Winter Layup--Turkey or Cyprus??

[king7446]

Can anyone recommend a good marina in which to layup my 56' powerboat for next winter (in dry storage) in either Southern Turkey or Cyprus? In the alternative can anyone recommend a resource for locating same other than Med Almanac (Imray)??
Thank you

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[martanmart]

Dear Bryan

I was in Kemer (South Turkey)last week on a short break.Have look into it.The mariner
is very well keeped with a good supply of all ammenities.Very nice people in the office.

Good luck Martin(eilat)

<hr width=100% size=1>Happlie married to a great women and a great boat.

 

[Con_Brio]

I kept my boat in Turkey 1992-2001. She was based for seven of those years in the Albatros boatyard in Marmaris (the big marina in Marmaris is Netsel, which is more expensive - Albatros is a smaller outfit a little to the south-east). I liked the people there. I wouldn't entirely trust them with major work - little pointers like the way they put supports under the boat when ashore, with the wedges against the hull rather than under the shores, the willingness of George (real name Mucahit Bey) i/c boatyard works to leave old oil in the engine until fitting out time, and so on, but they are pleasant and helpful and in nine years I never lost a thing there. The received wisdom (no less an authority than Rod Heikell among others) is that the finest boatyard in Turkey is Yatlift at Bodrum and I have had the boat there for two winters and had work done. They didn't do a perfect job in replacing standing rigging for me, but boatyard practice is sound - eg the wedges go below the shores and they put a pad between shore and hull. They're more expensive than Albatros and the atmosphere is rather more twitchy. Showers etc are a good deal more primitive than at Albatros, or were. Like albatros at Marmaris, they are a little way out of town, but you can easily walk into town from Albatros and can't really from Yatlift into Bodrum. Security at Yatlift is again good. The waterfront bar at Albatros is heaven on earth on a hot day.
I have also been stationed in Cyprus and sailed there, though I didn't then have my own boat. I believe there are or were waiting lists for winter lay-up at Larnaca. I didn't take my own boat back to Cyprus because it is not in itself a brilliant cruising area - you need to get back upwind to Turkey and the Dodecanese - there is no natural harbour anywhere round Cyprus and you have the complication of the political division of the island - if the Greek Cypriots think you have visited Northern Cyprus, they'll confiscate your boat (happily today's news is that there may be a UN-sponsored solution to the Cyprus problem in sight, but don't hold your breath).
Turkish bureaucracy is perhaps a little daunting at first and the signing off of transit logs is a bit convoluted, but they are mostly pleasant with it and you don't have the irritations of the flagrant Greek breaches of EU rules nor of their more disobliging bureaucrats. Facilities are certainly better in Turkey than in Greece - notwithstanding the mutual hostility, I regularly saw Greek flag boats (including big power boats) come over from Rhodes to winter in the Albatros yard. Facilities in Larnaca are, I believe, good if you can get in and there is or was a British flavour to their bureaucracy. But it is a long way downwind, unless you are going on through Suez, and round the south coast you have Protoras (Fig Tree Bay), Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos and Latchi in Chrysokou bay (but Latchi is very shallow) and that's it, whereas in Turkey, between Kusadasi and Antalya you have possibly the finest cruising ground in the world.
Hope that helps.

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