Advice on Selecting and while sailing

Will you set sail with a single-hull sailing yacht, catamaran, motor boat, or houseboat? Will you rent a sportier boat or one designed more for recreational purposes? A newer boat, or an older one? The important thing to consider is how much you are willing to pay for your boating holiday. A single-hull sailing yacht or houseboat are the cheapest options. A catamaran is more expensive and motor yachts are the most expensive. Sports sailing yachts are usually more expensive than recreational boats. Recreational sailing yachts are more spacious and offer more living space for the same size of boat.

However, you will get a different sailing experience under sail on a sports sailing yacht, especially when using a spinnaker. An older boat is cheaper than a newer one, but there is a greater likelihood of breakdown, and will be more demanding on your repair skills. If you are not a DIY enthusiast who likes to fix everything, a stay on an older boat could turn into a nightmare for you, especially if you rent from a company that doesn’t look after its boats all that well.

If you are sailing with your family, this will most often be during the holidays. If you are sailing with friends, you will probably be choosing a time outside high season when there are less boats around, boats are cheaper, and the weather conditions are not quite as forgiving. In winter, exotic locations such as the Caribbean Sea, Thailand, Malaysia, or Tahiti are often chosen.

The most popular yachting location for Czech yachtsmen is still the Croatian coastline. It is easy to get to by car and is very beautiful. Other easily accessible areas include the Tuscan islands, particularly Elba, where you can enjoy some great yachting that is only a little further away than Croatia. You can also go to the Baltic Sea, which is close to the Czech Republic, but not yet a destination that has attracted many Czech yachtsmen. Other areas are most frequently reachable by air.

In Greece, you can sail in the Aegean or Ionian Sea. The stormy Meltemi winds blow on the Aegean Sea from the middle of June to August, and can traumatise an inexperienced crew so terribly that they won’t ever want to set sail on the open sea again. Compared to this, the Ionian Sea resembles the Croatian islands, but the sea is warmer and there is more greenery. Wonderful yachting till the end of October is also available in the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and Corsica as well as the Aeolian Islands to the south of Sicily. The most extended yachting season is along the south coast of Turkey, where you can sail until the beginning of December. The sea here is still 26 degrees warm at the end of September.

Here you can follow the dual criteria - by price or by quality. Typically, companies that have their vessels well-preserved and have a willing and loving staff have the majority of ships occupied long before the start of the season, even if they do not have the lowest price.

Companies offering a significantly lower price than the average, or offering significant last minute discounts, have reasons to do so. Either the charter company is new to the market, and although it offers quality service, it does not have a strong customer base yet, or it is a company renowned for its poor service and poor quality of service, and nobody wants to sail with them repeatedly. Taking a boat from a new companyand building up its place on the market may not be a bad choice. But taking a boat from a company that is known for its poor service is certainly not a good choice.

If you own a captain's license and have enough experience, you do not have to deal with it. If you ride along rivers and canals, you also do not have to deal with it because you do not need any captain's license on river ships. The choice of a suitable captain is often underestimated, but it is one of the most important questions.

A good captain must not only be an experienced sailor, but must also be friendly and social, know the area of the voyage, control the foreign language, and not suffer from any condition that could make your voyage uncomfortable. And you don't always know this at first glance. Also, a good captain has his price (1,500 - 2,500 CZK / day).

When choosing a boat well in advance (half a year or more before you begin your trip), you can take advantage of attractive discounts of early booking, but above all, you can choose exactly the boat you want from the best quality companies. When booking a last-minute boat, you can usually still get a very good price. However, the choice of boats is already very limited. You won’t be choosing from dozens of high-quality boats, but from two or three, none of which may necessarily be what you are really looking for.

During the high season (July and August), it often happens that no boat is free and you may end up staying in a hotel instead of on a boat. If you are flying by plane to pick up your boat, it is a good idea to book your boat a long time in advance with regard to fares.