Sunsail passage sailing

[MarkR]

Hi,

I am looking at the winter passage sailing offered by Sunsail as a means of building miles needed for YM. Anyone any experience of these 700nm, one-way (essentially delivery) trips ? Relevant hints/tips/suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,


Mark R.

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[Moose]

700nm on a single passage is very different to 700nm logged over say 10-12 differnt trips. You would gain far more experince by doing the 10-12 trips

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L' Moose

 

[MarkR]

Moose,

Yes. I have been doing the short trip sailing for some time now on my own boat and have racked up about 1300nm. I figure that this type of extended (10 ~ 17 day) trip gives me the chance to experience a different type of sailing.

I would be specifically interested to know if anyone has used these Sunsail trips .

Thanks,

Mark R.

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[tony_brighton]

I've done a couple of them with Sunsail - in the days when they were delivering boats from the Balearics to the Canaries for the winter season - not sure if they are still doing them.

Trips wot I dun:
Balearics - Gibraltar
Gibraltar - Canaries.

The Gibraltar trip was very interesting - lots of sailing in the med to different Spanish ports. Very interesting to see new places/styles. Boat was an Oceanis - bit tired. Well crewed and skippy was very expereinced (they dont seem to put the bunnies on the long trips).

The Canaries trip was very different - all in one leg, 650Nm Atlantic sailing. Interesting to develop the offshore experience and could be an OceanMaster qualifier.

Was there a specific question you had in mind?

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[Twister_Ken]

D*mned cheek

I'm old fashioned enough to think they should pay me to make their delivery trips.

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[paintbrushkid]

do sunsail charge you for these trips?
or do they contribute towards air fares and cover onboard expenses as some delivery outfits do

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[MarkR]

In reply to all the above:

Tony: Yes they are still doing this milk run for winter sailing in the Canaries. I was looking for general background/experiences. Thanks for your info, I was concerned with routing, skipper quality, general organisation and boat spec. In addition, what were the boat size/crew numbers when you did it?

Others: Yes, you do pay for the priviledge but significantly less than a per person bare boat charter.

Thanks


Mark R.

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[MarkR]

Mistakenly enetered twice ... sorry<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by MarkR on 27/08/2003 09:46 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[tony_brighton]

Usually get them at 'cost' price - which for me amounted to little more than a cheap air fare. Which seems reasonable for a 2 week sailing holiday.

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[Kantara]

I did a trip with them last year - Canaries - Gibralter. Was treated entirely as a delivery, four boats together led by a bit of an expert. We did a lot of motoring as the wind didn't pick up until we reached the Straits.
I felt it was worth while, you don't often get the chance of working watches (3 hours on, 6 off) for a week at a stretch and the navigation was interesting.
While our boat got on very well, two of the others had real inter-personal problems.
Yes, Sunsail got a good deal out of it but I think I did as well - specially if you look at what other orgs charge for the same distance.

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[Reap]

Personally I think its great for Sunsail, people paying them to deliver there boats for them.
I fully understand that people want to mile build for there yachtmaster and there is nothing wrong with this way of doing it, although you will learn plenty of good stuff, don't expect it to help with your YM exam though. Its just not the same sort of stuff as you will need for this.
Long trips and deliveries are a great experience but why pay for it? There are delivery companies out there who need crew. Its worth registering with Crewseekers or similar as I know for a fact that some of the large delivery companies use trhem all the time for crew. And you will also usually get all food and your flights thrown in.

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[pwc51]

I did one of these in the Med about 12 (may be more) years ago. About 1000 miles from Yugoslavia (as was) to Turkey, via Italy.

Experience was good but with the pressure on to deliver on time those yachts with only 2 crew found it particularly tiring.

At that time the ONLY electronic equipment on the boats was a Radio and Nav lights - no instruments at all. There were several long 'offshore' and night passages so navigation on these was done by dead reckoning. Those who had done such trips before brought their own trailing logs, GPS and even spinnakers!

Other things to watch for are that the yacht has sufficient safety equipment for all members of the crew (this took a while to sort out) and that charts covering the entire passage are provided (we had to us an AA book (greek equivalent) for one passage due to a lack of charts)!

Whilst some think it a cheek to be charged for delivering their yachts I felt it a relatively small price to pay for 3 weeks sailing in the Med (albeit early season), when someone else has done all the organisation and administration.



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[paintbrushkid]

been doing deliveries on and off for about 4 years for reliance yacht management. Been all over the place ireland, med, uk, caribbean usa could have had a lot more but got a bit tied down.
Started as crew and am on as mate now, costs 35 quid to register (refundable if they don't find you a mutually convenient sailing in the year so nothing to lose really.) all onboard expenses covered but you'll need dosh for beer and nosh when on land.The skippers I have sailed with have all been great lads keep in contact with most coz you end up buddies best thing to do is give em a bell 01252378239 & check out web www.reliance-yachts.com and you can see what boats are going where
good luck

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