Seafarer Holidays - Saronic Gulf

Achillesheel

Achillesheel

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Considering this company for our Flotilla holiday next year; we have done flots in Croatia and Greece with Sailing Holidays, and fancy somewhere new. But Sailing Holidays Saronic Gulf flots have a Monday start, which due to SWMBO's leave situation, we cannot do.

Has anybody used Seafarer Holidays?

We are also considering Turkey - any comments gratefully received.
 
We've been with Sunscape, but the Turkey flotilla is run jointly with Seafarer. The lead crews are good, and things are run pretty well. The sailing area is excellent. The boats are variable in quality. Some of them are in need of some TLC, whilst others are pretty good. On the whole the larger boats are newer and in good shape.

I love Turkey for sailing. It has everything you could want in a sailing holiday.
 
Avoid using Seafarer Holidays UK

Avoid using Seafarer completely. We have sailed with them in the past, but have since experienced a flotilla that puts families and children at risk. The boats are not properly maintained from years prior. On our recent flotilla, half of the boats had issues of water filling in the engine bays, engine failures, propellers falling off, heavy leaks, and line snaps. We have noticed the good staff of Seafarer from years prior have since left. There was staff that left during our flotilla as well, which left us without anyone to complete a final check out and departure. When people were experiencing trouble on the sea, the staff failed to respond by mobile phone and radio. This was found to be consistent throughout the trip as we were not given much of a briefing as to what we would see, best places to go, etc. It was short morning briefs of A to B, where most of the time the wind estimate was incorrect. This was due to the flotilla leaders being hung over from night drink. This is the leader to make sure your safe. Our vessel was only 5 months old, and the refrigerator did not work, navigation and wind instruments did not work, we experienced line snaps which were dangerous while sailing in high winds, and we were one of the lucky vessels. And this was a new vessel that we paid extra for, but gives you an idea of maintenance of the rest. For your own safety, best to go with another company that focuses on customer service and safety of your family. (* as I have seen with other reviews on Seafarer, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Chris' from Seafarer responds to refute this as our problems as 'user error' or 'vindictive' as you will see on other sites and responses to Seafarer complaints). Note that this was our third time with the company and there was NO returning staff. We ran into previous staff on our sail who confirmed the problems with the company. Best to avoid.
 
Welcome to the forum.
Pity your first post is so dismal.
I for one hope you enjoy more satisfactory experiences in the future.
 
I'm aware that Sunscape is in the process of distancing themselves from Seafarer. The comments regarding the state of the Seafarer boats is pretty near the mark.
 
Lady Celestial said:
I'm aware that Sunscape is in the process of distancing themselves from Seafarer.
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I was going to confirm that too, discovered in my trip with Sunscape in June.

Never had as many problems per flotilla from either company than with Sailing Holidays' delivery trip in May. But maybe delivery trips are like "beta" versions of software...

Mike.
 
Seafarer

I crewed on a yacht in May this year, bare-boat chartered from Seafarer who I understand sub-chartered from Greek Sails. Two weeks from Poros. The yacht was a one year old Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 439 and was in excellent condition. Handovers etc were fine, reasonably thorough and pleasantly done. All in all a good value holiday.

PS I owned and ran a charter company for some years, so do know what to look out for.
 
innesker said:
I crewed on a yacht in May this year, bare-boat chartered from Seafarer who I understand sub-chartered from Greek Sails. Two weeks from Poros. The yacht was a one year old Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 439 and was in excellent condition. Handovers etc were fine, reasonably thorough and pleasantly done. All in all a good value holiday.

PS I owned and ran a charter company for some years, so do know what to look out for.
Click to expand...

The newer boats were ok, if you look at their site you will see they have a fleet of old boats. They own these and they aren't well maintained. Some are dangerous. I saw a man fall from a bavaria last year and he injured his leg very badly on an exposed piece of metal on the boarding ladder.
 
Achillesheel said:
Considering this company for our Flotilla holiday next year; we have done flots in Croatia and Greece with Sailing Holidays, and fancy somewhere new. But Sailing Holidays Saronic Gulf flots have a Monday start, which due to SWMBO's leave situation, we cannot do.

Has anybody used Seafarer Holidays?

We are also considering Turkey - any comments gratefully received.
Click to expand...

We've been to Turkey with Neilson this year, had a fabulous time, highly recommended.:)
 
Lady Celestial said:
Did you do a flotilla? Where did you go? We're planning to Turkey with Neilson.
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Yes, a flotilla for the first time for years. We went west from Marmaris as far as Datcha and all around the penninsulas. [Around 250 miles]. The lead crew were excellent but not over intrusive, they soon picked up that almost the whole flotilla were very experienced and let us loose. We also spent considerably less on food/moorings than we have in previous years. The wind was generally consistanly good, quite strong at first [F6 -7]but settled down to a nice relaxing 3-4 with stronger patches in the late afternoon in various locations. we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will return.
 
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