Dear readers,

The Advent calendar is slowly emptying and Christmas is just around the corner. The days between Christmas and New Year are particularly employee-friendly this time, meaning that you can get many days off with just a few days' holiday.

The time of reflection ... and for many people also a time for reflection. For me, the days "between the years" are always a good time to recapitulate what the past year has brought and to re-evaluate what should change in the coming year.

Two years ago, we moved our mooring to the Mediterranean and, thanks to two periods of parental leave (of six and two months), have come to really appreciate the new area. Before our children started school, we wanted to make the most of our time together. The children also really enjoyed life on board, and in the last few weeks they kept asking: "Dad, can't we go on board again and sail to another country?" Of course, the father's heart rejoices. The longing for the sea has already been planted.

But next year, our summer holiday - as is usual for most people - will only be limited to a few weeks at a time. Probably three to four weeks.

And in view of the mooring bill we have just paid for the land storage of our 36-foot catamaran, I naturally ask myself: is it worth keeping such a boat in Greece at all if you use it far too rarely?

Our five-year plan when we bought the boat was to explore the Mediterranean year after year, mile after mile. Next year Sicily, the year after that Spain, then Portugal, until we reach the Baltic Sea in five years' time. "And then what?" I've often been asked, to which I've usually replied "Then we'll probably go back". The journey is the destination. Although at the moment we are also very excited about spending a few years in the Baltic Sea again and having the boat on our doorstep, because we haven't had that for ten years.

But even if our plan still sounds plausible and tempting to us, I have to admit quite soberly: It really isn't worth using the boat for four to six weeks a year and storing it ashore for the rest of the year. Charter sailing would make much more sense.

Of course, if our boat was on the Baltic Sea, things would be very different. Then I'm sure we'd spend at least every other weekend on board. Preferably somewhere in Denmark, with an Opti for our two boys on the davits. But there's still a long way to go.

But what to do - sell the boat and charter it instead? In my recent YACHT used boat webinar, I noted down our annual costs for mooring, insurance, maintenance and replacement of equipment - and was somewhat surprised at what the bottom line was. You could actually charter a boat for three to four weeks a year for that. And you wouldn't have any work to do with the boat, because after a long period of standing still, getting it back into service naturally takes a lot of time and effort. I will probably have to fly to the boat for four or five days in April to prepare it so that we can launch it straight away in the summer. This year we also have to replace the saildrive membranes, which will take me a day each. That's a lot for a 30-day holiday.

That's why you can't really add labour to the equation, otherwise there really are no more arguments for owning a boat.

The next question is: why do you need to own a boat at all? The idea of sharing has been around for years. Here in Hamburg, cars and bicycles are shared. No one in our editorial team has their own desk any more, we only have co-working spaces. You take a desk when you need one. You share.

But when it comes to sailing, not everyone is happy with charter sailing. It's not just a question of not wanting to sail a "wrecked charter boat" - there are also plenty of charter companies that look after their boats really well. Getting on a freshly washed and often already provisioned boat after a few hours' flight is always more pleasant than having to put a dusty boat back into operation, hoist the sails and winterise the engines.

But there are such and such sailors. For me - and probably many other owners too - this hobby is not just about sailing. It's about sailing as a whole. Maintaining a boat, looking after it and servicing it is part of the experience for me. Even if I spend the first of our few days on holiday upside down in the engine room, scrubbing the deck or removing a wasp nest from the forecastle, I couldn't be happier if I was sailing into the sunset on a backstage breeze.

That may sound strange. And it does even to me. But to make a comparison, sailing is like the operators of model railways. There are those who only build and others who only drive. And some who enjoy both. That's us.

But there is still something to the idea of sharing. That gave me food for thought. That's why we've already offered several friends the chance to borrow our boat next summer and enjoy the Mediterranean. It's always nice when things are used and not just standing around, don't you think?

Merry Christmas.

Johannes Erdmann,

YACHT editor

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