Why is boat hire so expensive?

I love Star Boats, so much so that we decided to do our Power Boat Level 2 licence while we were there this year, which was a doddle really, and allows you to drive anything up to 10 metres with unlimited power (as well as jetskis). We then rented a boat from one of the little wooden huts by the egg in San An and went to Fomentera for the day (which was bloody marvellous) and visited the harbour in Ibiza Town before heading back for the sunset. It does work out quite a bit more expensive than a Star Boat because bigger boats drink a lot of fuel!
 
Agreed. The missus and I done this last year and we had a great day.

Make sure you get a couple bags of ice and some refreshments for the cool box from the shop across the road beforehand.

We ended up turning up a little late, though again they were fine with that and even rang me to check we were on the way! So we decided to just get off the jetty to allow the next people to get on, and went over the harbour to San An and moored up in a space on the wooden dock between El Nautico and Rita's Cantina, basically off Passeig de la Mar. An old guy told us the gate at the end had a lock on it, but kindly left if open so we could just close it after going over to the shop. Not sure if we should have moored there but there was a space and one of us stayed with the boat.

I love Star Boats, so much so that we decided to do our Power Boat Level 2 licence while we were there this year, which was a doddle really, and allows you to drive anything up to 10 metres with unlimited power (as well as jetskis). We then rented a boat from one of the little wooden huts by the egg in San An and went to Fomentera for the day (which was bloody marvellous) and visited the harbour in Ibiza Town before heading back for the sunset. It does work out quite a bit more expensive than a Star Boat because bigger boats drink a lot of fuel!
How much is a Level 2 licence? Any pre-requisites? How long does it take?

When you say it costs quite a bit more than Star Boats due to the fuel, surely basic rental costs are also a hell of a lot higher too? I looked at a leaflet from one of those very huts on the way around to Star Boats, and was amused to see a basic jet ski hire for a few hours was double the cost of renting a boat from Star Boats for a whole day. Hammered home what a good deal they do!

Always amazed me how expensive boats are in general. As an example, it's safe to say that even the superstar DJs couldn't afford a superyacht. If you take Tiesto's (allegedly the richest aside from Calvin, who's now more a pop producer) quoted net worth of around $80-$100 million, he'd have to blow pretty much all of it to get a rather modest 70 meter one. That's also ignoring the fact most of that money isn't his personally, but I digress.
 
How much is a Level 2 licence? Any pre-requisites? How long does it take?
It cost us 480€ in Ibiza, but you can do it for less than £200 in the UK. There are no prerequisites and when you've done it you automatically qualify for your ICC 10-metre licence, which should work in most places around the world I believe.
When you say it costs quite a bit more than Star Boats due to the fuel, surely basic rental costs are also a hell of a lot higher too? I looked at a leaflet from one of those very huts on the way around to Star Boats, and was amused to see a basic jet ski hire for a few hours was double the cost of renting a boat from Star Boats for a whole day. Hammered home what a good deal they do!
The boat cost 380€ for the whole day (10 until just after sunset) and it worked like a rental car, so you get it full and return it full. We did about 80km, I think, and used 67 litres of fuel (97€)!!

Always amazed me how expensive boats are in general. As an example, it's safe to say that even the superstar DJs couldn't afford a superyacht. If you take Tiesto's (allegedly the richest aside from Calvin, who's now more a pop producer) quoted net worth of around $80-$100 million, he'd have to blow pretty much all of it to get a rather modest 70 meter one. That's also ignoring the fact most of that money isn't his personally, but I digress.
We saw this monster off Formentera - yours for £330M!
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u...Yacht-A-with-all-sails-aloft-1280x720.jpg&f=1
 
Ah excellent. I didn't realise such licences were transferable - would certainly be keen to look at doing it in the UK. Any websites you'd recommend with more info? Obviously I can just Google but all this is pretty alien to me right now!

380 for the day is excellent, as I'm guessing we're talking about something pretty powerful? Fuel is a bastard I agree, and a major plus point for Star Boats as they include it in the price, and we must have gone through a fair amount of it, to the point I was worried about running out while chasing the Cream boat.

One boat that did strike me while we were out - actually there were a couple moored within a few meters - was a relatively small speedboat, about 15ft long, in Santa Eularia harbour, which had TWO 250HP Mercury outboards on the back. The definition of overkill. Anyone who's driven a powerboat will know that it takes a lot less horsepower to get a lot more speed in a boat, so 500bhp on the back of a boat is utterly insane. Could be wrong, but surely you're looking at a potential 200mph+ on calm seas with that kind of output?
 
Ah excellent. I didn't realise such licences were transferable - would certainly be keen to look at doing it in the UK. Any websites you'd recommend with more info? Obviously I can just Google but all this is pretty alien to me right now!
It's a minefield and it also depends on your nationality and residence, believe it or not. If you are British, British resident (or Dutch!) then the RYA Level 2 Powerboat cert. will qualify you for an ICC 10-metre licence, more or less automatically. Otherwise, you have to do the ICC exam in your country. It's totally bizarre and you can read the full story here.

We did ours as a spur of the moment thing, so just found somewhere in San An so I can't really recommend anywhere in the UK, but check the RYA website, it's got loads of useful stuff although, much like in aviation, they have a tendency to make it all sound a lot more intimidating than it actually is!
380 for the day is excellent, as I'm guessing we're talking about something pretty powerful? Fuel is a bastard I agree, and a major plus point for Star Boats as they include it in the price, and we must have gone through a fair amount of it, to the point I was worried about running out while chasing the Cream boat.
Yeah, it was a great price and I'd highly recommend the company, the boat was a RIB, with a 115HP engine (IIRC), which is considerably more fun than the 15 you get without a licence! It was clean, well maintained and they even provided us with a cool box full of ice.
One boat that did strike me while we were out - actually there were a couple moored within a few meters - was a relatively small speedboat, about 15ft long, in Santa Eularia harbour, which had TWO 250HP Mercury outboards on the back. The definition of overkill. Anyone who's driven a powerboat will know that it takes a lot less horsepower to get a lot more speed in a boat, so 500bhp on the back of a boat is utterly insane. Could be wrong, but surely you're looking at a potential 200mph+ on calm seas with that kind of output?
The boat we did our training in was a 550HP monster (yours for 220,000€!) but you need considerably more power on water than you do on land to reach the same speed and, besides, 30kph on water feels more like 100 on land anyway! I suspect the boats with two massive engines are used for water skiing or wake-boarding where the extra power comes in handy, although I'm by no means an expert.
 
The boat we did our training in was a 550HP monster (yours for 220,000€!) but you need considerably more power on water than you do on land to reach the same speed and, besides, 30kph on water feels more like 100 on land anyway! I suspect the boats with two massive engines are used for water skiing or wake-boarding where the extra power comes in handy, although I'm by no means an expert.

Wakeboard boats tend to have inboard motors and they fill up the ballast tanks to create a bigger wake. Dual-engined boats offer a reserve if one fails and so are useful for that. If you run them both full-tilt you're obviously looking for speed but burning a tonne of fuel.

Powerboat 2 is the way to go. Did mine a few years ago in Southampton for about £200 and just got the ICC on application. Never looked back - more time in Ibiza to explore instead of looking at theory and navigation on holiday !! :cool:
 
Wakeboard boats tend to have inboard motors and they fill up the ballast tanks to create a bigger wake. Dual-engined boats offer a reserve if one fails and so are useful for that. If you run them both full-tilt you're obviously looking for speed but burning a tonne of fuel.

Powerboat 2 is the way to go. Did mine a few years ago in Southampton for about £200 and just got the ICC on application. Never looked back - more time in Ibiza to explore instead of looking at theory and navigation on holiday !! :cool:

Did you progress to further quallies? I'm tempted to see what else I can do having got the Level II licence.
 
Anyone here that can help me find a company that gives big boat service? I need one or 2 boats for a total of 40 people. The ones on High Life Ibiza, Boats Ibiza etc... are all too small (max 12-13 people)
 
Having read this thread am now considering getting my Powerboat L2 licence as think it could be a lot of fun to hire a small boat. Have been checking adverts for hiring rib boats out there. Many mention that a 'pattern' isn't included. Maybe something is getting lost in translation here - original word on the site is 'patron'.

I did think that perhaps it meant captain, but I can't make the link. Any ideas what they are referring to?
 
Is there any boat rental (without requiring a license) close to Atlantis (e.g. in Cala d'Hort)?

SanAn is a little far away, it's probably 1.5 - 2 hours with a 15hp boat one way...

And can you circle Es Vedra with a boat (without landing), or is the sea around Es Vedra off-limits too?
 
Couple of years ago we hired a 10cc boat on Cala d’hort and we circled Es vedra. Was only for an hour but I’m sure they will adjust price and let you do longer times.
 
Did you progress to further quallies? I'm tempted to see what else I can do having got the Level II licence.

No never bothered as I don't spend enough time driving a decent sized boat to justify it. At 400-600 plus euros a day and fuel there's only so many days a year I'm going to be doing it !!
 
Is there any boat rental (without requiring a license) close to Atlantis (e.g. in Cala d'Hort)?

SanAn is a little far away, it's probably 1.5 - 2 hours with a 15hp boat one way...

And can you circle Es Vedra with a boat (without landing), or is the sea around Es Vedra off-limits too?

You can definitely circle it. I was on a boat t'other day and some people even touched Es Vedra ?
 
Back
Top