South of France Options

[jcwads]

Hello All

First post in what must be over 14 months... Hope everyone is well and those with boats in the med are looking forward to getting out there!!

For those who may know, I keep my boat at Port Vauban marina. My lease runs out at the end of this year and I have been given allocation for a rental berth next year.

My issue is that the new berth will be on Mole Nord which is near the ship yard. They will not give concession on it and I will have to leave my lovely berth I have currently on the town side of the marina.

I dont think I will stay as I dont think the new location is too good at all. Its tight in the north area and I am convinced my boat is too big to go there. So, wondering if there are any other recommendations for the Riviera that I can look into. Any owners that have a marina they are very happy with that is not too far from Nice.

Best

Jonathan

 

[Portofino]

Why do you have to leave your current berth ? Not got first dibs ?

 

[jcwads]

Why do you have to leave your current berth ? Not got first dibs ?

They wont entertain it. They are putting smaller boats up to 12.99m on rentals in the north area.

 

[westernman]

They wont entertain it. They are putting smaller boats up to 12.99m on rentals in the north area.

Is your berth for boats bigger than 12.99m?
In which case why not offer to pay for the length of your berth?

 

[petem]

Get a bigger boat! Problem solved.

 

[jcwads]

Get a bigger boat! Problem solved.

Excellent advice Pete. I’ll run it past the wife!!!

 

[Portofino]

There is high demand for rentals , even higher because of the glut of concessions that are ending or have ended .
Try La Napoule. Contact Bart @ Homeport .
How much are they asking btw for a berth in the N side ?

 

[mcanderson]

Jon,

We are Beaulieu Sur Mer on a 12m berth. From 1 Jul 21 the port will be going to fully rental berths. I’m heading down in early July and can ask about berth availability for you if you like.

 

[jcwads]

Jon,

We are Beaulieu Sur Mer on a 12m berth. From 1 Jul 21 the port will be going to fully rental berths. I’m heading down in early July and can ask about berth availability for you if you like.

Please do, I would be interested to hear.

 

[petem]

Jon,

We are Beaulieu Sur Mer on a 12m berth. From 1 Jul 21 the port will be going to fully rental berths. I’m heading down in early July and can ask about berth availability for you if you like.

Do you have a price list? What are you paying for a 12m?

 

[petem]

I dont know what I'm going to do but my fallback option is to head east to one of the Italian marinas like San Remo, Cala dei Forte or Aregai where the rental rates are much more palatable. I even have the phone number of an English couple who offer guardiennage in the area which is important to me

Good to know. That would be a pre-req for any new marina for me.

 

[mcanderson]

Do you have a price list? What are you paying for a 12m?

€8250 all in nothing more to pay yes that includes electricity

 

[mcanderson]

Good to know. That would be a pre-req for any new marina for me.

Yep plenty of French people happy to take your money who speak excellent English

 

[mcanderson]

I was going to link a price list, but the port website is down as they change ownership on 1 July which is way all the leases are expiring and why everyone is going to annual berths. The was some chat that this would see an exodus of people as they wouldn’t want to pay an annual rental amount. No idea if this is true as we haven’t been down for 6 months for some strange reason….

 

[mcanderson]

Prices are ROM

10M €5100
12M €8250
14M €12500
The vessel length is taken from the registration documents and is enforced so at 12.1M you are on a 14M berth.

 

[mcanderson]

Getting there

We fly to Nice. Walk to the St Augustine train station and catch the train. Trains every 30 mins and take 20 mins. Walk from airport (T1) is 15 mins. Uber is around €40, taxis €70ish

Also have an arranged deal with a guy who drives his own car for the odd pick up and drop off. Cash €60.

Train station to port is 5 mins.

Driving is fine as the port will give you access to the gated off parking areas that only berth holders can use.

Rarely use the car once we arrive.

 

[mcanderson]

To do

Great selection of places to eat. What’s your budget and you can spend it. St Jean is 4km via a lovely walk. Again plenty of places to choose from. Dud meals are a rare exception.

very good super market and a small daily market which expands on a Saturday.
Food stores are good as are the two chandlers.

 

[mcanderson]

Boating

20 mins to Villefranche, 5 mins to St Jean. 5 mins to Eze. 1he to the Lerins and St Remo, 2 hrs to St Tropez.

Facilities are very good.The port is always clean, have never had any hassle and have never heard of things going missing.

 

[DAW]

Also in Beaulieu Sur Mer ... on a 19m berth. Formerly a leaseholder and about to become an annual renter. Nothing particular to add to mcanderson's comments on the port or the location. Its always been a very good marina and is a great place to be based.

Regarding availability of berths ... there may be a chance. Earlier this year they had a long waiting list and were heavily oversubscribed. However, as they've asked people to commit to rentals, the numbers have dropped. Although no preferential treatment was given, my understanding is that any leaseholder who wanted to stay has been able to and looking around the marina, there are more empty berths than usual for the time of year so I guess some people have left.

The vacancies I can see are mostly on the larger berths which is not a surprise. Rates in Beaulieu have always punished the bigger boats in order to keep those for smaller boats (<12m) at reasonable levels. It's one of the most expensive marinas in SoF and rumours are that the new rates will be even higher. A 19m berth was previously EUR 25K and we've been told to expect something like EUR 28-30K from July 2021 onwards.

 

[Portofino]

Might be of interest?
There are plenty for sale , don’t know about rental though or sub letting if you buying and do not use it .