Sailboat vs motor yacht: which is right for you?
Sailboats cost less to run and go slowly. Motor yachts go fast and burn fuel. Compare them by passage time, running cost and who comes aboard.
Updated 3 min read
Key points
- Barcelona to Palma is about 130 nautical miles: roughly 22 hours at sailing speed, 6 hours on a fast motor yacht.
- A sailboat burns a few litres of diesel an hour under engine. A planing motor yacht burns tens of litres.
- Light summer winds mean most Med sailors motor for part of every trip.
Start with time
The crossing from Barcelona to Palma is about 130 nautical miles. A cruising sailboat averages 5 to 7 knots, so the passage takes 19 to 26 hours and usually means a night at sea. A motor yacht cruising at 22 knots covers it in about 6 hours, and you arrive for lunch.
If your weekends are two days long, that difference decides the question. If you have two weeks, the slow passage is part of the holiday.
Fuel and running costs
A 40 ft sailboat under engine burns roughly 2 to 4 litres of diesel an hour. A 40 ft planing motor yacht with twin diesels burns well over 50 litres an hour at cruising speed.
Motor yachts that cruise at displacement speed, 8 to 10 knots, burn far less, but they give up the speed that was the reason to buy them.
What the Med does to a sailboat
Summer winds off the Catalan coast are often light, and the thermal breeze fills in only in the afternoon. Many owners sail for a few hours and motor the rest. That is fine, but it means a sailboat still needs a reliable engine, and you should check its hours and service history as closely as you would on a motor yacht.
The Mestral and Tramuntana arrive with 25 knots or more and short, steep seas. A sailboat handles them with reefed sails. A motor yacht handles them by waiting in port. See Mediterranean weather from Barcelona: Tramuntana, Llevant, Garbí, Mestral.
Comfort at anchor
A motor yacht gives you a large cockpit, a flat deck and air conditioning from a generator. A sailboat gives you less deck space and a boom overhead, but it rolls less at anchor than a similar-sized planing hull, and it costs nothing to run a sailing evening.
Skills and crew
A sailboat needs someone who can trim sails, reef and manage a spinnaker or genoa. A motor yacht needs a good eye for docking in crosswinds and the discipline to check the engine room before every trip. Either one is a lot for a single person to handle at 45 ft and above. See Skipper licences in Spain: PNB, PER, Patrón and Capitán de Yate, and foreign licence recognition for the licences each size requires.
A short test
- You want to be anchored by lunchtime on a Saturday: motor yacht.
- You want a week of island hopping on a modest fuel budget: sailboat.
- Guests with no sailing experience come on most trips: motor yacht, or a catamaran (see Monohull vs catamaran).
- You enjoy the sailing itself: sailboat, and charter one first (see Try before you buy: chartering the model first).
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General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change; check your own case with a professional or ask us.