Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Ouzo

Chartering your own sailboat in Europe from $25 a day

Ah, sailing!

Everyone dreams of sailing the Greek Islands, cruising around the Mediterranean or Aegean Seas on their own sailboat, or chartering a bareboat (landlubbers: that means no crew; you sail it yourself) to explore the Turkish coast, but most also assume this is the sort of a vacation reserved only for the rich and famous. Not so.

It can cost as little as $700 per week to charter a 31-foot sailing yacht with two cabins and six berths. That means two couples could afford their own sailboat for as little as $25 per person per day.

Of course, that's in the off-season; in high season (roughly mid-July thorugh early Septemebr) you're looking at a starting price of around $1,100 per week.

Of course, you could spend loads more. Let's say the average range of prices for most standard sailboats and motor yachts will be $1,200 to $3,000 a week, depending on (among many, many other factors) season. A decent 38-foot catamaran sleeping nine runs around $4,400 in high season—still decent once you break it down: go with a group of, say, four couples and it's lese than $80 per person per day.

If you're not feeling up the idea of captaining your own boat, most charter outfits will also rent you a skipper for around $150 per day. Taking along a hostess or cook would run another $100 to $150 per day.

Prefer to leave the driving and the schedule to someone else? You needn't board an enormous cruise ship to sail Europe. There are plenty of small sailing ships out there, as well as loads of private yachts looking for a few extra bodies to fill berths and haul sheets for as little as $700 per person for a week's sailing.

You could also hire yourself out as a deckhand on a boat—sometimes just for free passage and the chance to sail around Europe, sometimes even to make a few bucks. » Full Story

Resources for chartering sailboats and finding cruises

Odyssey Sailing

(www.odysseysailing.gr) - Bareboat charters, crewed sailings, and set cruises both high-end and economy.

Fyly Yachting

(www.fyly.gr) - Another Greek specialist in bareboats—both sailboats and motorboats—crewed charters, yacht cruises, and flotilla tours you can join (in case you don't want to sail alone).

Ocean Blue Yachts

(www.oceanblueyachts.com) - Britain-based charter service offering bareboats and charters on the Med and the Adriatic Sea: in Croatia, Italy (including Sicily and Sardegna), Corsica, Spain (the Balearics/Mallorca), Greece, and Turkey.

Small Ship Cruises

(www.smallshipcruises.com) - Loads of links, tips, and resources for all sorts of boating and sailing trips around the world.

Sailonline.com

(www.sailonline.com) - Loads of info and one-on-one contacts between yacht owners and charter groups. Some excellent info covering all the basics of sailing and chartering boats and the process of renting and sailing a yacht.

Sail Scotland (www.sailscotland.co.uk) - Lots of general info on boating on Scotland's coast, canals, and rivers.