Where to Go: Marina in Western Med?

[eckipa200]

Dear Cruisers,

I will be crossing the Atlantic West to East this spring.
After arrival in Europe, I would like to leave my 34ft Catamaran in a nice and reasonable Marina. But my biggest problem: I DO NOT know where to go?

Perhaps soem of you have experience and can recommend a suitable destaination/Marina?

Here are my criterias:

- Marina must be in western side of Med, means Protugal (also Atlantic coast), Spain (also Atlantic coast), France and Italy. NOT any further East

- Marina must accept annual term payments, means I will pay in advance for one year

- Marina must be accessable, means must be within 1 hour of International Airport

- Marina must be cheap, means not charging an arm and a leg. My aim is somewhere between 2000 and 4000 Euros per year including VAT

- Marina must be safe, because I will leave the boat sometime unattended

- Marina must be protected from bad Weather

Thanks for your info and help...you are such a great community...

CU in Europe..
Ralph

[atoll]

in those price ranges your choices are very limited,algarve portugal marinas are going to be in the 6000 e/year range.

baiyona,finnisterre,spain in the north comes to mind.

in the med ,almiramar spain and smir in morrocco do good rates

[boatman61]

The Algarve.... no chance.. not with a 4K max else I'd say Portimao's your best bet.. very good marina and easy access to Faro airport.
Portugals W coast I'd suggest Figuiera da Foz... more or less midway between Lisbon and Porto...
Spain... Almerimar... though even there I feel you'll be hard pressed to stay in budget... could also check out Cartagena.. few winter there even though its a great place... central to 2 airports..
Most places though are cheaper if you put her on the hard...

[goboatingnow]

What about Marina smir in morocco

Dave

[boatman61]

Dunno if US flags are a good idea in Nth Africa right now....
just saying...

[multihullsailor6]

Ralph,

I too have a 34' cat and have found that virtually all marinas will charge us 50% multihull extra.

I did look around, mainly in southern Spain, and settled on YPC Yacht Port Cartagena as my overwintering place as they have a policy to not charge the multihull extra - success of this policy can be seen in that there are currently 16 cats here.

For your cat you will be paying, as per the 2011 price list, for a one year period €3,527 incl. VAT.

Cartagena itself is an interesting town with all amenities for us cruisers incl. 3 chandleries and haul out facilities also for cats. The airport Murcia-San Javier is 25km away with good connections to Madrid and the UK.

YPC's website is www.cartagenamarina.es, you can contact them at marina@yachtportcartagena.com.

Another possibility is in Sotogrande close to Gibraltar and Malaga, though they officially charge the multihull extra I was quoted "normal" monohull winter rates which were quite a bit higher that YPC's.

What type is your cat?

[eckipa200]

Thank you very much guys. Really goo td help so far.

I have contacted one in Almerimar, but there are several Marinas? Are they all applicableo ask for a quote?

Also, I have contacted Cartagena (with no extra charge for Cats)...

No response from either one of them yet.

Q: Anyone (good) experience with the Spanish enclaves in Marocco? How is it there pricewise, securitywise, accessabilitywise...? Many EU sailboats there? Nice area to sail?

@ multihullsailor6: I have a 34ft FLICA from Palamos. Wouldn´t it be nice to meet in Spain? How often are you there? Where do you fly from to your boat? And how? Perhaps you want to email via PM?

Keep on trucking guys, thx again..

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

What about Marina smir in morocco

Dave

My thought too, should be some excellent deals going at the moment.

Pete

[swagman]

Last time we went through towards the west Med (2009) the best value marina seemed to be Almerimar - and from what I read that's possibly still the case.

There is a new clubhouse now at Sines on the lower Atlantic Portuguese coast - I believe they would give good rates for a winter stoppover and you could choose between Lisbon and Faro for airtravel.

Finally, you may think this suggestion is too risky and of course things change over years, but there is a wide shallow bay on the inside coast of Ile de Culatra, a 1 x 5 mile long low island just south of Faro Airport.

It's a great sheltered place to anchor away from the crowds when cruising - but when we visited last (2006) that shallow bay was being utilised by 10 or more beached cruising cats - some left for a winter layup.

There are no lifting (or indeed any other) facilities, only the local resident shell fishermen who live in shacks ashore, but there was one live aboard who used to keep and eye on the empty boats. Go look on Google Earth and you might find them still there!

If you are low on funds, not many other spots will cost you zip.

A short ride ferry runs from Faro to the island which is used in the summer by local sunbathers, but it is pretty bare winter months.

Good luck in finding a place - and on the crossing.

JOHN

[rivonia]

We overwintered in Almerimar 2009/2010 and were not charged any excess for being a catamaran - just the length x breadth of the vessel. Extremely efficient marineros really look out to all the boats, especially when bad weather is forecast.

[Unicorn Dreams]

Try Marinas.com, World's Marinas Portal, and Marina Directory thet have a lot of listings. Give them a look.

[Roaring Girl]

Are you intending to leave the boat in the water? If not look at Gelves outside Seville and haul her out there. (V difficult to get them to correspond so worth ringing them.)

Smir v good facilities but not necessarily cheaper than Spain. Ceuta quite crowded and some surge but if you can get right in to the harbour would be worth a look. Mellila (the other spanish enclave) is excellent value (though limited haul out) and very secure, but you have to get the ferry to Spain or the train to (?somewhere a long way away) to leave so the hour from an airport might be difficult.

Morrocco has been v quiet in the recent disturbances and should not be too problmatic even with stars and stripes.

[oceanmanuri]

come to turkey fethiye (ocenmanuri@hotmail.com)

[joemac4sail]

HiThere We overwintered our Santorin in torrevieja about an hour from Alicante Airport. Good facilities and secure, if staying in the water. But there is an added local government tax, if keeping your boat in the water there. It worked out at about 400 euros for 6 months.

[joemac4sail]

Another location on portugal atlantic coast is Varzim north of Porto. Probably the best rates in Iberia and a tram ride from Porto itself.