Service
Year-round boat storage in Menorca
Not everyone needs a boat for six months of the year. If yours gets used a few weeks a season, keeping it ashore all year is cheaper, safer and a great deal less trouble than a berth you barely visit.
The arithmetic of a berth you do not use
A mooring or a berth costs the same in November as it does in August. If you are on the island for three weeks a year, you are paying twelve months for three weeks of use, and for the privilege the boat spends the other forty-nine growing weed and taking whatever the weather brings.
Storage inverts that. The boat sits in a guarded yard, dry and off the water, and comes out when you are actually here. The mooring, if you keep one, is free for the summer and empty the rest of the year.
Who uses long-term storage
Four fairly recognisable situations, and none of them involve anybody having done anything wrong.
Owners with a second home here
You come over for a few weeks in summer and perhaps a long weekend at Easter. A berth or a mooring you use for three weeks a year is poor value, and the boat spends the rest of the time unattended.
People who bought the boat before the time
It happens constantly. The boat gets used far less than anyone expected. Rather than sell it at a loss, owners store it properly and use it when life allows.
Boats mid-refit or mid-sale
A boat waiting on a part, a decision or a buyer needs somewhere sensible to wait. Somewhere dry, secure and not costing berth fees.
Owners cruising elsewhere for a season
You are sailing somewhere else this year, or the boat is out of action. Keeping it ashore for twelve months is cheaper and kinder than leaving it afloat.
How it works in practice
Choose indoor or outdoor
For a stay of a year or more, indoor is the better answer if the budget allows: it is the accumulated exposure to sun and salt air that ages a boat standing still. Outdoor with shrink-wrapping is the sensible middle ground, and it is what most long-term boats here use.
Come and go as you need
Storage does not mean the boat is locked away from you. Give us notice and we will make it accessible, whether you want a week's sailing in July or an afternoon checking it over in February.
No fixed season
There is no date by which you have to collect it. Some boats here have been with us across several seasons; others come and go every summer.
Ask about long-term storage
Tell us the boat and roughly how long you have in mind, and we will send a price.
Long-term storage questions
What is the difference between winter lay-up and year-round storage?
Only the length of the arrangement. Winter lay-up runs roughly October to May, around the sailing season. Year-round storage has no season attached to it: the boat stays with us until you want it, whether that is fourteen months or three years.
Can I take the boat out mid-season and bring it back?
Yes. Tell us in advance and we will have it accessible. Plenty of owners take the boat out for a few weeks in summer and bring it straight back afterwards.
Is long-term storage cheaper per month?
Longer commitments generally price better per month than a short seasonal lay-up, and outdoor works out cheaper than indoor. Tell us roughly how long you have in mind and we will quote accordingly.
Does a boat suffer from sitting still for a year or more?
Ashore, far less than it would afloat. What still matters is the engine and the batteries, which do not like being left indefinitely. Most long-term owners arrange a periodic check with a marine engineer, and we can give the boat access for that.
Do you handle the maintenance?
No, we store boats. If you want work done while the boat is here, arrange it with a marine engineer or yard on the island and we will let them in by appointment.
Indoors or outdoors for a long stay?
For anything beyond a single season we would lean towards indoors, simply because the cumulative effect of sun and salt air is what damages a boat left standing for years. If cost is the deciding factor, outdoor with shrink-wrapping is a sound compromise.