The Med - ogaryo wants to berth there next year

[Bazzer]

You know what you need Gary, a bigger boat in the UK. (think we had this conversation before!)

you get a lot of use from Bizzy Bee even if its just staying on here, i reckon you would miss that if you were to move to the med....

+1 get a bigger boat and it doesnt matter about the weather, just switch the heating on and its all cosy all year round.

 

[jfm]

Or do it my way, JFM

This year it seems that I have just taken two flights
One to get here and one to go home!!!

That's on my agenda hurricane. I might take just the first of those two flights! :encouragement:

 

[Ian h]

Now if there was a Dry Stack facility like at Saxon Wharf I would move my Hunton to the Med tomorrow.

Does anyone know of any dry stacks in the med ?

 

[jfm]

Now if there was a Dry Stack facility like at Saxon Wharf I would move my Hunton to the Med tomorrow.

Does anyone know of any dry stacks in the med ?

La Rague (for starters)
I had a drive around St Trop bay in the newest Hunton currently on the water, a black XRS43, at the end of July. Belongs to a friend. Glorious!

 

[NGM]

Marina Ibiza, has a large dry stack facility

 

[julians]

Puerto portals in mallorca has a dry stack

 

[Andrew38]

Gentleman Racer has just moved his Hunton to Sant Carles and come to an arrangement with the Marina Manager for it live out of the water when he is not there but to be on a berth when he is.

 

[Ian h]

Gentleman Racer has just moved his Hunton to Sant Carles and come to an arrangement with the Marina Manager for it live out of the water when he is not there but to be on a berth when he is.

Now that sounds interesting . Do not really want to keep in the water . Have a full all over cover to keep boat clean so looking to be able to keep this on

 

[Ian h]

La Rague (for starters)
I had a drive around St Trop bay in the newest Hunton currently on the water, a black XRS43, at the end of July. Belongs to a friend. Glorious!

I saw that boat in the UK before it went out to Med. looks lovely and some very nice touches on there too.

 

[jfm]

Gary I haven't written much in answer to your question, perhaps because you know what I'd say . Life is too short to dither about these things. I drifted onto the topic on the quadcopter thread but it makes sense obviously to put thoughts/comments/pictures on here. I think bizzybee would be fine, if you just fit £3k of airco. She will fit easily on a truck, and if it doesn't work out she can come back on a truck and you can eBay the airco unit . If it does work out you can then think about another boat, and as Jez is showing us this is a great time to buy. Sealine 42/5 that you can truck to a yard near MK and re-trim this winter, then truck to Med next year, £90k all in, minus what you get for BB? Who cares about the high hours? You will only do 500 hours in the next several years.

I'd rather have 1/3rd as much time in the sun than 3x the time in the rain. The Med is unquestionably one of the best regions on the planet to boat, and is close to home for you with Luton/Easyjet. There's plenty of support generally and on here, and 2 big centres where many on here are based being Sant Carles and Antibes area. Most of the questions you have will answer themselves and become apparent, but you can ask away

The big point is that the cruising opportunities and memories you'll make are priceless. With boats, the whole show only works (imho) if you have near-guaranteed sunshine and warm water. The boat is suddenly extended compared with UK because you partly live in the water.

The cruising is priceless Gary. Here's the cala dor aug 2015 raft up again...



Here is another raft up in the same place a week later - as you can guess this was just round the clock entertainment for adults and (zillions of) kids alike. kids seemed to be in the water all day (26 degrees if not more). This raft up was completely unplanned and impromptu, and at lunchtime I asked Match's superstar chef what she could do on the spur of the moment - i expected a "fridge scrape" of cheese salad or something but 40 mins later 16 adults were eating home made chicken tikka masala with rice and home made poppadums (ask James, Nick and Guy Barke, they were there!). As we were all a bit hung over from the night before, this was bliss! The fleet btw L-to-R is Targa50, Squadron 78, Targa 62 ("Little Bear" as used in the MBY videos, now in hands of its new owner)), Sealine S42, Squadron 65 (the one you might have been on at SIBS2014).

On our way back to France, we called in again in Menorca and anchored, then explored all the little coves by tender. Here's one of them. This was 3rd week august.

Then here is the weekend just gone - the 29-30 August weekend. First, Silver Dee en route to Villefranche, and my wake shot taken almost at the same moment:

Then Nick-H, MYAG and JFM, anchored in villefranche

Silver Dee in Villefranche

All I'm saying is just check out the sea state and the weather, and remember the sea is around 26 degrees. Check out also the weather in the Match quadcopter video in the other thread - this was taken last Saturday 29 august

 

[benjenbav]

I made a couple of comments at the top of the thread about what sort of med accommodation might be required.

As to the big question of med/not med, I think you need to ask what you want to do with your boat.

If it's a blokey pastime of fettling and "woohoo, yeah I beat the elements" then UK is ideal. If you want to chillax with the family and friends in the warm sun and warm water then med wins hands down.

 

[oGaryo]

Hi John, I watched the video last night to be honest, amazing !

We toyed with the idea of trying out the med at the end of last season but Debbie had her mind set on a house extension which is going ahead in the next 3 months. that very much paves the way to move the boat once complete :encouragement:

Mindset wise, I've pretty well made up my mind to move after getting back into holidaying abroad this year, Fueterventura over the Easter break and a couple of weeks in Crete in the last two weeks of August. We'd not holidayed abroad apart from a couple of weekends away for near on 4 years due to getting into boating and having the (mis)conception that holidays abroad = lost time on the boat. What it really means is not doing all the great things you've shown in your video, the water in Crete was 28 degrees and we loved it!!

We've both come to the conclusion that we can combine the two desires by spending long weekends away in the med on the boat, have one of the longer holidays on the boat too but ensure we don't tie ourselves down to SCM (most likely marina to move to initially) by having a second holiday somewhere else.

The only other factor is it is our 25th wedding anniversary next May so will need to think of something special for that which may clash with boat move arrangements, current thinking is to renew our vows in Vegas but we'll see how that pans out and work a boat move around it

Thanks for taking the time to articulate the compelling reasons to relocate, it's appreciated :encouragement:

 

[oGaryo]

I made a couple of comments at the top of the thread about what sort of med accommodation might be required.

As to the big question of med/not med, I think you need to ask what you want to do with your boat.

If it's a blokey pastime of fettling and "woohoo, yeah I beat the elements" then UK is ideal. If you want to chillax with the family and friends in the warm sun and warm water then med wins hands down.

Very much the latter these days

 

[benjenbav]

Very much the latter these days

Gary - hand on heart - we have owned an ancient olive mill in the med for a couple of generations and so I've been used to spending lots of time there. I used to love it very much but latterly have become a bit indifferent; it's taken me a lifetime to get to that point tho'

 

[oGaryo]

it's taken me a lifetime to get to that point tho'

 

[julians]

Ive never boated in the uk, but ive been boating in the med for the last 30 years. I've been out on the boat in the med when its been cold'ish,cloudy and/or raining and its no fun, but thankfully days like that are few and far between over may to october. In the uk though those types of days are much much more frequent, i just cant imagine boating in the uk being much fun when youve been spoilt by the med.

Maybe its a different kind of boating in the uk, in the med a typical day (i dont liveaboard,and 'only' have a dayboat) for me would consist of take boat to local bay (wearing shorts and tshirt only), go for swim/snorkel (no wetsuit), have picnic lunch on boat, or swim to beach restaurant, more swimming,maybe kayak around a bit, read the papers, maybe go wakeboarding, back to marina in early evening. Occaisonally i'll do an overnighter in a bay somewhere.

Cant imagine doing that on any but the hottest days of the year in the uk. Being cold/having the wear foul weather gear would be the worst part of it,followed closely by the cold water.

 

[CLOUD9]

We have been talking about a move to the Med all season, or at least every overcast/windy/rainy morning..... of which there have been too many. Watching jfm's marvellous videos in the quadcopter thread has given things even more impetus.
So where do you start? I take the point that it is easy to over complicate matters, but if you are unfamiliar with the Mediterranean cruising options there are so many questions. Most fundamentally, where do you put the boat? Those of you out there have made your decisions based on your own preferences of course and must have weighed up the pros and cons of the locations.
How many did you visit before making a decision?
Did you end up where you are through recommendation?
Is there an obvious short-list?
Are some more popular with the Brits than others?
Did you get it right first time or make the move and subsequently find somewhere that suited you better as a home port? There must be lots to think about before taking the plunge.... or am I just worrying too much and should just put a pin in the chart and get the hell on with it??
The obvious questions on our personal shopping list include:
Reasonable travel time, but we dont need to do the mad rush back after a weekend. We intend to stay on board for at least a week or two at a time, possibly more. (Not sure we can quite manage the two flight Hurricane way though!)
As long a season as possible. I dont know how much climate varies around the med. Is this a big factor when choosing the location, or marginal?
Interesting cruising ground with both short hops and longer excursions.
Friendly / sociable marina atmos. Clubhouse? Close to town/shops/restaurants/nightlife... (but nothing too gruesome!)
Sensible costs. Do costs differ massively around the Med or from country to country or within a small range?
I only got as far as Mallorca when looking to buy the boat last year. I thought it was lovely. Liked the idea of Palma and the other smaller ports we visited, but have nothing to compare them with elsewhere in the Med. (except Torquay if geography is poor and we count the English Riviera!).
Im sure all you med cruisers will be wondering what the hell I'm worrying about. And I really do take the point that there are zero threads discussing bringing the boat back to the UK..
One last question... I get stuff through from MDL wanting to talk about Marina Di Stabia. Is anyone there or considering it?
Hope thats not too many silly questions all in one go...
R

 

[Lloydroberts]

Here is This raft up was completely unplanned and impromptu.

Silver Dee in Villefranche

These photos say it all, imho.

@jfm

All beautiful boats, but may I ask what the rather grand lady(Silver Dee)is?
A lovely boat.

 

[Hurricane]

We have been talking about a move to the Med all season, or at least every overcast/windy/rainy morning..... of which there have been too many. Watching jfm's marvellous videos in the quadcopter thread has given things even more impetus.
So where do you start? I take the point that it is easy to over complicate matters, but if you are unfamiliar with the Mediterranean cruising options there are so many questions. Most fundamentally, where do you put the boat? Those of you out there have made your decisions based on your own preferences of course and must have weighed up the pros and cons of the locations.
How many did you visit before making a decision?
Did you end up where you are through recommendation?
Is there an obvious short-list?
Are some more popular with the Brits than others?
Did you get it right first time or make the move and subsequently find somewhere that suited you better as a home port? There must be lots to think about before taking the plunge.... or am I just worrying too much and should just put a pin in the chart and get the hell on with it??
The obvious questions on our personal shopping list include:
Reasonable travel time, but we dont need to do the mad rush back after a weekend. We intend to stay on board for at least a week or two at a time, possibly more. (Not sure we can quite manage the two flight Hurricane way though!)
As long a season as possible. I dont know how much climate varies around the med. Is this a big factor when choosing the location, or marginal?
Interesting cruising ground with both short hops and longer excursions.
Friendly / sociable marina atmos. Clubhouse? Close to town/shops/restaurants/nightlife... (but nothing too gruesome!)
Sensible costs. Do costs differ massively around the Med or from country to country or within a small range?
I only got as far as Mallorca when looking to buy the boat last year. I thought it was lovely. Liked the idea of Palma and the other smaller ports we visited, but have nothing to compare them with elsewhere in the Med. (except Torquay if geography is poor and we count the English Riviera!).
Im sure all you med cruisers will be wondering what the hell I'm worrying about. And I really do take the point that there are zero threads discussing bringing the boat back to the UK..
One last question... I get stuff through from MDL wanting to talk about Marina Di Stabia. Is anyone there or considering it?
Hope thats not too many silly questions all in one go...
R

Actually, Sant Carles fits with most of your requirements.
But above all it is a very cheap way into the Med.
SC is built around the UK model.
We have UK style floating pontoons and when you take a berth, it is yours for the whole contracted period.
Be careful, some marinas will insist on your boat being moved to another berth, even if you have paid the rent for one.
At SC we have a family feel - clubhouse and swimming pool for all berth holders.
Local cruising is just outside the marina - a 7 mile long lagoon 1.5 miles wide and 6m deep.
Great for just going out and dropping the hook whilst still being in range of your berth.

And if you feel adventurous, the Baldricks are a short cruise away

PM me if you want any more info or sign up for free to our berth holders forum at www.scmchat.com

 

[Andy Bav]

Hi John, I watched the video last night to be honest, amazing !

We toyed with the idea of trying out the med at the end of last season but Debbie had her mind set on a house extension which is going ahead in the next 3 months. that very much paves the way to move the boat once complete :encouragement:

Mindset wise, I've pretty well made up my mind to move after getting back into holidaying abroad this year, Fueterventura over the Easter break and a couple of weeks in Crete in the last two weeks of August. We'd not holidayed abroad apart from a couple of weekends away for near on 4 years due to getting into boating and having the (mis)conception that holidays abroad = lost time on the boat. What it really means is not doing all the great things you've shown in your video, the water in Crete was 28 degrees and we loved it!!

We've both come to the conclusion that we can combine the two desires by spending long weekends away in the med on the boat, have one of the longer holidays on the boat too but ensure we don't tie ourselves down to SCM (most likely marina to move to initially) by having a second holiday somewhere else.

The only other factor is it is our 25th wedding anniversary next May so will need to think of something special for that which may clash with boat move arrangements, current thinking is to renew our vows in Vegas but we'll see how that pans out and work a boat move around it

Thanks for taking the time to articulate the compelling reasons to relocate, it's appreciated :encouragement:

This year was exceptional as we moved the boat, but we have decided that our long holiday each year will be a 2 centre affair. 1 week in a med hotel (wife likes to be pampered) and 10 days on the boat. In this way, you actually only have 3 flights for 2 destinations...