gear@uiuccsb.UUCP (12/06/83)
#N:uiuccsb:11300001:000:2644 uiuccsb!gear Dec 5 08:12:00 1983 Sailors hibernate in the winter, they don't write. Howver, before I go to sleep, let me ask for any suggestions of good places to charter in warm areas for the winter. Those of you who have tried some of the sunny southern spots could help the rest of use chose (or just daydream about the possibility). For my part, let me recommend sailing in the Med. on "Flotilla" cruises. These are groups of boats--typically about 12--plus a "pilot" boat with some locally experienced people (Skipper, Engineer, and "Hostess") aboard. There are a number of organizations offering these, so you can chose between those for the almost novice to those for the experineced. My favorite group is YCA (Yacht Cruising association) out of England. I have taken two of their trips--two years ago in Greece and this summer in Turkey. The first was for relatively inexperienced sailors. Being an inland dinghy racer, I put myself in that category. That was unnecessary. There were groups (families) whose only experience was a long week-end school offered by YCA--and that for only one of the group. They motored a lot of the time. The format consisted of some days sailing "together", i.e. begin expected to arrive at the same place at the end of the day with the pilot boat watching over the less experienced like a mother hen. We were left pretty much alone, and also given the OK to stay overnight in bays the group was specifically told not to overnight in (little exposed, but easy sail to a protected harbor). The trip to Turkey was for the "more experienced." In two weeks, we only had to be in the same bay as the rest of the fleet four times. Most days we had force 5 climbing to 6 (this was July). Not a cloud in the sky, hot but dry. For a charter boat, this 30' was in remarkably good shape. (And if something went wrong, the pilot boat was stocked with spares and monitored channel 14 continuously.) The benefits of the flotilla approach over simple charters seem to be (i) the equipment is beeter maintained, (ii) we got a lot of help on places to overnight, eat at, provision at, etc, and (iii) we sailed from A to B, rather from A back to A. (Each 2-week cruise started at alternate ends of the crusing area.) Price is very reasonable. Four of us on a 30' that nominally took 6 was about $3,000 for two weeks, including charter air flight from London to Turkey. Meals were extra, but we spent only about $400 on all additional expenses. As for differences between sailing off Turkey and Greece--I preferred the latter as there were more villages to stop for exploring and eating. The southern Turkish coast is very desolate.
dad@u1100s.UUCP (Douglas A. Davey) (12/08/83)
I read with interest uiuccsb!gear's description of flotilla sailing in the Mediteranian. As a lake sailer, this sounds like a good way to take on something bigger than the local reservoir or bay. Does anyone have any info on flotilla sailing in the Caribbean? Doug Davey, Bell Labs (soon to be CSO), Piscataway, NJ ihnp4!u1100s!dad