The Seafolk

For owners

Boat swap in Vigo: sail other coasts without chartering

Your boat sits on its mooring in Vigo most of the year. Another owner, on another coast, has the same problem.

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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 Vigo you sail the ria with the Cíes Islands across the water, part of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park (Law 15/2002). The park has its own rules: there are no rubbish bins on the islands so you take your waste back, and both spearfishing and sport fishing are banned. Check the current conditions before you go.

It's very different sailing from the Mediterranean. A Mediterranean owner doesn't have it on hand, and you don't have their coves. That is what gets swapped.

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

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

This is how yours would look in the club: a sample listing, with made-up data.

Source: MITECO, Atlantic Islands National Park: visitor rules