Pros & Cons....

mustard

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Here something a few of you might have considered - whats the best, IYHO, a good live-aboard in the med, 50'+ or more, or a lesser (?) sportsboat and an apartment/villa? Or both?

I mean, the apartment/villa rises generally in value, the boat sinks, but the cost of running a 50'+ can't be much greater than a sportscruiser in a marina, and the apartment/villa cost invested might pay for the running cost of the boat, and...well you get the picture, and no point in saying depends on what you want cos boating comes first....

Given we are not all mega-bucks and want the best return/ least cost.....
 

EME

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Still a 'depends'.

For me it would depend where in the Med.

Med marinas are in Western Med frequent, accessible and adjacent to some of the World's most beautiful scenerey. You can get anywhere quickly in a quickish Sportsboat.. SO for me that means villa PLUS boat plus overnighting in decent B=Bs and small hotels

If howver Turkey/Greece/Croatia is order of the day. The converse is almost true. you will never see civilisation. Leccy missing in harbours , few creature comforts . So go for Liveaboard. ( Bigger, roomier). Doesn't mean Flybridge though necessarily.

All in my VVVHO, but that's how I read it for myself.

P.S. property doesn't escalate in value in mainland Europe like it does here. Rate ofinflation is a good 'top-end' guide.

...I wanna boat please..
 

mustard

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I was maybe thinking more of live-aboard 40' sports cruisers, so no B&B's necessarily (but good idea). Certainly Western Med - Costa Blanca, perhaps.

Take your point about cruising further in the Med, tho, so given its a once-and-for-all investment, you might need the 50+ for extended cruising, and the villa...

I'll dream on, I think....
 
G

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Just got the villa in Costa Del Sol, and have secured a 12m berth in local Marina (west of Marbella)
15nm from Gib so cruise down for cheap fuel (20p litre) plus cigs at 80p per pack plus booze at £5-6 per
litre.

Just need the boat now to fill the berth. Bear in mind that the berth length rises from 15m (49.34ft)
sharply to 20m (65.78ft) so try to keep under 50ft. My friend just delivered a 50ft Fairline
to Del Sol, and in each Marina they had to pay for 20m berth once marina had mesured LOA including
Davits etc it was 50ft plus.
Perhaps a Princess V42 I think they are beamier than equivalent Targa but not sure.

"The Med is calling me"
 

mustard

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Did you find the marina berth easily? Expensive there? Sounds like the ideal set-up you have, but why Costa Del Sol? Is it true its better weather always than Costa Blanca, Balaerics? 20p per litre in Gib is great, as long as Blur doesn't compromise with his EU cronies over the rock.

Good advice about boat length, thank you, even some 48's slip over 15m. Also like v42, but tending to T43.
 

tcm

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I have thought about this lots and lots. I have no flat, just a boat + berth in med. Being a brit, we just can't heklp wandering around estatae agents, but then swmbo asks what we'd do with the flat - we prefer the boat.

Especially in summer months, I know we've done the right thing - for us. In the UK, the whole family spends its entire time getting in and out of cars to school, work, anywhere in fact. But on the boat, we get up and mooch about, wander round town (antibes) praps go off somewhere or maybe just anchor out in the bay. No fighting for carpark spaces, no fighting for berth spaces.

Trouble is, it's entirely normal to go and buy a flat or house first, and then lookfor a boat. But having got the nicest house you can find (and if it's a brit-friendly house, it has a pool, so it's not right on the coast...) then its very hard to justify buying more than a dayboat. So then you're fighting for the carpark spaces - that's when you aren't out maintaining or shopping for the both the boat and the flat and now a car too...

For me, here's the clincher: when looking for a house or flat , we'd all want one with a nice view, yes? But anchor out in the bay in a big boat and you ARE the view. I don't think I look at any house next to the sea and wish i could swap places. Whereas I think that lots of people even with a nice bacony look out to sea and say - why don't we buy a boat? So why buy a house as well? For many, it's a rather expensive place to keep the boat keys.

For sale: 1/3 share in Leopard 23 metre. Loads of tellys, big electric things with dials, monster engines, massive dashboard with loads of buttons and over 20 remote controls. £500k. Makes that s/hand sqadron look a bit sick.
 
G

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Costa Del Sol about 4-5 degrees warmer in winter generally further east you go from Marbella the cooler
it gets in winter. The Villa is 240ft above sea level (according to my handheld) and has sea view to south
and superb hills & a mountain to west and north.
The berth is rented which I took up on 9th Sept whilst out there as I paid up front got 35% discount which,
and I could'nt believe this, worked out cheaper for my 37ft boat than Penton Hook on the Thames

Its a small Marina west of Estepona called Puerto De La Duquesa. (Port of the Duchess)
Very pleasant with nice restaurants. They have hard standing and workshop etc.

Estepona Golf three k from Marina Villa 8k about 10 mins, Sounds good yes?

"The Med is calling me"
 

mustard

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Always tended to this ideal, a big boat, afloat mostly, different holes, on the view itself (so true) it all makes the sort of sense you so clearly enunciated. But printed this thread and laid it before the wife as her thinking has been what about the kids, friends, children, hangers, clients, and perhaps Christmas and then her seasickness.....so we started weighing it all, and then went the other way, 'cos a warm villa in a chilly winter sounds more comforting, and maybe the grandkids (if & when) might not be the best on a boat all the time. Can see how it would suit two of you, + friends, for most of the time. And frankly, its my choice, want a bolthole away from the stresses of (ahem), and certainly bloody cars, and parking, and decided this way 52' + minimum is really necessary, but we are hanging off buying now till October, going down to the Costa's for the first time ever (been everywhere in the World but there!) to see if its OK for us. All of this is instead of returning to NZ, always our first option 'till i saw replies like these and talked to a few doing it and luvin it.

So its probably a villa with english(?) pool, a v42 and a third share (on drip?) in a Leopard for the faraway places...or probably not.

Sorry this is all a little personal but thanks for your time and help guys....big decision for us!
 

martin

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Hi,

We started out boating about 8 years ago with a small searay in the UK. around that time we also decided to look at a villa/apartment in spain. We went to Puerto Cabopina and i fell in love with the place... Viewed a few apartments and decided (like TCM) for the money, why look at the view when you can buy luverly big boat and be it..also if you don't like the view move to a new one..difficult with a house!!.

Also, even though we wanted a house eventually, we did not know the area well enuf to buy for the long term.. So we bought a B/New F33 Sealine in England with view to getting used to it in one season in the UK and then shipping it out to spain.

After running the Sealine for two years and realising how much work/aggro it was cos marinas and engineers seem to lay in wait for newcomers like me. So I was not h/p at thought of moving the boat to a foriegn country where language and custom promised to make it even more complicated...

So we settled down to boating in this country and renting villas/boats on the costa del sol for hols.... Last year we finally gave in a bought a 3 bed house in Marbella with shared pool..of course I would love a boat out there but I think for the amount of use we get out there, it will have to be a sports boat on a trailer. That way it can sit in the garage and stop giving me agro and costing money when I am not using it. Also, if you have 3 nice warm beds in a house I cant see the point in ruffing it on the boat...even 60ft ones are not exactly luxury and have limited space.

Looking back over my boating history I think I had more fun with the little boats anyway and am quite looking forward to bombing about the bays in little 20ft er...

Also... boating at the w/e on our V39 on the Thames still gets us out of the house and stops us mucking about with cars etc..

tuf decisions..
 
G

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A boating friend is just in the process of buying a 3 bedroom villa, own pool, 3 miles from coast torrejeva area, he has 435 princess over here, now having had boats both here and abroad( majorca) then if I had ny way then it would be a family size villa, probably with just a communal poole, and say a Princess v40 or something about that size tp keep my hand in, also you could rent the villa out which would pay for its upkeep and probably something towards the cost of the boat as well, just dreaming I suppose but you never know till you do it, so go on give it a try, I would imagine that a place just slightly away from the coast will be a lot cheaper than on the sea front and you will get more for your money also you probably would not use the boat as much if you could see it from your lounge window.

Paul js.
 

mustard

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Your plan sounds so good. Ideal, the more we think about it.

West of Estapona seems the choice so is the Broom going to the med, or is it there? Are you cruising down? No plans for a sports boat? (probably missed a thread)
 
G

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No not taking the Broom will be choosing another boat. Did I mention 15nm from Gib 20p litre diesel ?

"The Med is calling me"
 
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