First sailing holiday, flotilla vs charter and other Qs
Discussion
My gf and I are looking to do our first sailing holiday in summer '15 (looong time to plan 
) with some friends we're inviting when I will have Day Skipper and my gf Comp Crew. Having done quite a bit of research, I still have a few questions that I hope people can help with:
1) Would flotilla or charter be better? Ignore the people/social aspect for the mo as we'll have friends with us and I understand you can ignore the other people in the flotilla if you wish(!), but on the assumption that while we will have our quals we will likely have little or no other sailing experience, is a charter on our lonesome going to be biting off more than we can chew? Or am I being paranoid i.e. if they're willing to charter us a boat with those quals and take the "risk" it must be fine?
2) Can you recommend us an outfit to use for flotilla/charter? Sailingholidays.com seem to be rated quite highly judging by other threads on here. Sunsail any good? Neilson?
3) Can you recommend us a location? On the websites they all seem to look good, yet some seem to command 50% more money for no apparent reason.
4) If you are booking a flotilla and there are say only 2 of you, will you get the boat to yourself or will you be forced to share with strangers? It's not entirely clear from the websites. This is actually quite an important "flotilla deciding question" as it were as we might not have our friends there the whole time to fill the boat. Which leads me on to....
5) Can people join half way through a flotilla? While myself and my gf want to do 2 weeks, our friends may only want a week each. Would 2 of them be allowed to do the 1st week, then "swap out" with the other 2 at the half way point? I notice that quite a few of the 2 week flotillas neatly pass by there start point half way through the trip.
6) I've noticed there's also a big price discrepancy based on the age of the boat, a 2 year old new model 36 may cost almost double a 10 year old "old" model. Is it worth going for the newer one? Are you likely to end up with a scabby one with worn out interior etc if you go for the cheaper option?
) with some friends we're inviting when I will have Day Skipper and my gf Comp Crew. Having done quite a bit of research, I still have a few questions that I hope people can help with:1) Would flotilla or charter be better? Ignore the people/social aspect for the mo as we'll have friends with us and I understand you can ignore the other people in the flotilla if you wish(!), but on the assumption that while we will have our quals we will likely have little or no other sailing experience, is a charter on our lonesome going to be biting off more than we can chew? Or am I being paranoid i.e. if they're willing to charter us a boat with those quals and take the "risk" it must be fine?
2) Can you recommend us an outfit to use for flotilla/charter? Sailingholidays.com seem to be rated quite highly judging by other threads on here. Sunsail any good? Neilson?
3) Can you recommend us a location? On the websites they all seem to look good, yet some seem to command 50% more money for no apparent reason.
4) If you are booking a flotilla and there are say only 2 of you, will you get the boat to yourself or will you be forced to share with strangers? It's not entirely clear from the websites. This is actually quite an important "flotilla deciding question" as it were as we might not have our friends there the whole time to fill the boat. Which leads me on to....
5) Can people join half way through a flotilla? While myself and my gf want to do 2 weeks, our friends may only want a week each. Would 2 of them be allowed to do the 1st week, then "swap out" with the other 2 at the half way point? I notice that quite a few of the 2 week flotillas neatly pass by there start point half way through the trip.
6) I've noticed there's also a big price discrepancy based on the age of the boat, a 2 year old new model 36 may cost almost double a 10 year old "old" model. Is it worth going for the newer one? Are you likely to end up with a scabby one with worn out interior etc if you go for the cheaper option?
Thanks for all the info everyone, much appreciated. Keep it coming, can never have too much!
The current thinking is to do the best of both worlds: my gf and I will pitch up for the first week on our own and do a flotilla to get the experience with a little support, then for the second week charter a bigger boat to fit the 6 of us when the others arrive
Not all places like Sunsail appear charter and flotilla from the same bases, but I'm sure we can work something out
The current thinking is to do the best of both worlds: my gf and I will pitch up for the first week on our own and do a flotilla to get the experience with a little support, then for the second week charter a bigger boat to fit the 6 of us when the others arrive
Not all places like Sunsail appear charter and flotilla from the same bases, but I'm sure we can work something out Paddy_N_Murphy said:
Sounds a complicated (and pricier possibly) way to do it jumping from a boat to a boat.
That's interesting, I thought that getting a smaller boat for a week then a bigger one (effectively 2 holidays back to back) would be cheaper than getting just a bigger boat for 2 weeks?Paddy_N_Murphy said:
6 of you would need a healthy size boat IMHO - or you're all fine for a tight fit, Flotilla's tend to max out at 40Ft's I've seen.
You might find someone like SetSail or Nautilus might help you do a two part set up.
Sunsail appear to do 44 ft boats for flotilla, Nautilus 42 ft so all good I think You might find someone like SetSail or Nautilus might help you do a two part set up.
brickwall said:
On the flip side, you'll need 40-45ft to put 6 on comfortably, but this size could be a handful for two novices to handle on their own. I'd recommend going for something smaller (~35ft) for your first week on the flotilla.
Pretty much our plan on paper Within reason money isn't too much of an issue ref the bigger boat for week 2
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