We bought the boat in Croatia...

scsr

scsr

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Back last September, we were contemplating buying an Azimut 46 in Croatia - after a survey we found it had osmosis and it looked like the sale was going to fall apart. However, we persevered and with the help of the rather fabulous Sinisa at Maritimus Consulting, the owner was persuaded to have the hull stripped and repaired with a company that knew what they were doing and gave a guarantee.

The boat is now ours! ;) She went back in the water on the 2nd March after 6 months on the hard being repaired and we've spent a week cleaning and kitting her out ready to move her to Marina Borik in April.

Thank to all who confirmed back then that we needed the repairs done by the current owner.

Anyone else out in Croatia with recommendations for a 2.7m tender and where to get one?!
 
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Congratulations! I know Sinisa and he's a good man. He helped me through the process of paying Croatian VAT on a Ferretti 53 I used to own and which was based in Croatia. I also know the AZ46 because I also used to own one of those and that also suffered some osmosis in the transom area close to the trim tabs. In my case, even though the hull warranty had lapsed, Azimut repaired it foc which I thought was very fair. Other than that, the AZ46 is an excellent boat and I'm sure you'll be happy with yours. With regard to your tender, there are many choices. IIRC we had an Avon 315 RIB on the back of our AZ46 with a 13hp Yamaha o/b
 
BruceK - that's the one my husband has been lusting over! Think we might need to just bite the bullet and locate one out there.
 
jrudge said:
Well done. Croatia is a lovely place as long as you can figure out the taxes and permits!
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Positively +1.

Having cruised practically the whole HR coastline last summer, after a dozen of years spent elsewhere, I must say that I found the place not as welcoming as it used to be, during a full decade of boating which I spent there in the past.
But there's no denial that their cruising grounds are among the best, with endless anchorages.

As a base/home berth, unless you have specific reasons to stay in Zadar, you might consider going further south.
For instance, Split is more conveniently located for reaching the best spots of the archipelago, and I think it's also better in terms of flight connections.
 
MapisM said:
Having cruised practically the whole HR coastline last summer, after a dozen of years spent elsewhere, I must say that I found the place not as welcoming as it used to be, during a full decade of boating which I spent there in the past.
But there's no denial that their cruising grounds are among the best, with endless anchorages.
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During our 5 yrs in Croatia, we felt very welcome everywhere. Maybe if you were less rude about their food and wine, you would feel the same:D
 
Deleted User said:
Maybe if you were less rude about their food and wine, you would feel the same:D
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Naah, I'm happy to grin and bear, rather than starve to death! :rolleyes:
And as you know, there are indeed places where I'm quite happy to go for dinner.
But everything in life is relative - nowadays, I heard several IT boaters in the N Adriatic who aren't as happy to cruise in HR as they used to be...
And it's not only cost that they are complaining about.
 
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MapisM said:
But everything in life is relative - nowadays, I heard several IT boaters during in the N Adriatic who aren't as happy to cruise in HR as they used to be... And it's not only cost that they are complaining about.
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Actually I have heard this "Croatia isnt what it used to be" thing quite often myself. As you know I have been a bit of a Med boating nomad over the last few years and there are downsides to every boating location I have been in with the usual moan being costs. Well, compared to some of the boating hotspots in the W Med, the boating costs in Croatia are without doubt lower. OK the bureaucracy hasnt moved on much since communism and the food is often not exactly cordon blue (have you been to any British seaside resorts?) but the cruising area is magnificent, the water is clean, there are few if any jellyfish and the summer weather is usually very stable. So what are people moaning about?
 
Mostly, bureaucratic complications and anchorage restrictions - on top of a generalized rip-off attitude towards boaters.
TBH, I only had a brief experience of that myself last year, as jrudge probably remembers.
Not enough to generalize, if I should go by my first hand experience alone. But based on what I was told by other boaters while I kept the boat in NE Italy for longer than originally planned, I believe that my impression was not a coincidence...
 
MapisM said:
Mostly, bureaucratic complications and anchorage restrictions - on top of a generalized rip-off attitude towards boaters.
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Well there's the cruising vignette but I thought that was a fair sum to pay for the state maintaining such a beautiful coastline and it happens elsewhere such as the very expensive permit you need to cruise the Maddalenas area in N Sardinia. Yup there are anchoring restrictions in a few places but so there are in other areas eg Balearics and S coast of Sardinia. As for a generalised rip off attitude towards boaters, that attitude exists all over the Med from wallet busting marina charges in Ibiza and Costa Smerelda, boat taxes in Italy and Greece, matriculation tax in Spain, stupidly high maintenance charges in France and Italy. As you said yourself, BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand and that acronym applies all over the Med, indeed all over the world
 
LOL, yeah, indeed. :D
Maybe Croatia in the 90s vas just an exception, bound to disappear.
And that's in spite of their internal war years (or maybe also because of that), during which the archipelago always remained a proper boating heaven, as I was told by folks who were there before myself.
I can understand why several NE Italy boaters, who spent a whole life cruising those waters, might be a bit nostalgic.
 
Hope I didn't open a can of worms there?!..... ;)

We've cruised with friends for a week each year over the past 7 years - they keep a boat in Pula. We think we've got to grips with the sojourn tax and the vignette, boat has been de-reigestered from German flag to British flag. OIB obtained for my husband and a Croatian bank account set up - have we missed anything?!

We may move her further south in a year or two, but we chose Borik as it's got a fab view over to Preko, it's an easy hop into Zadar, has places nearby to swim and just had a nice feel to it when we stumbled upon it last August on a drive along the coast back to Zagreb after viewing the boat. It's been kept at Sukosan up to now. Borik has also just had a rebuild and now has a snazzy new bar/restaurant, swimming pool, toilets & showers etc. Also, the staff there have been really welcoming and have gone above and beyond to help us.

I'm looking forward to getting out and about on the boat though - any recommendations for someone out there that can bring my Day Skipper Cert back up to scratch?!!!! It's 10 years since I last controlled a boat and this one is double the size of the SeaRay we had! :p
 
scsr said:
It's 10 years since I last controlled a boat and this one is double the size of the SeaRay we had! :p
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The SeaRay was on outdrives, surely - and maybe just one?
You will be pleased to find out that the Azi is actually much easier to maneuver.
Larger size is no big deal - there are just three things to do: practice, practice, practice.

As an aside, just in case my suggestion to move further S came across as a criticism of Zadar, it wasn't meant to.
It's not among my preferred HR towns, but it's still nice and lively, and I can see why you like it.
Besides, there are many lovely spots also in the islands around there! :encouragement:
 
MapisM - I didn't think you were criticising! Your idea of Split is a good one as the flights have posed an issue this early in the year and there are far more to Split from down here in the South of England. We know the Zadar area from cruising here with friends so it made sense to start here while we get used to the boat!

The SeaRay wasn't quite double - just checked and it was a SeaRay Sundancer 290 called 'Aquabatic" and she's just recently been resold - twin Volvo Penta KAD32 170hp inboard engines and was 30ft long. We sold her back in 2007 having had her for about 4 years and we used to keep her in Chichester Marina. The Azimut just seems HUGE in comparison! I think I did my Day Skipper on a 48ft flybridge... I'm hoping this will be like riding a bike as I'd really like to be able to drive this boat properly and to be fair, I don't think I actually ever brought the SeaRay into her berth!!!!! :D (apart from dealing with the ropes and the kids!)
 
scsr said:
MapisM - I didn't think you were criticising! Your idea of Split is a good one as the flights have posed an issue this early in the year and there are far more to Split from down here in the South of England.
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Really? Things must have changed then. We were berthed in Marina Frapa in Rogoznica near Split between 2009 and 2014 and the only carrier flying to Split from any London airport was Easyjet and then only between April and Oct. Outside that period we had to fly to Dubrovnik or Zagreb and drive 3-4hrs in a rental car
 
Deleted User - it's certainly better than it was and we've managed to get Gatwick to Zadar flights from April and have booked up several weeks over this coming year - as usual it all depends how flexible you can be with travel days! There looks to be more choice into Zagreb and Split out of season. Flying into Pula is pretty good now too, and it was an option for us to keep our boat there....but we don't want to cramp our friends style as they are well settled there!
Very excited to be back out in a few weeks time!
 
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