Spain marinas and solar

[John marven]

Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 36
Spain, marinas, solar
Hi guys

Looking for advise on A good marina where I can moor a 44 foot cat for around four months in Spain that is not mega expensive. Also I need to instal solar panels. How much would I need for a family of five for live aboard taking into account general running of boat, ie lights nav gear fridges etc etc along with lap top chargers phone chargers so on and so fourth.
Any body got a rough idea how much it will cost including all mounting hardware to hang above dingy davits at the stern and all items needed for complete active installation.

Thanks in advance. John.

[mbartosch]

Originally Posted by John marven

Join Date: Oct 2019
Looking for advise on A good marina where I can moor a 44 foot cat for around four months in Spain that is not mega expensive. Also I need to instal solar panels. How much would I need for a family of five for live aboard taking into account general running of boat, ie lights nav gear fridges etc etc along with lap top chargers phone chargers so on and so fourth.
Any body got a rough idea how much it will cost including all mounting hardware to hang above dingy davits at the stern and all items needed for complete active installation.

Spain is big, unfortunately you did not specify if you are looking more at the atlantic or the mediterranean side of it...

The mediterranean coast can be very expensive and crowded, in particular in high season. Prices can be around 1200 EUR per month for a 13.2 m monohull in high season.

We have very good experience with Galicia, the north-western part of Spain.
Marina Coruña is a very nice place to spend a prolonged time. For living on board this is the best option of the ones I post here. We spent several months there and enjoyed it very much.
The marina is not too expensive, the staff is very friendly and Coruña is a very attractive town to explore. However, the marina is a 10 min walk from the town center, and the next super market is 15 walking minutes away.
If you need marine services requiring a work shop nearby this may not be the best place, though, all the associated service shops are located a few miles south, in Marina Seca which is "marine services only", not a nice place to stay and with no proper facilities for living.

A little further east is Marina de Sada, reportedly a good place for services and to lay up, but no personal experience. Only visited the place for a few days. The town is much smaller but quite nice.

We are in Marina Davila, Vigo, for the second year now. This is an excellent place to have marine services works to be done on the boat, and that's the reason we are staying there (we don't live on the boat most of the time currently). Mooring is around EUR 350 per month for a 13.2 m monohull.
Very good service quality, not very expensive and the guys at the office speak very good English.
It's less attractive to stay and live there, though. Guest places at the marina are far outside with long walks to the facilities. Town is a 10 min taxi drive away (10 EUR one way). There is no super market or any other infrastructure near the marina, but with a bike (can be borrowed at the marina office free of charge) the next super market can be reached in 10 min cycling. A rental car is very advisable here.

Living in Galicia is quite cheap, you will find that food and drink prices comparatively low compared to the east coast.

[John marven]

Hi.
Thanks for your input. We won’t be living on the boat, we just need to leave it somewhere reasonably priced whilst we have the upgrades done before we move on board. Boat is currently in Puerto Maria, cardiz

[ozsailer]

Gday John, in relation to your solar requirements there are some basic things I strongly suggest you find out to assist in answering your question. The very first thing I would do, which I did was to work out the power my boat uses on an average day. There are some very good sites on the net which can assist in helping you work this out utilising a spread sheet to work out your power usage. Once you know the daily power consumption you can start to work out the required wattage of the solar panels, battery bank size, solar regulators etc to fill your requirements. We have a 14 metre cat with nornally just the wife and myself, We have two fridges, one large freezer, a large electronic array etc. Our total solar array total 1.3KW with a 800AH House battery capacity. In the tropics our batteries are topped up by Midday. In winter in home waters the batteries can take all day to top up. In continuing overcast conditions we sometimes have to kick in the genny in for an hour once a day. This is a very very abbreviated response to your question.


Greg H
Lagoon 440
Oz

[John marven]

Thanks Greg.
This instal is also for a lagoon 440. I was thinking along the lines of 1.5 kw.
Do you any idea of a rough figure how much all this might cost me??

Cheers. John.

[Topspin]

If in the med, you should consider Almerimar.

Richard

[ozsailer]

Gday John, Here in Oz I paid approximatley $1 (aus) per watt. We replaced four 100 watt panels with 4 by 330 watt panels that were just slightly larger than the former footprint of the old solar panels. We have two panels off the dinghy davits on one frame and two panels running from the rear of the roof of the cockpit roof. Each set is in series which go to two seperate MPPT solar regulators. If you would like to send my your email adress via a private message I can post you some photos of our setup.



Greg H
Lagoon 440
Oz

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by John marven

Hi.
Thanks for your input. We won’t be living on the boat, we just need to leave it somewhere reasonably priced whilst we have the upgrades done before we move on board. Boat is currently in Puerto Maria, cardiz

In that case you are just 36hrs max from Almerimar..
Suggest a quick pull into the fuel dock in Gib to fill your tanks.
No need to clear in, just tie up to the fenced off fuel dock, top up and continue on your way.. they also do duty free tobacco if your a smoker.
Forgot to say.. Fast train to Madrid from Almeria and air links from the airport 25mins away by taxi.

[John marven]

Thanks boatman 61. I appreciate your advice

[karlsruhe]

Originally Posted by John marven

Hi.
Thanks for your input. We won’t be living on the boat, we just need to leave it somewhere reasonably priced whilst we have the upgrades done before we move on board. Boat is currently in Puerto Maria, cardiz

Hi John, If you are interested in leaving the boat for about 4 months, I can recommend a space 13x5 m. in Castellon, Yacht Club, for a reasonable price.