!

 

[markc]

+1 AC and watermaker

 

[James L]

Having said this, you'd have to try very hard to buy a 15m motorboat in the Med which doesnt have A/C fitted so dont worry too much about this

Good to know, will keep an eye out anyway in case I manage to find the one or two that don't have it.

Tried that with the wife.....once!!!!

lol

+1 AC and watermaker

ok, watermaker added to the list, I'll have to save this thread to show her it's for her benefit, I'm sure she'll think I'm just buying new gadgets for the fun of it (wouldn't be the first time).