Croatian anchoring costs/Malta Winters

[etagordon556]

Can someone fill me in on the potential costs associated with anchoring in Croatia. I have chartered there numerous times, but last in 2007. I have heard that now anchorage fees are charged in numerous places. My wife(who is Croatian) and I are thinking of taking our Beneteau 423 there (from the US) for cruising during the summers. However, if we are wacked with nightly fees to anchor, the costs could rule that possibility out. I am not put off by the other fees, but $40/night, or more, just to anchor, could be off-putting.


Also, if we proceed with this plan, we are thinking of wintering the boat in Malta on the hard. I have received quotes which seem extremely reasonable. Is there any downside to this plan?

Thanks in advance for any information.

Gordon

[athene]

See this site (maintained by a German yachtsman who cruises locally): www.wosamma.at - Bojenfelder in Kroatien - Anchorages in Croatia - Nauticka sidrista u Hrvatskoj - Campi boe in Croazia for a useful map of the anchorages where there are now concessions. Or this site: Ministarstvo pomorstva, prometa i infrastrukture - Pomorstvo - Sidri, which is the official ministry website.

There are still numerous anchorages where you don't have to pay. See the Croatia section on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki Croatia - a Cruising Guide on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki for details.

As for Malta, we wintered there a few years back without any problems (although there were some light-fingered yard workers who took a fancy to all the penknives we had aboard, so make sure you pack everything away if you winter there).

Another GORDON

[etagordon556]

Gordon,

Thanks for the links. I contacted a yard in Malta and was quoted about $100 for storage, which seemed quite reasonable. We paid five times that in Trinidad and Grenada in 2008 and 2009. Does this match with your experiences?

thanks Again,

Gordon

[etagordon556]

another Gordon,

Also, I previously saw the map of mooring fields, but have no idea of the cost and the necessity of using them. We learned in the Virgin Islands that often times, the mooring fields occupy the shallower waters and anchoring in 25 plus meters of water can require a long rode. Knowing how quickly Croatian waters get deep, I was wondering the if same thing was happening there.

NOT another Gordon

[athene]

We wintered at Manoel Island yard back in 2004-5 and paid around £2,000 (in those days around US$3,000 - 3,500) for seven months. I don't know what your $100 covers, but if it's for the whole winter it's astonishing (maybe a mistype?)!

We were in Croatia in 2005, so there may be other forum members with more current experience of the anchorage charges - from the research I've done they tend to be around €20 - €25 ($30-35) and sometimes more in the very popular areas. However, there are plenty of anchorages where you don't have to pay and, of course, there are also many restaurant jetties and buoys which are free if you're eating ashore.

Where there are concessions, you are expected to use the buoys and pay for the privilege and similarly if you anchor within 150 metres. This is to prevent yachts anchoring in silly positions close to or between the moorings (believe me, I've seen it!).

GORDON

[etagordon556]

I was quoted about $100/month. Sorry to have implied otherwise. Still, this seems quite a bit cheaper than the $3000 - $3500 you are quoting. Looks like I might need to dig deeper.

Thanks again,
Gordon

[etagordon556]

Mystery solved.

I just went back and looked at the quote and it was for 71 Euro per week, not per month. This makes it much closer to the price you were quoted.

thanks again

Gordon

[cosh]

Hello,
If you do not have a lot of luxury and enough to anchor in the harbor, for example 2x per week and is in Croatia huge amount of coves where you do not pay anything. Very nice overview as here.

Map of Anchorages | Safe Anchorages

Otherwise, the space on the Bojča will cost you about 10 kN per meter and standing in the harbor at around 160kn for the ship to 14 meters

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, etagordon556, & cosh.

[chuckr]

[QUOTE=etagordon556;1471944]

Also, if we proceed with this plan, we are thinking of wintering the boat in Malta on the hard. I have received quotes which seem extremely reasonable. Is there any downside to this plan?

thanks for starting this thread -- God willing we plan to cruise croatian waters this summer -- and had not started our research yet and this will move it along quite nicely

as an alternative to wintering over in malta - take a look at tunisia -- a simply incredible country -- we spent this winter here and have already made our reservations to spend next winter here also

[No Ice]

I have lived in Malta since 2006 and cruise Croatia every summer for 3 months so i will assist you if i can.
First point is a lot of Maltese take their boats to southern Sicily for the winter. there are several new marinas there and the air is clean and the prices are reasonable. Malta is expensive.
An excellent yard to haul out in Malta is Kalkara opposite Valletta ive used them for several seasons and they have good tradesmen.
If you have questions please try me, if i can assist i will.

Brian

No Ice

[Polux]

I cruised in Croatia in 2010, 2011 and in 2012 I made it from Slovenia to Montenegro. I also planned in leaving my boat there so I made a search. In what regards marinas the best price/ conditions were on Mandalina Marina, very near sibenik. Very nice town. A boat makes the connection with the marina if you don't want to do about a mile to the town. Near the marina there are a very small village with a nice mini market.

Marina Mandalina - Home

Regarding founding a place out of the buoys to anchor it is not always possible. Every year there are more, specially on the nice spots. The price for a buoy costed in 2012 about 27 euros for a 12m boat. They take away the garbage. Believe it or not, on one of the places I thought I had get away from the buoys, I had to pay anyway even without a buoy (the give me an invoice and all). Central Croatia has lots of boats, specially charters on the summer. On the North and South there are less boats and more places to anchor.

[Barra]

Hi Gordon

We spent almost 2 months in croatia last year and I have a philosophical aversion to paying some bloke a fee to anchor with my own gear in a natural harbour or bay so we went to the effort of avoiding the paid fields where we could (since you cant anchor within 150 meters of them).

It can be done but my basic take is that in central dalmatia you may need to go past up to half a dozen otherwise suitable anchorages that are either buoyed or free but chock full before you can find a nice free anchorage for the night. This can get tedious and it takes some planning. In southern or northern parts its easier but you still have to hunt around a little. Expect to pay around 20 to 25 euros per night for a 42 footer for the times when you cant avoid the fields.

We only paid 4 times in the 2 months for buoys (including in the parks) but never to anchor though that took a few arguments with nearby concession operators. They were pleasant about it however once they realised we werent going to budge and we never saw any of the threats or ortherwise that sometimes gets reported.

The restaurant buoys that are free if you are eating there are getting less and less - replaced by either national park buoys (now THEY are expensive! try 80 euro per night!) or more concession buoys with set fees even if you eat in the restaurants.

All in all I wouldnt let the buoys stop you cruising croatia as you can still avoid them with a little effort but this may not last due to the rate that new fields are being added...

However with all the fat naked germans lazing about in the achorages - thats maybe a better reason to avoid croatia!

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Barra

However with all the fat naked germans lazing about in the achorages - thats maybe a better reason to avoid croatia!

Unfortunately there's no escaping them anywhere on the Med. Like barnacles , they just are a feature of cruising !!

I cruised Croatia for a few years around the millennium, still very reasonable and lots of free anchorages

Now I prefer the western med

I suspect they are destroying their own industry in the intervening years.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Unfortunately there's no escaping them anywhere on the Med. Like barnacles , they just are a feature of cruising !!

I cruised Croatia for a few years around the millennium, still very reasonable and lots of free anchorages

Now I prefer the western med

I suspect they are destroying their own industry in the intervening years.

Not very different on the Western med. In some Italian Islands the buoys are a lot more expensive and in some places it is impossible to escape them. The Marinas are also generally more expensive and there are a lot less small town ports, that are not expensive in Croatia. Coves are also pretty crowded.

Eastern med, specially the Aegean is still a Paradise compared with the rest of the Med. I love the strong winds that seem to be the reason for not having there so many charters.

In Croatia I don't think they are killing the sail industry even if I try to escape buoys as much as I can. 90% of boats there are charters and for one that is paying for a charter for a week or 15 days the price of buoys are pretty irrelevant and they allow to have much more boats in a given anchorage, increasing their capacity. As charters like to bunch up all together there is not a problem to scare them away for being too close.
The problem with me is not liking sailing as an industry, but it makes sense to make money out of it, that's for what a Industry is.

Barra is right about the prices. I said on my previous post 27 euros for a 40ft but actually I was sailing in a boat with 12.5m and that puts it on another price tag.