Shipping heavy stuff to a boat in the Med.

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BurnitBlue

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I bought a boat in Greece a month ago and I would like to ship my Aries self steering gear; solar panels; New outboard motor for the dinghy; and other heavy stuff etc down there.

This is not a rant against DHL or any carrier but that thread has convinced me not to go that route.

I have identified a few other options.

(1) I could buy a cheap van and drive my gear down there,
(2) I could sail out of Greece to the South of France and buy a ten day unlimited rail ticket and "hand carry" my gear to the boat in two or three journeys.
(3) I could sail the boat to Northern Europe via the canals and waste the whole summer getting there and back. This is not a serious option.
(4) Buy an older left-hand drive motor camper in the UK and combine a road holiday with a goods delivery trip. This would be the most expensive option but right now it is the most attractive.
(5) Have I missed anything?
 
BlueTwo said:
I bought a boat in Greece a month ago and I would like to ship my Aries self steering gear; solar panels; New outboard motor for the dinghy; and other heavy stuff etc down there.

This is not a rant against DHL or any carrier but that thread has convinced me not to go that route.

I have identified a few other options.

(1) I could buy a cheap van and drive my gear down there,
(2) I could sail out of Greece to the South of France and buy a ten day unlimited rail ticket and "hand carry" my gear to the boat in two or three journeys.
(3) I could sail the boat to Northern Europe via the canals and waste the whole summer getting there and back. This is not a serious option.
(4) Buy an older left-hand drive motor camper in the UK and combine a road holiday with a goods delivery trip. This would be the most expensive option but right now it is the most attractive.
(5) Have I missed anything?
Click to expand...

Morning, Try these, I think they ship every week to Greece.

SLA LOGISTICS LTD
ALPI WAREHOUSING
6 MILES GRAY ROAD
BASILDON, ESSEX. SS14 3HJ.
Tel 0844 8877752
or 01268 288910
Fax 01268 286039
Email steve@slalogistics.co.uk
or info@slalogistics.co.uk
 
Don't try driving down. We thought that this would be a cheap solution but it wound up costing us about £400 more than the airfares. The kit we brought back with us would have cost about £80 - 100 to have freighted out here. Our sails were sent Fedex and took 4 days to get here from UK - tracked all the way on their site and no problems at all, delivered right to the quayside here in Gouvia. All the options you've outlined could provide a nice holiday bit they won't save you a bean!
 
Shipping from the UK to Greece does not involve customs so should not cause any problems, though sometimes getting things into manageable packages can cause problems. The max weight of packages is all to do with one man delivery systems. Also making the units easy to handle inproves your chances of an undamaged delivery.
 
Presumably you already have a vehicle, so why are you considering buying a van or camper?
I used to drive to Corsica and now I drive to Monfalcone every May. This year I am taking a new diesel!! If Greece is too far, sail up the Adriatic to Monfalcone. I sailed up from Greece to escape the heat and to make supply by car easier. You can bring out heavy tools to ease the jobs. OK it's not cheap with hotels and ferry and fuel, but it certainly makes self maintaining your yacht a lot easier. I don't entirely trust postal services, I lost a prop posting it to Portugal.
I return the car at the end of May so my wife has the use of it over the summer, and return by Ryanair to Trieste airport. Couldn't be simpler.
 
Last edited:
tri39 said:
Presumably you already have a vehicle, so why are you considering buying a van or camper?
Click to expand...

I am retired but the wife still works and she owns the car. I did contemplate asking her to take the early bus to work every morning so that I could use her car to get my toys to my boat.

She is such a wonderful person that I think she would agree. Then I would be on a guilt trip which would make me want to bring the car back before the end of summer. Oh well. It's rough being Mr Nice guy.
 
Driving down does not make sense unless you want to make a holiday out of one of the legs. I did it 3 years ago for the same reason as you and ferries/fuel was over £600. Motels and food would ad £60 a day, although one night can be on the ferry if you go via Venice. 3 days each way is typical. Reason I did it was because we took a week's holiday coming back.

I shipped most of my stuff TNT delivered 5 days to Gouvia, but no good for really heavy and hazardous stuff. There are independent "man and a van" operators who do the trip regularly. Somebody will come along soon with contact details.
 
She is such a wonderful person that I think she would agree. Then I would be on a guilt trip which would make me want to bring the car back before the end of summer. Oh well. It's rough being Mr Nice guy.[/QUOTE]

Where is your boat? Could you sail to south Italy, possibly Brindisi, and your working wife drive out your toys for her holiday?
 
tri39 said:
Where is your boat? Could you sail to south Italy, possibly Brindisi, and your working wife drive out your toys for her holiday?
Click to expand...

Believe it or not I have thought of that. There is a major snag though. The contents would have to stay in the car while she was in a hotel for the night. My experience of Italy (and not only Italy) is that the car would be broken into and robbed of all my goodies while my wife slept.

I cannot ask her to sleep in the car for three nights, because I know the answer I would get.

The boat is ashore in Preveza for a few more weeks then I set sail for the horizon, so I don't want to spend months organizing stuff. I am coming to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in logistics buying a boat here. I frankly swept this difficulty under the carpet while I searched for a suitable boat. Thought I could solve this problem easily after succeeding in the greater problem of sourcing the actual boat.

I will solve this one way or the other. Its just that at the moment I am casting around for the best solution. Driving the route is still front runner because of time constraints but it will be me driving not the wife. Wish I had given this problem more scrutiny BEFORE I bought the boat. As a last resort I will also try to buy replacements in the Mediterranean but that will hurt.

Thanks for all the help.
 
The white van is worth a try, but for us by plane from the uk including transferes to the airport and coaches to the boat costs £330.00, by car with a ferry from vennice to patras £326 including tolls and one night in a hotel, the difference is that the car holds more than the 60KG of luggage and hand luggage we can take on the plane. (Diesel car @ 60mpg)
 
BlueTwo said:
Believe it or not I have thought of that. There is a major snag though. The contents would have to stay in the car while she was in a hotel for the night. My experience of Italy (and not only Italy) is that the car would be broken into and robbed of all my goodies while my wife slept.

I have driven to Monfalcone since 05 and never lost anything. Many hotels have underground carparks. Presumably you want the boat lifted to fit the Aries. I still suggest you sail north to Ancona or Monfalcone or Slovenia and have the boat lifted. Then nip home and drive out with the goods. I will be in Monfie all May and again in late June if you need help.
Click to expand...
 
There use to be a man with a van that did regular runs to Lefkas. I have no idea if he's still in operation. Maybe try contacting Joe Charlton as I think he had something to do with him.
 
Datapoint - my road shipping rates to Greece (through UKMail) are something like £35 for up to 31 Kgs. Probably those rates vary depending on exactly where you need delivery to, etc, but they give you a rough idea of *courier* prices (expensive door to door rates..)

It's a road shipment, so expect it to get battered (compared with air-freight) and it will take some time to get there.

I would expect you to be able to beat those rates easily if you shop around, use a specialist logistics company, and have a much heavier parcel than that quoted? I don't use any such firms so no suggestions, but the terminology is "logistics" when you are googling for something.

Good luck!
 
Ionian Transport.

I can recommend NEW EUROLINE of Daventry. I have sent items out to Preveza for two years. First time, a holding tank, this time a dinghy.
They send a lorry out to Preveza and Levkas every 2 weeks.

I have no connection to the firm.

Ring Hillary on 01327 700020
 
I seem to have wasted a few posters time with their recomendations for transport companies to Greece from the UK.

I have mentioned many times that I live in the middle of Sweden so I forgot to mention it on this thread. Not helped with my Forum location as "in transit" which from a sailing point of view is correct but my gear is in the basement of my house in Sweden. My humble apologies.
 
Try The van man.He has a large van who travels from Lefkas to the UK, door to door aprox once a month. Not far from Prevesa yard so he may drop stuff off.Mob 0030 6939 329978. Fax 0030 26450 41292. E/mail transport121@hotmail.co.uk. Never used him myself but know people who have.
 
sweden to greece

blue two.
there are nearly as many scandinavians with boats in greece as brits. along with germans and french. they ship stuff all the time ,especially the germans . im sure that a google will turn up a regular shipper . i only have french and uk contact no,s.
good luck
 
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