Yacht delivery

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tangofour

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I have just purchased a yacht in Greece and want to get it back to the UK. She is a sound vessel in need of a complete refit. I cannot affort the time to sail her back. Apart from spending a fortune on overland transport or a professional delivery skipper and crew, are there any other options? Anyone keen on a free season afloat in return for delivering the boat back here?
 
I have recently bought a boat in Greece, and the previous respondant is quite correct. They are cheap because they are a pain to get back. That said, my route is probably the most cost effective from a time/money balance point of view.

I am taking her from Kos, through the corinth canal up through croatia to Koper in Slovenia. A dutch company are hauling her to Holland then it is a quick run across the channel home. Cost for the overland section is 3580 euro, so about £2500 at todays exchange rates. If you want any info PM me.
 
... And so it is no wonder why professional sailors are annoyed at how little their value is perceived ... boat owners like our friend here want either a freebie or a cheapie, yet they want the skill, the care and the professionalism; oh, yes, one can understand a desire to keep costs down, but even when hired, professional skippers are paid an insultingly low rate ... delivery skippers are lucky to get £120 a day, and that's a 24 hour day! Some only get half that, if anything!! Crew get nothing but "experience" ... ah, the boating industry!
 
About £1800 from the Barcelons area to the UK Mainland overland as well.
Part sail it and part transporter it.
Best of both worlds !
Cheers ! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I have a boat I bought in Preveza.
It took me 1 week to get it as far as Naples(day sailing only).
Plan is to move it slowly northwards each summer exploring as we go.
However for quick transport I was quoted £2500 for delivery skipper Preveza to Southern Spain/French coast and have just received a quote for another £2600 for land transport from Marseille to Le Havre so overall £5100 to the channel.
Alternate route was Genoa to Southampton by ship at a cost of approx £5500.
If you want any further info please mail me (although may be away from the computer for the next week or so.)
 
So what you want is a delivery on the cheap? To do that you need to sail her yourself!

First this is not an application - I do not do deliveries on this basis anymore.

As a delivery skipper I would be concerned by your description of the boat - "she is sound but needs a complete refit". To me this meams that she is probably not up to being sailed back to the UK anyway.

But if I was to do this trip I would use the ORC Cat 2 regs as a guide when checking the boats equipment and require the owner to pay for any additional equipnemt needed and replace anything not up to the job before leaving. In the eastern med this can be time consuming and expensive as the equipment may be hard to source AND you are paying for the skippers time and expneses.

May I suggest your best bet would be to ship her overland to one of the Northern French ports, launch her there sand sail to where you need her. Probably the quickest and depending on the size of the boat may even bee the cheapest.

I see relatively few eastern MED/Northern europe deliveries under 40ft these days as the road option almost always works out cheaper.

If you need your boat in the UK then it is oftwn worht buying the boat in the UK. As the delivery costs are oftewn as much or more than the differance. Unless you have the time to do it youyrself.

On the other hand I recently saw a SWAN purchased in the US and Shipped back to Europe then delivered to where the owner wanted it. Including the shipping and extra costs he believed this saved him 10K on a UK purchase price but the shipping and deleivery still cost over 7K. Plus paperwork Hassles and lots of his time. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
> StoicWarrior

Professional yacht skippers may well be annoyed but they are up against the same problem that professional pilots are these days, too many of them chasing too few jobs. Same in the IT industry and just about anything else for that matter.

Given the supply and demand situation I am prepared to take on the extra risk in return for a substantial saving in costs. After all that's why I bought a boat in Greece in the first place! I'm in no hurry, the trip could take a month or a year for all care. Skill, I'm not looking for a million mile experience skipper in fact I will look at people with only day-skipper or even a basic ICC. Care, reasonable care is fine, remember I'm refitting a boat that I bought cheaply. Professionalism, ahhhh, Why do you think I asked the question on a noncommercial site in the first place!
 
Points well made and well taken, tangofour. Now don't get me wrong, I am not agin ya, indeed, I wish you well and concur on the overland scenario above as most practical for your situation ... I am just commenting on the sorry state of play in yachting ... no other industry that I know of treats professionals or apprentices this way ... I'm sure you wouldn't find pilots (or bus drivers!) working for a £5 a hour take-it-or-leave-it situation. I also understand that firms like PYD, one of the big so called professional deliverers, only pay the main skipper and all the rest of the crew are unpaid and often basic amateurs either out for their first open water jolly or just out of a job (as pilots or IT guys? Nah!) ... the clients think they're paying pros. IMO, that's discraceful too.
 
Stoic - well said. Yoe have hit the nail right on the head which is why I don't do deliveries anymore.

On the original post - if time is not an issue then the boat could be moved in small hops and left in marinas inbetween. Despite reports to the contary it is relatively easy to find a berth for a week or two along the MED coast - it longer term berths that are inshort supply.
 
whilst crew on deliveries (in my experience of PYD) may be rank amateurs in that they are not being paid - other than travel costs - they are never on their first jolly. on a PYD delivery as a minimum, the skipper is a full timer, 1st mate is YM (com) and the crew will have experience and ability to stand a watch alone at night. my understanding is that the company are always completely open about the crewing arrangements with their clients. there may be some cowboys out there, as in every business but i'm happy that PYD are not one of them
Dave
 
djs - glad you had a positive experience with PYD ... I use them as example because they are among the biggies and because they advertise so incessantly on Crewseekers, et al, for newbies with minimal watch hours in their RYA competent crew logbooks, who they can flush through their system for no pay ... now, I've heard both good and bad about them, so I'm indifferent, but my point remains valid ... still, on reflection, since PYD is large, and despite the pontificating by their MD which I read on their website, he obviously benefits when most crew working in his business are paid nothing and the pay for pros is kept low, whether thru collusion or competition ...

... We are off Tangofour's point, but the poor pay and consideration for rank & file yachting pros needs highlighting now and then, whether versus other industries or even in comparison with other maritime jobs, I trust you agree.
 
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