Boat swap in Menorca: sail other waters without chartering

The Seafolk is a club of owners who swap boats for a few days: you sail theirs, they sail yours. It isn't a rental and no money passes from one to the other.

What you get

From Menorca you have a coast of coves and cliffs and the rest of the Balearics. What you don't have is the Atlantic or the northern coasts. And owners sailing those waters don't have a biosphere reserve off the bow.

One fact you can see from the water: Menorca has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1993, and most of the reserve's surface is sea [1]. Whoever sails your boat will be sailing in that reserve's waters.

How it works

1. Sign up and list your boat.
2. When someone sails yours, you earn Knots. Knots are the club's internal credits; you earn them by lending your boat and spend them sailing someone else's.
3. With your Knots you pick a boat and dates, and propose the swap to the owner.
4. If they agree, you swap.

Knots can't be bought or sold. That's what keeps this a swap between owners and not a charter.

Where the club really stands

• It's new: 28 members and 3 boats. Join now and you're among the first.
• Founding place free until 31 Dec 2026. A card is registered and nothing is charged before then; from 1 Jan 2027, €90 a year for life. Founding places are capped at 1,000 boats.
• No insurance today. There is no policy in force and no signed agreement. Open: staying aboard at the dock, without sailing, or sailing with a professional skipper. Bareboat (sailing it yourself) is closed.
• It's for people who already own a boat: with no boat in the network there is nothing to swap.

With so few boats, I won't promise there will be a free one on the coast you want tomorrow. I will promise that the more owners join early, the sooner there will be something to choose from.

Join the club

Br, Ignacio López, founder — The Seafolk

Source: UNESCO, MAB Programme, Menorca