We Hold 3,934 Mediterranean Marinas. One of Them Publishes a Price.

We hold 3,934 marinas on the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to the Turkish coast. Two of them publish a price. One of those two has it recorded as zero, which leaves one.

That is not a gap in our data. We went and looked, because a boater asked us a reasonable question — what should I expect to pay for an annual berth for a twelve-metre boat in the Med? — and we could not answer it from anything published.

What happens when you go looking

Search for it and you will find plenty of numbers. Almost none of them come from a marina.

You get charter companies estimating what a week costs. You get blog round-ups quoting ranges of fifty to a hundred and twenty euros a night. You get per-metre figures for ten-to-twenty-metre charter boats in high season. What you do not get is a marina saying "this is what a year costs for a boat your size".

Even the large groups that do publish a tariff tend to put it behind a PDF download rather than on the page. The information exists. It is just not somewhere you can compare it.

Why almost nobody publishes

It is worth saying that this is mostly structural rather than evasive.

A Mediterranean berth is priced on more variables than a number on a page can carry. Length is only the start of it. There is the season, and whether you want the summer, the winter, or the whole year. There is the berth itself — a finger pontoon, a lazy-line stern-to, a swinging mooring — which changes the cost more than a metre of boat does. There is contract length, and the discount for committing to a year or three. Then the supplements: electricity and water, sometimes metered and sometimes bundled; a liveaboard charge if you are staying aboard; lift-out and hard standing if you want the boat out for winter.

Publish one number and it is wrong for almost everybody who reads it. So they publish nothing and ask you to enquire.

The effect on you is the same either way. You cannot compare without asking, and asking means ringing round one marina at a time.

The number one owner was willing to say out loud

We asked the question publicly a few days ago — if you keep a boat in the Med, what did the berth actually cost you? — and one owner answered plainly:

Nine thousand a year in Malta, for full year access, for a boat just under twelve metres.

That is one boat, in one country, on one contract. It is not a benchmark and we would not present it as one. But it is worth more than most of what a search returns, because it is a real figure from someone actually paying it — and it gives you something to react to. If you are being quoted double that, you now have a reason to ask why. If you are being quoted half, ask what is not included.

We would rather publish one honest figure with its limits attached than a confident-looking range assembled from charter blogs.

What to ask for, so the answers can be compared

The reason quotes come back looking wildly different is usually that they are answering different questions. If you ask every marina the same six things, the replies become comparable:

Is this annual or seasonal, and which months? "Annual" in the Med sometimes means twelve months afloat and sometimes means summer afloat plus winter ashore. They are very different products at similar prices.

Is it charged on my boat's length, or the berth's? This is the one that catches people. Many marinas charge for the berth you occupy, not the boat you own, so a boat that overhangs into the next bracket pays the next bracket. Ask which, and ask whether your bathing platform and anchor count towards the measurement. They often do.

Is VAT included? Rates differ across the Mediterranean, and a quote that looks cheaper sometimes simply has the tax stripped out.

What is metered and what is included? Electricity and water are the usual surprises, particularly if you run air conditioning or heating.

Is there a liveaboard supplement? If you intend to sleep aboard, ask directly. Some marinas do not permit it at all, and finding out in March is better than in June.

What happens when I am away? Most contracts give you nothing back. A few of the larger groups credit you for extended absences, and it is worth knowing which before you sign rather than after.

What we are doing about it

We have started asking on people's behalf. You give your length, your draught and roughly where you want to be, and the same question goes to every marina on that stretch of coast that can physically take your boat. The answers come back to you in one place, in your words, unmarked-up — we do not add anything to what a marina quotes.

It is free, and the prices belong to you. We do not publish what a marina quotes a boater, here or anywhere. That is the boater's to keep.

What we can publish is what we are learning about the shape of the problem, which is what this post is. Three thousand nine hundred and thirty-four marinas, one published price, and an entire coastline where the only way to find out what something costs is to ask.