Hi All
I hauled my 43 Foot Edel
Catamaran out in Gaviota Marina, near Varadero, in
Cuba in December 2017
I have left the
boat there for a few weeks while I return home for xmas and will be back in January to do some
work and antifoul etc.
My
boat is 43 long and 24 feet wide.
The staff are very nice, polite and helpful. There is a huge travel
lift which seems well maintained. The yard is large and quite empty.
The Marina is also half empty.
Obviously they have priced themselves out of the market.
Yard costs and Marina costs have gone up quite a bit!
It cost me $280 to
haul out. And again the same to launch!!! ( I have yet to clarify whether they expect me to pay the same to go back in the
water but it looks like they charge both ways which puts the
price way above anything I have ever paid before.)
The monthly cost for my boat to be in the yard is around $13 per foot per day.
Again this cost is way above the cost of Storing in most yards in
USA.
The only saving is in the fact that they allow you to do your own
work in the yard.
But there are no shops or chandleries so you must bring everything you need with you.
Given that the yard is isolated from any shops and the nearest town is Varadero which is around 15 miles away and a $5 bus ride, I would think the authorities are
charging way too much for their services. The empty yard and marina are proof itself. The Marina at Varadero ( which is no longer a place you can check in at) was half full also, way down from my previous visit here because prices there too have gone up.
The attraction of going to
Cuba was their pricing and the wonderful culture.
The pricing has obviously cut the amount of visitors substantially and I can only hope they amend it soon.
When I get back mid January I will have more information.
If anyone wants to contact me about this, feel free.