App · 97 €
Which boat to charter
A guided online app to prepare a charter truly suited to your stay.
What it gives you
- Season, destination and mood on board
- Boat size, crew and budget
- A personal dossier you keep
Mini-app · one-off purchase
Which boat do you need?
Every right question — use, program, technical side, cost of ownership, berth, survey, sea trial, VAT, flag and purchase steps — before choosing a boat. At the end, you leave with a clear private report, like after a yacht broker advisory session on the French Riviera.
Life aboard before the model: bay, coast, Corsica, cruising.
What you can helm alone — and what needs a skipper.
Berth, survey, sea trial, VAT, flag: the process before purchase.
The advisory app, with a private report to keep
You are buying a guided experience, far deeper than a first-contact request: it helps you understand which boat fits your real life at sea, berth, crew, annual budget and technical level.
At the end, you receive a private PDF report: suggested format, cost of ownership, berth, crew, upkeep, insurance, survey, sea trial, VAT, flag, seller questions and the steps to follow before an offer.
Platform tools
You are chartering a boat: your tools
Alongside your free request, you can move ahead on your own with our tools, at your own pace.
Ebook · download
The French Riviera by Boat
103 pages: choosing your boat, the right budget and seven curated itineraries.
The library
Every answer, before you decide
Each chapter answers what people usually ask on the phone, in detail, with orders of magnitude and pitfalls. It is yours to keep and return to.
01
Start from the programme, never the model
A boat used twelve times a year is not chosen like a boat used fifty times. Writing the programme down avoids the most expensive mistake.
- The six lines to write
- Outings per year, average duration, people aboard, nights aboard, season, Corsica or coast only. Everything else follows.
- The classic mistake
- Buying one size up "to be safe". One extra metre means a rarer berth, heavier fuel bills, and usually fewer outings.
02
The formats and what they truly cost
Each format has a logic of use and a logic of cost. Confusing the two becomes expensive in year two.
- RIB, 7 to 9 m
- Swimming, beaches, day use. Low upkeep, an easier berth, quick resale. Little shade, little storage.
- Day boat and walkaround, 8 to 11 m
- The best Riviera compromise: a proper day for six or eight, a spare cabin, a controlled budget.
- Flybridge, 12 to 16 m
- Separate cabins, air conditioning, family nights aboard. The annual cost changes scale: berth, upkeep, fuel.
- Sailing yacht, 11 to 15 m
- The pleasure of sailing, negligible fuel, but time to give and a family crew to train.
- Catamaran, 12 to 15 m
- Space, stability, ideal with children. A wide berth is rare and expensive on this coast.
03
The annual cost, excluding purchase
A prudent rule: 8 to 12% of the boat's value each year for a recent motor yacht, more for an older or larger second-hand one.
- Berth
- The first item, and the most constrained. Fees vary sharply between ports, and an annual contract is not always available.
- Upkeep and winter
- Haul-out, antifouling, anodes, engine service, dry or afloat winter storage, caretaking if you are not local.
- Fuel and insurance
- Fuel follows the pace, not the length. Insurance depends on the declared cruising area and on your experience.
04
The berth: the real Riviera subject
On this coast the berth dictates the size of the boat more often than the purchase budget does.
- Port by port
- Antibes, Golfe-Juan, Cannes, Mandelieu, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Villefranche, Beaulieu, Nice, Menton: waiting times, practices and fees have nothing in common.
- What to check
- Genuine availability, contract type, transferability, annual fee, maximum length and beam, access and draught.
- The right question to the seller
- "Is the berth transferred with the boat, and on what basis?" The answer is sometimes worth tens of thousands of euros.
05
Second-hand: what to verify before signing
No deposit before an independent survey and the administrative checks. No exceptions.
- Survey
- Hull and structure, osmosis, engines and true hours, drives, systems, electronics, safety gear, sails and rigging where relevant.
- Paperwork
- VAT status with evidence, flag, title, absence of a maritime mortgage, seller matching the title.
- Sea trial
- Cold start, full power run, course keeping, vibration, bilges, air conditioning and windlass under load.
06
Timing and negotiation
Buy in autumn or winter to cruise from May: that is the rhythm of those who pay the right price.
- The timeline
- Four to ten weeks between selection and delivery when survey and paperwork are handled properly.
- Where negotiation happens
- Rarely on price alone: more often on survey items, the tender, electronics, a paid winter, the berth.
The questions people really ask
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