season to sail in the atlantic

[martifont]

Hi,

my question is about wich season is better to find a bout in america to go to europe. I would like to sail the atlantic sea, to go to europe (I'm from Spain), but I need to know if it´s easy to fins someboat on January-February-March to cross de ocean. I also need to know wich are the easiest ports to find that kind of boats. Thank you!

[skipmac]

Hola and welcome to the forum.

The problem is not when to buy the boat but when to sail to Europe. If you buy a boat you should plan on several months to prepare the boat for ocean sailing. Even a brand new boat will take a lot of work and preparation. An older boat could take many months.

The best time to sail from the US to Europe is spring, maybe May or June. If you leave earlier you will have a chance of winter gales. If you leave much later you will have a risk of hurricanes.

The best area to buy a boat? Florida may have the most boats but there are also lots of boats for sale in the Chesapeake area and New England.

[JazzyO]

I have not crossed the ocean yet, but it seems I know a lot more than the OP does. I would recommend he aims to do this crossing in 2015, not 2014. Preparing a boat will take quite some time if you know what you are doing. But if you don't, then there are considerable risks that you are taking. Of course, it also depends on how much time you have on your hands. 6 months of intense sailing training could prepare you enough. All I am saying: this is not a light undertaking, just make sure you are comfortable that you can handle your boat in storm conditions.


Onno

[Pete7]

Marti, whilst you may find a cheap boat in the US, you will need to pay import duty over 20% plus VAT on arrival in Europe. Also any mains electrical fittings are going to be the wrong voltage and frequency for Europe. Suddenly the cheap price may not be as cheap.

I would have thought Greece would offer similar bargains.

Pete

[martifont]

Well, I'm not thinking about to buy a boat, but thank you anyway for the info! It'll be useful for another ocasion. The thing is that I want to be part of the crew of some boat, because I don't have money to buy one. So, my point is to work or to share some costs with the owner of the boat. You know, some kind of hitch-hike on the sea! So, I need to know from which ports is more easy to find boats doing this kind of trip. I'm in USA right now, but in a few weeks I'm gonna go down to Mexico, and I would like to know if it could be possible to find something there, or if it's better to go to Bahamas, Jamaica, Panama... Thank you for the answers!!

Marti

[atoll]

for crossing to europe,best time from usa is may-june.
from carib april is best,antigua or st martin
march is a good time to be in panama if you want to cross the pacific.
right now is a good time to be in the canary islands to find boats leaving for the carib.
right now is also a good time to find boats leaving the usa for the caribean

try Yacht crew agency, yacht crew vacancy, sailing crew from Crewseekers for crewing oppotunities

[barnakiel]

You will need some time to get the boat ready. How much time? Depends on your skills (if you prep her by yourself) and on your budget (in any case).

Crossing to Europe is often done late May / June / July. Big boats have broader margins.

b.