Hiya.

Firstly, pardon my lack of knowledge, I know nothing of boats or sailing.

Mrs S has a birthday ending in 0 next year and I’m looking for a suitable prezzie.
She’s done quite a bit of crewing on small 2 man stuff, over to France, Scottish Islands etc, but not for a while.

We have a great local sailing club but she’s not keen on sailing on reservoirs, tried it before and not for her.

So, looking for more of an active experience, I think.

I have no idea what’s available, or the cost, but would love to hear your suggestions or experiences.

Thanks in advance.

Neilson flotilla type thing?

We did a villa flotilla thing for our honeymoon – but I’m guessing Mrs Spanner doesn’t need the “villa” bit (neither of us could sail so that was the learny part).

But I’m sure they do flotilla type holidays where you sail with a lead boat from island to island etc. Nice balance of time to yourselves where you can fight on the boat in private and then a bit of social in the evenings with others if you fancy it.

Cheers DD, will look into that.
Sounds idyllic.
🙂

She’s into volunteering/working type holidays too, which broadens the scope a little.

Sunsail in the Med somewhere.
Neilson in the Med somewhere.

Both have dinghies and yachts, full/skippered or one your own, beginner or experienced, racing or cruising, tuition or not.
Accommodation ranges beach huts through 4*, maybe 5*, pools or not, all incl or self catering.

They are extremely well set up for a huge range of abilities and attitudes.

Not costly either.

Thanks bb, much appreciated.

I had visions of sending her up the masts of a tall ship, which is the kind of stuff she loves.
This looks much more relaxing for me though.
🙂

hire a narrowboat and sail past the Burnley Embankment?

At least part of that is sensible

Narrowboat hire in the UK??

We could recreate the ‘Pistols Thames exploits.
🙂

Have I ever told you about the youthful boating trip to the broads?
Man, it was like a cross between Apocalypse Now and Fear and Loathing, but much, much slower.

It ended because Heather had finally been allowed to drive, as no one else could see.
The last thing I remember is her shouting ‘Ramming Speed!’ before she drove into the back of someone elses stationary hire boat, screaming something about always wanting to go down with the ship.

For a kind of volunteering, I’d like a trip with the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust. http://www.whaledolphintrust.co.uk/

I did one a few years ago with my parents. Basically a flotilla of 32′ ish boats (Beneteau Oceanis if that means anything to you) around Croatia’s islands with a pre-planned itinerary to get to a certain sheltered bay/marina/restaurant. Maybe 4-5hours of sailing per day, the rest was swimming/ exploring villages etc. Pretty nice. Neilson do this, we went with a company called sailingholidays. I would imagine it’s pretty expensive!

We’ve been to Croatia for the last couple of years and are hoping to go again this year. We don’t do flotillas as we go with another family and together we have a fair bit of experience so we just bareboat.

This was our ship last year (Hanse 57) which was frankly bloody brilliant – big enough for the 10 of us.

It’s a great experience although the bigger/nicer the boat boat the more it costs – this one cost about £7k for the week plus flights. That said we eat aboard a lot so don’t spend too much.

The kids love it. Usually end up sleeping on deck as it’s so warm, then just waking up and walking off the back of the boat for swim first thing.

It’s sailing for people who don’t like sailing [in this country]!

Do either of you ‘qualify’ to join the civil service sailing association?

My employer has an offshoot and about to do my second day trip as a guest, will probably join at some point. The part I am joining has several trips to France etc where they want deckhands to crew the boat for the first leg south, also some specific trips, I think one next year is two or three weeks sailing up the Norway coast and Fjords.

Classic Sailing

I’m saving my pennies for a trip with http://www.69nord.com. camping and sailing kayaks.

Wild Sailing

As above really. If the Mrs hasn’t sailed in a while the beach based holidays might be good although they will be more dinghy based. The yacht charter needs some other skills mainly manouvering under engine although floatilla holidays help as there will be a “leader” who will help.

Croatia is supposed to be excellent cruising sailing has probably overtaken Greek Islands as best Med destination.

One final thought, if tou want a Rolls Royce holiday you could look at British Virgin Islands and do either beach based (with some yachting) or floatilla/charter