Which charter skipper hasn't fancied sailing in Scandinavia at some point in view of the spectacular photos of Swedish archipelago landscapes, Norwegian fjords or simply the variety of the Danish waters. Highlights such as the metropolises of Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki - the list of exciting destinations is long.
The list of exciting destinations is as long as the large charter fleets in the areas are short. The very short season is one of the reasons. "Domestic demand for charter ships in Sweden is extremely limited in terms of time; partner companies have told us that business is basically often limited to eight weeks a year. Demand is low in the early and late season, and when it is, it tends to be from foreign customers," says Rolf Brezinsky from the charter agency Privat Charter Ostsee (PCO), who is very familiar with the Scandinavian market.
Also interesting:
In good years, ships in the Mediterranean can sail for over 20 weeks, something Nordic fleet operators can only dream of. Local skippers often have their own yachts or prefer to go somewhere warm in the summer rather than sailing on their own doorstep. With so few weeks, business in Scandinavia is not easy, hence the small number of fleets. High wage and tax levels do the rest. The weekly prices for boats there are correspondingly higher.
Selection of bases in Scandinavia is small
The choice of bases is correspondingly small, in Denmark there are only two really large starting harbours, Kerteminde and Juelsminde, and in the capital cities of Copenhagen and Aarhus there are simply no fleets at all. This is hardly surprising for the destinations in the south of Denmark, as there are very large fleet bases on the German coast and the transfer to Denmark from them often does not even mean a long day's sailing. For some years now, however, there have also been German companies operating bases in Scandinavia. For example, Mola Yachtcharter, which operates a base in Juelsminde.
And they have also ventured to Sweden. "We have a summer base in Saltsjö Pir near Stockholm. We sail the boats up there at the end of May and leave them there until the beginning of September. They come back to Rügen for the winter," says Mola owner Thomas Richter. The transfer and return trips are also popular with customers, as they can be sailed as one-way trips.
Of course, this is complex and expensive. Customers who are interested in the Baltic Sea are therefore often in for an unexpected surprise: "The boats are a good twice as expensive as in Germany, which cannot be helped with the costs there." If you can buy a 34-foot yacht for around 2200 euros in Germany during the season, you can get it for a good 4300 euros in Sweden. The market is correspondingly limited. Nevertheless, Mola has 15 boats there, and demand is manageable but stable; some sailors simply want to afford the exciting sailing area.
Norway and Finland are similarly priced, while Denmark is significantly cheaper, thanks to its close German competitors. The costs there are around 20 to 30 per cent higher.
One obvious conclusion is to sail for just one week, but crews must of course be aware that the Scandinavian areas are good for persistent bad weather, even in the high season. Even in archipelago areas, it is possible to ride out such conditions by simply sailing a little further towards the mainland and seeking the protection of the first or often second archipelago belt. The islands are then often larger, more mountainous and wooded and take away much of the power of the wind and, above all, the swell.
Charter peculiarities in Scandinavia
Scandinavia also has its own charter peculiarities. For example, when it comes to the fleets. They are not always what customers from the German Baltic Sea or the Mediterranean are used to, are limited to common large series and also have many old ships on offer. The reason for this is simple: if a ship is financed via charter, it takes much longer to generate a profit. Yachts over ten years old are simply nothing special here. For this reason, and because it is not so easy to find owners who are willing to take on such charter models, the variety of types is wider. You can also find unusual yachts such as Delphia, Ovnis and, in Denmark, a base with Hallberg-Rassy yachts in Kerteminde. Because if the boats have to have a long charter life in order to operate economically, high-quality brands make perfect sense.
However, this is not a problem, as Max Barbera from Barbera Yachting knows: "We have found that even the old boats in Scandinavia are usually in excellent condition. Customers don't need to worry about that."
The owner charter model is also particularly popular in Scandinavia due to the somewhat patchy network of good bases. Anyone dreaming of a particular area that is not listed in the bases can try to find a private owner who will charter out their boat for a few weeks a year. There are specialised and well-established brokerage agencies in Scandinavia, such as the Swedish agency RTC Båtkontakten or Skipperi (www.skipperi.se or www.rtc.se). They offer an abundance of boats of every colour, size and age.
You can also find very affordable boats, but you have to be aware that you are taking a small risk. In terms of equipment and condition, the boats are not always up to the standard offered by the usual larger providers. The boats are also often very personally furnished, with the owner's private library on the shelf and private pictures hanging on the wall. On the other hand, you get inexpensive and unusual boat types outside the mainstream, for example many Scandinavian yacht types. The feedback from customers is therefore sometimes good if you have found a well-maintained owner's pearl, and sometimes bad if someone is trying to generate a few euros from their old carrot.
A major loss every season
It is important that anyone booking a charter in Scandinavia knows what they are getting into in terms of sailing areas. Sweden, Finland and Norway in particular are very demanding areas in terms of navigation due to the many offshore archipelagos. If you sail here, you really need to be absolutely sure of your navigation skills, and it is an advantage if at least one other sailor is at the same level as the skipper. This is because the navigation sometimes requires much more attention than you are used to on Baltic or Mediterranean cruises. And the skipper must be aware of this: Anyone who navigates here usually ends up directly on rock, at least in Sweden, Norway or Finland.
This has consequences, as Thomas Richter from Mola Yachtcharter knows from experience: "You can say that the crews who charter in Sweden are very experienced. We have less of the usual minor damage there, but we have major damage practically every season. If you hit a rock at a speed of 5 knots, you have usually caused more serious structural damage, whereas in the sand or silt on the German Baltic Sea or in Denmark, the outcome is far less serious." So there's no question that bonding insurance is a very good idea in Scandinavian waters.
But the area has other advantages. Rolf Brezinsky from PCO knows interesting variations of a Scandinavian charter: "We also have clubs that charter a yacht for four to six weeks and then do chain trips with changing crews. This is of course an exciting story for the co-sailors. But some charter companies then demand a slightly higher deposit for such projects."
Other unusual trips are also possible. For example, there have been crews who have chartered a boat for a fortnight and then travelled the Göta Canal; the charter company had handover locations on both coasts. In this way, charter customers can also fulfil a dream that many owners cherish on the Baltic Sea. In conclusion, it has to be said that anyone who knows the peculiarities of Scandinavian charters can make a perfect trip there, but should be tolerant of the weather.
Chartering in Denmark
Ideal Scandinavian area for beginners. Many small, quiet islands and well-protected bays. Lowest nautical difficulty in the north, dense harbour network of marinas and municipal town harbours. Moorings in boxes with piles. Pitches are slightly more expensive than in Germany, but significantly cheaper than in almost all Mediterranean areas, which applies to the whole of Scandinavia! Many good anchorages. Metropolises such as Copenhagen and Aarhus are popular destinations. The area is easy to reach by car or train, flights to Copenhagen. On land, Denmark is significantly more expensive, around 30 per cent, especially restaurant visits are expensive, here it is not uncommon for prices to be twice as high as in Germany, especially alcohol is expensive.
- Most important starting harbours: Kerteminde, Juelsminde
- Typical hunting grounds: Ideal for around Funen, North Zealand, Samsø, Anholt, Læsø, Copenhagen, southern Kattegat
Chartering in Sweden
The dream of the archipelago attracts many sailors here. High level of difficulty - anyone sailing here has to be an experienced navigator, even in times of GPS plotters. Sometimes it takes a while to harmonise the plotter image with what the eye sees. The west coast tends to be rougher and windier, and the barren rocky skerries only become greener a little further inland. The east coast is somewhat gentler, the wind is weaker, the area is greener and there is a lot of forest.
Mooring in the archipelago is also special, you have to make friends with rock nails or look for bays that already have fixed metal rings, which is often the case and is even marked in area guides! Harbours often have stern buoys for mooring, for which lines have to be threaded through, sometimes there are catch hooks on board or narrow metal booms with buoys at the end. In Sweden, life is concentrated on the period from Midsummer's Eve to 15 August. Before and after that, you can expect many shops and restaurants to be closed. The area is currently favourable due to the weak krona, with prices at German levels and harbour dues cheaper than in Germany and Denmark. Travelling by flight or ferry from Kiel.
- Most important starting harbours: Gothenburg, Stockholm, Bohus-Malmön
- Typical hunting grounds: Ideal for the western Swedish archipelago northwards, Marstrand, Orust, Tjörn, Smögen, up to around the Koster Islands. Many crews sail as far as Smögen. On the eastern side of Sweden ideal for the Stockholm archipelago and otherwise south to Landsort, north-east to Åland.
Chartering in Finland
Finland is one of the less frequented Scandinavian areas, which is also due to the very few fleets in the country. The area is considered a natural idyll with plenty of forest and vast archipelagos. It is significantly emptier than in the neighbouring countries of Sweden and Denmark, which are already well frequented in July and August and where berths in the popular harbours can become scarce in the afternoon. That never happens in Finland.
Archipelago rules are similar to those in Sweden, often with the bow to the archipelago and a shore line and stern anchor. The ships in Finland and Sweden are often prepared for this by having a good second anchor with a chain leader and webbing at the stern. The cost of living in Finland is around 15 per cent more expensive, and alcohol is very expensive, often twice as much or more. If you start here, you should also stock up on provisions, as supplies are often spotty on the lonely islands. Charter crews almost always travel by plane via Helsinki, ferries often have too long routes, are then on the road for two nights and are therefore significantly more expensive.
- Most important starting harbours: Taalintehdas, Helsinki
- Typical hunting grounds: Turku archipelago, Åland, Helsinki area
Sailing in Norway
For many crews, sailing in Norway means dreaming of imposing fjords: Steep rock faces with waterfalls, glaciers and imposing mountainous landscapes into which the winding fjords cut deep. Hardanger or Sognefjord are perfectly feasible for crews starting from Bergen. Norway also has wide archipelagos off the coast, characterised by rough weather, with lows hitting land unfiltered from the North Sea. Anyone sailing here is travelling in a challenging area, but deep in the fjords and in the lee of the larger islands you can also find shelter. Tidal navigation is also part of the cruise planning in Norway. Anyone sailing here should definitely have some knowledge of Scandinavia and be familiar with archipelago navigation.
If you are looking for adventure, you can also sail all the way north from Tromsø, where the Lofoten Islands are usually the destination. Skippered trips are also a popular alternative in these areas. As a very wealthy country, Norway has a good harbour infrastructure, but the prices are also high, both in the harbour and on land - or especially there. About a third more than in Germany, especially alcohol and restaurants are sometimes even more expensive. On the other hand, the area is not as crowded as Sweden. However, the season is similarly short here, with most crews coming from mid-June to the beginning of August. Mooring in harbours and archipelagos is similar to Sweden: often in front of a stern anchor with bow to the rock or at the many small jetties, often with narrow finger piers with fixed buoys at the end. Arrival by flight to Bergen or Tromsø.
- Most important starting harbours: Bergen, Tromsø.
- Typical hunting grounds: Stavangerfjord, Hardangerfjord and the offshore archipelago and islands. In the far north, the Lofoten Islands are the most extreme area in Scandinavia, where you may be lucky enough to see whales and experience a rugged, unspoilt landscape close to the Arctic Circle.
