Where in Europe?

[cwyckham]

My girlfriend is looking for work in Europe as marine ecotoxicologist (as a postdoc, professor or research scientist). I work as a production engineering manager for an aircraft manufacturer, so I figure my skills are pretty transferable. So my theory is that since she has the harder job to find, I'll just figure out a job in the same area once she's found something.

Only stipulation for me is that I need to be able to get a boat and sail. I suppose travelling up to about an hour and a half by road or rail to get to the boat would be acceptable.

I can certainly pull out a map and guess at where would work, but I'm wondering what the better places would be. Stockholm seems to have a great archipelago, Oslo looks good, I assume the Netherlands and Denmark would be pretty good. The Mediterranean countries are obvious winners, but research funding is likely to be a bit more limited since they all seem to be having some serious budget issues of late.

Any advice? Any marine ecotoxicologists out there looking to hire?

[killarney_sailor]

Seriously, I think what you need to do is see where the jobs are and then see what the sailing is like nearby. Since you are from BC you are likely used to cooler, damper sailing so Scandinavia and the UK would be similar. The western Med is a costly place to sail since there are virtually no places to anchor (at least in Europe) - same problem in much of Atlantic France and southern England.

[sailor50]

Try Amsterdam - Schipoll Airport

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by killarney_sailor

...The western Med is a costly place to sail since there are virtually no places to anchor (at least in Europe) - same problem in much of Atlantic France and southern England.

The lack of anchoring wouldn't have occurred to me. You can drop the hook all over the place here.

I guess a follow up question would be what boat ownership costs are like there vs here. I have a share in a boat here, so I'd be selling before I moved.

[killarney_sailor]

Originally Posted by cwyckham

The lack of anchoring wouldn't have occurred to me. You can drop the hook all over the place here.

I guess a follow up question would be what boat ownership costs are like there vs here. I have a share in a boat here, so I'd be selling before I moved.

We met quite a few Europeans cruising in the eastern Caribbean and they said it is a costly hobby in many (typically highly populated) areas. Boats are a bit pricey compared to here (many Europeans buy in North America) and marinas are not cheap. Cruising seems quite expensive with nightly docking being something like 50 euros with no anchoring options available.

We met one boat from Lake Constance in Switzerland. Apparently a few of the large Swiss lakes have good-sized boats on them so that is another option.

[PCP]

Originally Posted by killarney_sailor

We met quite a few Europeans cruising in the eastern Caribbean and they said it is a costly hobby in many (typically highly populated) areas. Boats are a bit pricey compared to here (many Europeans buy in North America) and marinas are not cheap. Cruising seems quite expensive with nightly docking being something like 50 euros with no anchoring options available.

...

I believe you have more cruising sailing boats in Europe than in the States...and that is the problem. There are countries with more boats than available places and the tendency is to increase the number of boats.

You can anchor in plenty of places, including in the Med, but the tendency is that you are welcomed there for a reasonable period of time. Not to live there or to let your boat anchored premanentely. There are so many boats that if they allowed that, people crusing would not have places to stay or to enjoy anchoring in nice places. There are yet some places where you can do that, but they are ocuppied by local sailors.

Prices in Marinas vary a lot. Nice places, especially in the Med are expensive. On the Atlantic coast they cost almost half the price. You shoud expect to pay for an annual place in a Marina (for a 36ft) between 2000 and 10 000 euros.

I don't think boats are more expensive here, except if you are talking about old boats. I think that in US there were more cruising sailors than there are now, so you have plenty of inexpensive old boats on the market. In Europe the number of cruising sailboats is still increasing, so you don't have so many old boats available and you have thousands of new sailboats each year on the water. You can find here a much bigger market to find a boat that is no more than 10 year's old.

Regards

Paulo