Shipping 30 footer back from Greece

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NickC

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Any great suggestions on cheapest way to ship a 30 footer back to the UK from Greece? Road transport looks to be in the region of £7.5k, any suggestions of how to do it cheaper.

Obviously the cheapest method is to sail back but many of the boats out there need a bit of work so are not really in a ready to sail condition, certainly not for a journey that long.
 
NickC,

first question I think of is, would the boat you're thinking of be seaworthy to get to the southern end of the French Canal system, and if so would she fit ?

Mainly a question of draft, over about 4' starts to become tricky but may be feasible, would need checking higher powers.

Other snags like in winter the rivers go nuts in spate, but definitely an option I'd consider - IF somehow I was convinced a boat in Greece was both the bargain of the century and the love of my life.

I do know a VERY good delivery skipper who is a ' No BS ' type, he could give straight answers inc by road by someone else - but only really with a lot more details.
 
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A half and half solution has worked for many users. Sail up the Adriatic to Slovenia, then road transport to Breskens in Holland. Avoids the Atlantic and the relatively long stretch around Italy to Marseille or Agde for the canals.
 
NickC said:
Any great suggestions on cheapest way to ship a 30 footer back to the UK from Greece? Road transport looks to be in the region of £7.5k, any suggestions of how to do it cheaper.

Obviously the cheapest method is to sail back but many of the boats out there need a bit of work so are not really in a ready to sail condition, certainly not for a journey that long.
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Simply not practical or economic - one of the reasons why boats that might otherwise appeal to UK buyers are cheap in Greece - but not cheap enough to get back unless they are high value as the cost of getting back is very little different irrespective of value and to an extent size. It only makes sense if you buy a fully functioning boat and treat the trip as a holiday and take a year, or two seasons to sail it back.

I brought my boat back from Greece 5 years ago - sailing to Spain and then truck to Poole. Skipper/crew cost £2500 including air fares, diesel, marinas, food another £750 and truck £5000 (including loading/unloading mast unstep/step).

As Vyv suggested truck from Slovenia is easiest and probably a bit cheaper as there are return loads from new boats being delivered there, but you still have a 400 mile sail (from the Ionian) and then a sail over the Channel.
 
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vyv_cox said:
A half and half solution has worked for many users. Sail up the Adriatic to Slovenia, then road transport to Breskens in Holland. Avoids the Atlantic and the relatively long stretch around Italy to Marseille or Agde for the canals.
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Agreed. Some years ago we brought a 25 footer back from Greece on this basis. We day sailed (most of the time) all the way to Antibes from Porto Heli. Then picked up a cheap return trip with Transyachting to truck the boat to St Malo. Things may have changed since then, but at the time there was a considerable benefit in ensuring both pick-up and delivery were within France. I did consider using the Canal du Midi, but the return haulage quote was considerably cheaper than airfares, cost of living and so forth for 3 weeks or so.

The key - as someone else has already posted - is to make the decision to view the recovery costs as holiday costs, with the added benefit of the opportunity to sail waters you would not normally sail in.

If you are practically minded and are prepared to deal with the odd unexpected issue along the way, it can be fun and will certainly be a very good way of getting to know your new acquisition.

Happy hunting.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Danube and Rhein?
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Going back to something which may be helpful to the OP - if that's not too radical an idea - Don't do it that way !


I knew of a very well prepared boat which came to some grief when they tried the Danube in spate; FFS don't try it !

In fact their minor boat problems became MAJOR when trying to get a trailer to it from Spain; mafia stole the trailer when the car broke down en route, ' who's gonna argue ' ?...

The owner - who lived and had his boat based in the Med but was a serious sailor c/w windvane & long voyages had a dream to follow the Danube.

Lots of flowing flotsam led to minor rudder damage but also injuries.

The owner ended up injured and giving up on his dream; so if going for a river like the Danube in spate, have a powerful engine, good tool kit and first aid kit , and ideally have a young keen crew or two.

This owner lost his boat just by wanting to explore & film his progress on the Continental wateraways.

However the OP is in a different position and can use the basically north - south network - which is what I heartily recommend.
 
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Seajet said:
Going back to something which may be helpful to the OP - if that's not too radical an idea - I knew of a very well prepared boat which came to some grief when they tried the Danube in spate; FFS don't try it !

In fact their minor boat problems became MAJOR when trying to get a trailer to it from Spain; mafia stole the trailer when the car broke down en route, ' who's gonna argue ' ?...
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If the 'local' club he has been advised to join is RYA-affiliated then they would negotiate with the Mafia on his behalf. Probably.
 
Seajet said:
However the OP is in a different position and can use the basically north - south network - which is what I heartily recommend.
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South - north would be a better solution. However moving a 25' footer upstream against the major rivers would be an exercise in pisspoor SOG until past the watershed. I think Vyv's half/half is a much better bet.

Or just leave the boat in Greece and enjoy some EasyJet sailing in the sun.
 
As I think we have all tried to suggest, not a good idea unless you have some fantastic deal almost beyond one's dreams !

Edit for Ken, I always thought north-south routes were reasonably obvious as to which way one is going, and if one finds the butter still melting in winter it may be worth another look at the GPS & compass, any further start laying tin tacks on the decks and reading up about coconuts.
 
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l'escargot said:
Put a big outboard on the back...;)
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Like this one? ;)
P1010039s.jpg
 
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