Returning to UK waters from Greece

[Gil Marshall]

I'd like to return my boat to UK waters from Greece, probably next year. Sailing back would flatten my annual leave for a couple of years at least. I've been considering having it delivered, or as I've read recently, boats can be strapped to an open container and loaded onto ships, although I've not yet found any that do the Eastern Med route. Has anyone else faced this dilemma? I'd rather not have to sell up.

 

[ash2020]

I'd like to return my boat to UK waters from Greece, probably next year. Sailing back would flatten my annual leave for a couple of years at least. I've been considering having it delivered, or as I've read recently, boats can be strapped to an open container and loaded onto ships, although I've not yet found any that do the Eastern Med route. Has anyone else faced this dilemma? I'd rather not have to sell up.

I'm sure there are many professional skippers who would sail her back for a reasonable rate.

 

[dunedin]

Q1. Has the boat been in the UK before under your ownership ? If not likely to have VAT and possibly UK certification problems?

Q2. What size of boat. If moderate sized perhaps use holiday to sail to France, Italy or Croatia and bring back from there on a truck (possibly to the Channel coast and recommission there)

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Use your holiday time to sail it to the top of the Adriatic, or better the south of France near the mouth of the Rhone, and get a quote to truck it from there to a port on the North coast of France. Then use your next bout of leave to sail it home across the Channel.

 

[Tranona]

Been there, done that. As motorsailer says, trucking from Slovenia or SOF is one way. There are direct shipments as deck cargo from Piraeius and sometimes from Patras. Not cheap though. When I enquired in 2010 for a 37' boat it was £14k to Southampton. I chose to sail back with a professional skipper on a budget of £6k and a timescale of 5 weeks starting at the beginning of May to get up the Iberian coast before the NE winds set in. In the end because of problems with the boat and running short of time we stopped at San Carles in Spain and trucked from there to Poole. Truck and cranage was £5k and skipper plus costs en route and airfares came to another £3k

Obviously not up to date with latest costs but guess they would be at least 50% higher so you are looking at £12-15k and at least some time sailing as you won't get direct trucking from Greece.

So unless the boat has a higher value here or a non monetary sentimental value probably not worth it.

My original plan was to do it over 2 years with the first a steady cruise to SOF and second year through the Canal du Midi and up the west coast of France. However my boat had a 1.4m keel specifically chosen for this route. As ever though life throws things at you and the year before we panned to do this I was struck with cancer hence Plan B as a last big adventure before an unknown future. Worked out OK for me as my health was better than expected (still here!) and I felt much happier having the boat here than 1000 miles away.

 

[Cspirit]

As an example of recent costs (2021) my 36ft yacht was sailed back from Samos, Greece to Chichester by a delivery crew. The passage took around 3 weeks and total cost was about £10,000