Greek Ionian flotilla with "Sailing Holidays"

[bornplaydie]

I am considering a flotilla trip in the Greek Ionian Islands with a company called Sailing Holidays. Website is Sailing Holidays in Greece

Anyone familiar with this company? Have any comments or other recommendations?

Our goal if for my wife and I to sail a couple of weeks in the Ionians in Sept. A flotilla makes this easier. We have done bare boats in Sporades on34 foot, Greece and Turkey SouthEast coast on 40 foot cat.

[NornaBiron]

We have seen Sailing Holidays in many of their stops in both the Ionian and Saronic islands. The customers always seem to be having a good time. If you ask the same question on the ybw forum you may get more responses than here.

[hoppy]

Sailingholidays flotillas remind me of little ducks following the mother duck. Although in this case the mother is the smallest duck but with lots of flags with all the other boats following behind.

The Ionian is an easy sail and the only problem is that when you are on your own you mistakenly arrive in an anchorage where a SH flotilla and you struggle to find a place to anchor.

The OP looks to have the experience to go it alone on a bareboat charter and I'd suggest doing that, unless they want the social side of the flotilla.

[bornplaydie]

Originally Posted by hoppy

The OP looks to have the experience to go it alone on a bareboat charter and I'd suggest doing that, unless they want the social side of the flotilla.

Thanks to both posters. As it turns out SH was fully booked. We are in discussions with Nautilus which seemed to get good reviews and allows boats navigate to the next destination on their own and even have some different overnight options.

We decided on a Flotilla NOT due to the social aspect. We may join in for a night or two but like to venture on own one in general. The problem we had in the past with bare boats was securing a spot on the quay in late afternoon after the winds died. We usually sacrificed the best sailing winds to get a good mooring. Ionians are busier than Sporades or Turkey area we have sailed before so will probably be even worse.

Also this will be the first sail with just my wife and I and having a support crew near by and not having to plan the entire schedule myself are nice pluses. But thanks for the vote of confidence Hoppy.

[hoppy]

Even if you are in a SH flotilla, you can still miss out on a town quay berth unless you motor anyway. There's no reserving of the town quays that I've seen and if I see a berth in the middle of a SH I want, them I'm going to take it.

If you want to enjoy the sail and therefore get to a mooring late, the only advantage of being in a flotilla is that you might get to raft up to the others or perhaps moor with a shore line with the SH crew helping you (I solo so avoid shore line mooring)

The best thing is to study the flotilla routes and dates and avoid them altogether

[hoppy]

BTW I think Sunsail might do flotillas in the Ionian