Hey, thinking hard about taking a sail boat holiday this summer, and looking for advice / tips.

It will be me with my two girls (14 and 13).

Never done one before, but have pottered in dinghies for years, and some day sailing in big boats in the UK, so tides, waves and surf are probably more familiar to me than they’ll need to be in the Med.

But as unqualified, will need to hire a driver 😉

Croatia appeals – purely because it looks so magical from the air. Never been or sailed there. So is this a great idea? Are there better locations?

My girls are independent and keen on the idea. They are good campers and motor homers, and will be happy enough with the privations of sailing life (I think).

But, will it be too warm to sleep well in a yacht in August (our preferred week)?

Any additions / equipment / boat types that will make a material difference to the holiday? And any to be avoided?

How much spending money are we likely to need?

What’s the craic with shopping and eating out with a skipper? Not used to having help like this, so slightly nervous about the whole dynamic will work. Tips? Advice?

Any other things to be aware of?

Not wedded to Sunsail, but they seem the default choice.

So, if anyone has decent experiences to share, would love to know.

TIA

We Sail in Greece – The Ionian islands. Lovely weather, warm water, cheap Tavernas. Croatia mooring fees/restaurants a LOT more expensive.

You could do a Day Skipper course in the UK before going, then you don’t need a hired skipper. Overall cost about the same, but then you have the qualification for life.

I use Nautilus Yachting.

I had a fantastic week sailing the Ionian islands with a bunch of mates last October.  We’ve booked again this year.  I’d never sailed before, but one of the guys has a day skipper qualification so he was designated driver, another had a competent crew qual.  By the end of the week we all getting the hang of it.  There were 5 of us on a Bavaria 37 hired from Sail Ionian.  The boat was immaculately presented and equipped. The company is British owned and run and  were great to deal with.  They do skippered charter too.

We’ve done 3 holidays in Croatia and it’s great for you to start with.
Basically there’s either no wind (so motoring) or blowing its nuts off and you’re not going anywhere (but we’ve never had any of those days).

The water is deep and there’s sod all tide so it’s pretty much point and shoot. Not much in the way of fish to look at when you’re snorkelling but the water’s very warm.

We go with another family and always charter a 60′ bareboat as we’ve got all the tickets and a fair bit of experience – but a flotilla would be good for you to start with.

If your girls are anything like mine they’ll love it.

But, will it be too warm to sleep well in a yacht in August (our preferred week)?

We’ve been known to fairly frequently sleep on deck when it’s too hot.

Any additions / equipment / boat types that will make a material difference to the holiday? And any to be avoided?

Frankly all you’ll need is snorkel mask and flippers, but we also take our paddleboards and they’re used constantly. Microfibre towels FTW also.

Can’t help with the costings as we almost never stay in a marina and just drop the parking hook somewhere nice.

The only problem you’ll [hopefully] have is wanting to do moreI After Croatia we then went to the BVI on a 52′ cat ….. simply amazing experience.

Different to sunsail, these guys offer sailing and multisport options. Really enjoyed a cycling and sailing holiday we did with them a few years ago. Live aboard, some days sailing, some days dropped off to explore an island on bikes, get picked upon the other side.

Home

It was quite a few years ago, but we did a trip with Sailing Holidays to the Greek Ionian. Sailed as a group “flotilla” so picking locations and help provided by a lead boat crew, but you sail where you like between stops. Don’t know what it’s like now, but there wasn’t any formal qualifications required beyond some sailing experience. If you’ve got plenty of dinghy experience you should be good – I know they promote themselves at the dinghy show, so are targeting that market.

We did a Nielsen Flotilla

If they still exist they are perfect. 10 yachts plus a lead yacht. There is a briefing at 9:00. your Tod told where to get to and by when. Then the days yours

They needed 2 people that could sail the yacht. So we did a week in a hotel while they trained my wife and the kids had fun.

We went in August. It was hot in the yacht but sleeping was ok

Yacht crews were assembled by family type. My kids were about 10 we sailed with similar age kids. Another flotilla had teenagers do they could hang together in the evenings.

https://www.neilson.co.uk/sailing/greece

We ‘ve done Sailing Holidays a few times, it’s ok for complete novices the
Hostess sailed with us the first day.

I would do a day skipper cert though, it’s the cheapest way of going sailing.

Brilliant holiday, I would deffo go again.

As of a week ago everyone renting a boat in Greece needs a Day Skipper ticket. Has caused chaos for Sailing Holidays, as we were due out in May and so have had to find a way to quickly get qualified so as to not derail the family holiday

I would do a day skipper cert though, it’s the cheapest way of going sailing.

that is probably true – but keep in mind that when used with sailing the adjective cheapest still means “a lot”! Flights to the Med are surprisingly* expensive this year too. Turkey is slightly cheaper than Greece, which seems to be slightly cheaper than Croatia. But your temperature worries will get worse as you head that way too.

a flotilla would be good for you to start with.

Beware there are no bargain flotilla’s this year! I thought there might be, but many people just rolled on cancelled ones from previous years so there’s high demand, plus many of the lead crews were British and lost their right to work in the med through Brexit (and/or got shafted by the holiday companies so have gone to more stable work elsewhere!) so there’s apparently a staff shortage.

As of a week ago everyone renting a boat in Greece needs a Day Skipper ticket. Has caused chaos for Sailing Holidays,

if you spoke to many of the charter firms that has been the case for several years, but Sailing Holidays seemed to have a different interpretation and get away with it for ages. They must have known that this was a business risk for them.

You could do a Day Skipper course in the UK before going, then you don’t need a hired skipper. Overall cost about the same, but then you have the qualification for life.

Beware – many of the charter firms will insist on a second “competent” person being on board – so you may be looking at getting your “wife” through comp crew also. Also whilst Day Skipper before the summer is perfectly achievable, some will want the certificate at the time of booking, and many sailing schools will expect you to have undertaken DS Theory before the Practical course; again quite doable in the timescale but more £. You may already have the relevant theory knowledge – but a dinghy where you can lift the centreboard and rarely worry about air draft are not quite the same as they stuff they’ll ask you about secondary ports to see if you are bluffing. Also worth checking, I think you’ll need your VHF certificate for Croatia (can’t remember about Greece). Not sure how back-to-normal sailing schools are in the UK – but from the marketing emails I get from the one I used, they aren’t struggling to fill berths.

*Yes I’m well aware theres been a pandemic, theres a climate crisis, fuel/energy prices are rocketing etc – but if you are used to the times when flights to the sun were cheaper than parking at the airport you might find yourself pausing for a moment.

Yep – I get staff discount rates on flights. Last year to Greece was £400 for all of us. This year (booked early) was £1200!

The sunsail flotillas I’ve seen put me off them as a company. It was “follow me” sailing, mostly without sails! The Sunsail Raft in Fiskardo was a shambles of crossed anchors and dodgy knots on the longlines.

Sail Ionian are a good company. Not cheap but well speeds/maintained boats.

Thanks for input so far all!

Thanks interesting points.

Flights have gone up a lot, I have a few booked Spain to uk so found the 50 quid ones, sadly if you have to go on a certain Saturday it may be 300 quid 1 way.

Day skipper cert really should be mandatory, we got caught in a few storms on our boat end Oct, things can get out of hand really quickly. A friend went after us and there was a fatality on one of the boats, no idea on the details but the above post ‘re competent crew is a sound one.

No idea ‘re current prices but for us a few years ago it was a fabulous holiday.

Why bother with Greece or the med. Why not hire something in the west coast of Scotland ?

Cold wet, dreary, and thats in the height of summer.

Nothing quite like that view from the saloon out through the companionway of a stark grey sky reflecting back by the stark grey sea.

You might even be lucky and have a seagull shit on you.

Visit the Islands, see mass unemployment, the loss of their fishing industry with spectacular sights of rusting hulks of former fishing trawlers. All the while the locals cast you angry looks.

Ahh the joys of sailing in Scotland. Beats the Caribbean any day.

Dyna-Ti , you sell it so well!🤣

I would be very wary of Med sailing in October unless experienced – it gets pretty feisty!

I agree that requiring a qualified skipper these days is a good thing. Nobody wants a “have a go hero” trying to dock their yacht in a tight gap just by winging it! There’s plenty of video nasties of just this out there.

We are off to the Ionian again in July – can’t wait! This year it’s a solid old Bav46 that I looked over last year in the Marina. It was noticeably cooler than the little Beneteau we were on, with a great lay out.

Yeah I’d stress to have a skipper with you, mainly as all the basic jobs can be assigned with little to no experience, and its probably going to be a case of just having the main up for most of the sailing, which the helm can handle themselves, with the only help needed putting it up of down. And if theres a genoa up too for really light winds thats not too difficult for an inexperienced crew willing to learn. I dont think for most of any trip its going to be really blowy.

One of my friends Dave, who sailed with me on another mates boat, he went and hired a 35′ out in Greece for himself and his girlfriend, and she crewed on a 44′ so are both pretty experienced to handle the boat between the two of them. All accounts from Dave was easy sailing, and marveling at the warm sunshine while out on the water. Something most west coast sailors have never experienced 😆

I say go for it while you can, and im sure it will be a fantastic holiday, far better than slogging round the hills on a bike or sitting in the sun with little to do.

Bav46 – Bavaria 46 for those wondering. Mmm Nice