Advice for new owners from Australia coming to Europe to collect a boat

[Gordon]

Hi 'The Miss',
We found 'Cover More' provided travel/ health insurance and we were able to place our normal Bupa cover on hold for the period we were away. Actually the cost difference was slightly in our favour, this may be an option you could consider.
We have left our boat at the Albatross Marina, Marmaris Turkey and will be returning to travel out of the Med this northern summer to complete the Atlantic crossing after visiting Turkey, Greece and Croatia.

Cheers Gordon.

[The Miss]

Hi Gordon,

How long could you place on hold for?
How have you found the Albatross Marina? We are yet to decide after the Bodrum boat show where to place our boat for the five months while we complete work.
When will you be heading to the Atlantic, as I am wondering if our paths will cross.

Cheers the Miss

[TPF]

Originally Posted by The Miss

Hi Gordon, How long could you place on hold for? How have you found the Albatross Marina? We are yet to decide after the Bodrum boat show where to place our boat for the five months while we complete work. When will you be heading to the Atlantic, as I am wondering if our paths will cross. Cheers the Miss

Love this thread! So much useful information for newcomers to the market. We are about to join the rest of you in the Med in May on our new Helia 44. We have spent a great deal of time looking at health insurance and checking a number of forums,etc. on this issue. I have a background as a travel agent and am quite familiar with travel insurance policies. Most people do not realise that the majority of travel insurance policies will NOT cover travellers on a private yacht OR any vessel travelling more than 10-15nM from shore. Read the conditions VERY carefully! Having said that, if you need to see a doctor or have an emergency you will be coming ashore in any case and I suspect it would be easy enough to tell a doctor that you are visiting (no need for them to know how you got there). There are a few European countries (Italy is one of them) which a have reciprocal medical agreements with Australia at public hospitals. Problems can arise if there is a dire emergency which requires you to be airlifted home. If your insurance company denies you coverage because you did not comply with their rules it can be a costly lesson.
I have found that sure save travel insurance is one of the few that do not exclude private vessels nor do they have an "offshore" clause. This could change,
I also got a quote from Health Insurance International but it was much costlier due to the fact that my husband is over 65 years of age! If you have a pre -existing medical condition, this can also raise the cost of travel insurance.
As we are flying in and out of Europe the first time (in MAy and out November) we are being very careful to abide by Schengen rules so we can come back in MArch 2015 to collect our boat again from Turkey and sail through there Med again and out across the Atlantic. We aim to try and get stamped in and out of every port to validate our 90 days in our passports should anyone check.
We are also planning to try the Woolworths SIM cards on our next trip to see how well they'd work. We have set up a euro account with HSBC here in Sydney and although we cannot get an ATM card to withdraw the euro in Europe, we can do bank transfers to Europe at a reasonable charge. We have also obtained credit cards from 28 degrees (GEMoney) which do not charge overseas transaction fees. We'll have to deal with the falling dollar but generally credit cards have reasonable exchange rates as they buy foreign currency in bulk.
For cash we plan to use either travelex cash passports or ANZ money cards (same thing).
We just completed a Marine First Aid course which was great! Highly recommended for everyone.
One other item that has been mentioned by our local yacht club is the ICC (international certificate of competency). Apparently this is something that more and more yacht charterers in the med are asking for. As we will have our own vessel we don't feel the need for it however the club says that some marinas in the Med require it. Any feedback on this?
Love the fact that we Aussies stick together and support each other even on the High Seas! Look forward to seeing you all out there.

[mark_morwood]

I too had heard rumours about requirements for an ICC, but we've been in the Med for the last 8 months and have never been asked for one or even heard it mentioned. Kind of disappointing seeing as I have one!

My understanding had been that for recreational boats registered in another country, the laws of the registering country apply to the crews qualifications. I don't know how the ICC fits in with that.

It is actually quite hard to get an ICC as a US skipper as far as I am aware there is no national body issuing them. I got mine through the RYA in the UK which is allowed to issue them for citizens of countries that don't have their own issuing authority. Not sure what the situation is in Australia.

I suspect as a US flagged boat we may not be representative, as my assumption is that everyone here has become used to crew on US flagged boats having no formal qualifications, as you need no formal qualifications to drive a recreational boat in the US. So my guess is they don't even bother asking skippers of US boats for their qualifications. I don't know if they do for European or other flagged boats.

I suspect your last comment about Aussie's sticking together may not come across as you meant for everyone here. I happen to be Australian (and American), but I think you'll find most of the people on this forum sharing their time and giving very good advice are not. You'll find the cruising community is very international, and in my experience tends to be very helpful regardless of the nationality of those involved. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to find that you'll find things in common with cruisers you meet along the way that go beyond simple things such as where you were born.

[Prairie Chicken]

One other item that has been mentioned by our local yacht club is the ICC (international certificate of competency). Apparently this is something that more and more yacht charterers in the med are asking for. As we will have our own vessel we don't feel the n

We've been sailing in the Med for over 20 years and the only place I can recall being asked for skipper's papers was to get a permit to a Spanish marine park--referencing his CYA qualification was adequate. He has never had to show his proof. This was on our own boat though, not chartering.

[Multihull]

If my memory is correct and under the assumption that Dutch regulations are comparable with other EU countries you do not need any papers if the boat is smaller than 20 meters and its top speed is below 15 knots.

Not many (sail)cruisers will qualify.
Rob

But charter companies (especially in Croatia) do ask for ICC.

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by TPF

One other item that has been mentioned by our local yacht club is the ICC (international certificate of competency). Apparently this is something that more and more yacht charterers in the med are asking for. As we will have our own vessel we don't feel the need for it however the club says that some marinas in the Med require it. Any feedback on this?

Montenegro (2012) insisted on seeing qualifications and radio operators licence. Croatia (2012) wanted to see skippers qualifications and at end of season last year (2013) when re-entering Turkey they asked to see Skippers qualifications and seemed happy with an Australian motor boat drivers licence (hadn't asked previous year).

TwT

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by TPF

We have spent a great deal of time looking at health insurance and checking a number of forums,etc. on this issue. I have a background as a travel agent and am quite familiar with travel insurance policies. There are a few European countries (Italy is one of them) which a have reciprocal medical agreements with Australia at public hospitals.

Bear in mind that treatment costs in many European countries are often less than you will pay for the "gap" in Australia and the situation is not like America. My wife broke 2 ribs in France falling down an open hatch at sea and we were pleasantly surprised at the cost of medical care and prescription drugs (and we were paying foreigners rates!). I found dental care in France and Greece is cheap and in many European countries drugs can be purchased at chemists (who will also give advice) without any need for a prescription (S8 drugs excepted). I believe in Turkey if you buy a visa extension you get free basic medical cover. Not saying don't have medical insurance but in many countries in the Med you may not need to call on it.

TwT

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by TPF

We are also planning to try the Woolworths SIM cards on our next trip to see how well they'd work. We have set up a euro account with HSBC here in Sydney and although we cannot get an ATM card to withdraw the euro in Europe, we can do bank transfers to Europe at a reasonable charge. We have also obtained credit cards from 28 degrees (GEMoney) which do not charge overseas transaction fees. We'll have to deal with the falling dollar but generally credit cards have reasonable exchange rates as they buy foreign currency in bulk.
.

Have been using the travel sim from Aust Post and found it excellent plus set up an auto recharge paid account with Skype which enables me to make cheap calls even when the connection is not very good (seems to use much less bandwith than Skype to Skype. You can also have it with an Australian phone No for people to ring you from back home).
Good luck with the bank transfers. Maybe easy in France but as you go East think you will find it gets harder plus I have found that the receiving bank levies charges on top of those you get charged at your sending bank. Easy to hold Euros in a MasterCard type multi currency account which you can then draw from anywhere. For paying winter marina fees I just arrange a SWIFT transfer at the time from an Oz bank.

TwT

[simonpickard]

Regarding ICC. I was told that over the coming years this will become more and more relevant. By law you're required to have one by many countries now. It's just down to if you get asked to show it.

We have our ICC's, you can get them after completing RYA Day Skipper.

Make sure you have your radio license as well- This was actually a pretty hard test we found.

We've also done RYA coastal yacht master which we found really good. Went into navigation and tides in a lot more detail than Day Skipper.

'The Miss' we asked Medibank about putting our insurance on hold, they said it could be done for 12 months, then I think you'd need to either try and put it on hold for another 12 months or cancel. Medibank don't offer cover for overseas.

[simonpickard]

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

Have been using the travel sim from Aust Post and found it excellent

Hi, so how does this work? You pop that into your iPhone then use this to provide Wifi for the boat?

Any ideas on the real world costs? How much is data do you know?

[Barra]

Another vote for no need to get ICC. Have only been asked in Montenegro so far and a PADI dive ticket seemed to tick the box on that front!

I have found that there is a presumption by many officials and others that if you are Australian registered boat and skipper that you have already sailed half the world to get there and therefore must be competent.

In any event you only need to comply with your flags legal requirements and Australia does not require ICC piece of paper to sail a boat thank god.

[Barra]

another tip on sims dont get the e kit sim card from flight center - doesnt work in half the countries they say. Woolies one was ok but also not in all countries they say. We usually wound up getting a local sim for each country we visited for more than a week and used the woolies as a back up.

[Gordon]

Hi 'The Miss',
With Bupa (MBF) you are able to place your membership on hold for three separate periods and from memory for up to twelve months at a time.
The Albatross Marina in Marmaris is an ideal place to leave your boat. The owner and staff are very helpful, have a wonderful knowledge of anything catamaran and we feel very comfortable knowing our new boat is in such safe hands and also a very safe environment.They also have a good relationship with the boat builders ie. FP, Lagoon, Catana and have been very helpful in the few warranty issues we had. The staff and workmanship we observed was excellent.
We return to Turkey in June to eventually arrive in the Canaries by mid Nov. 2014 to then prepare for the Atlantic.
We know the FP agent in St Martins so may be leaving our boat up on the hard in that region for another extended visit back home to Sydney. The following year we may sail the East Coast USA if this is possible and weather permitting.
Good luck when you finally pick up your new boat, we know how excited you must feel. We hope you enjoy the new lifestyle as much as we have, beats work!!

Cheers Gordon.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by simonpickard

Regarding ICC. I was told that over the coming years this will become more and more relevant. By law you're required to have one by many countries now. It's just down to if you get asked to show it.

We have our ICC's, you can get them after completing RYA Day Skipper.

Make sure you have your radio license as well- This was actually a pretty hard test we found.

We've also done RYA coastal yacht master which we found really good. Went into navigation and tides in a lot more detail than Day Skipper.

'The Miss' we asked Medibank about putting our insurance on hold, they said it could be done for 12 months, then I think you'd need to either try and put it on hold for another 12 months or cancel. Medibank don't offer cover for overseas.

No there is no evidence that the ICC Is becoming more and more relevant. Furthermore only ONE country requires certification by law for foreigners and that's Croatia. It accepts a very wide variety of certifications not just the ICC.

dave