Ness & Moray Yacht Charters

Welcomes you…….to Canal, Loch, and Sea!

NMYC offer excellent, frugal sailing charters (self sail or skippered), based at Inverness on the North-East coast of Scotland.

Centred at Seaport Marina, just inside the Caledonian Canal – one of the world’s great waterways!

Four large Lochs link the majestic 60-mile Great Glen with 22 miles of man made Canal to form a superb inland sailing experience crossing the whole of Scotland.

If you “lock out” to sea on the Moray Firth, you cruise in company with the delightful resident dolphins; this part of Scotland gets far better weather than the west, (with almost no “midges”, so your evenings, berthed or at anchor, are unspoiled!), and is well-known for its benign, sunny micro-climate.

Our Charter Yachts

Merlin’s Magic is an 8.8 metre , twin-keel cruising yacht, designed by

Ed Dubois for Westerly Yachts and built in Britain in 1988.

Able to sleep 7 in total, she has a forward double cabin, a double plus a single in the main saloon, and a small, private after cabin with a smallish double berth and standing/changing room found on the port side.

An amazingly roomy “heads ” compartment, with wash basin and toilet, is aft to starboard, with the wet locker, then chart table, then settee all arranged along the starboard side.

The galley is to port, in front of the door to the after cabin, with a cooker, grill, twin-burner hob, oven, icebox etc., then the main saloon seating and dining table is found along the port side; the elegant saloon table seats 7 in reasonable comfort!

Ed Dubois designed the Westerly Merlin as a modern replacement for the Konsort, another hugely successful Westerly design; with a fractional rig, and cast-iron keels of excellent configuration, he got it right and she is a swift sailer, yet sea-kindly, strong, stable, and most important of all, SAFE !

With new mainsail and headsail roller reefing, a cruising chute and spare sails if needed, you should be able to find the perfect sail combination for the conditions.

A modern Volvo-Penta diesel engine will bring you into harbour, anchorage or marina quickly, safely and quietly.

Merlin’s Magic is also a superb yacht for the less experienced Skipper, and she is ideally suited to the inner Moray Firth due to her twin keels and shallow draft-only 3′ 4″-where confidence and experience can be gained, before you tackle that passage to Orkney !

“Collam”, our 8.1 metre Jeanneau Espace,

is also available for bareboat charter for 4-5 persons,

whilst “Morning Star” is a 10 metre Westerly

Discus, available for Skippered charter only.

Experienced Sailor ?

A huge sailing area is available for you from our Inverness charter base.

NORTH………follow the coast northwards along the wild, remote Caithness coast, past extraordinary whaling villages like Whaligoe, to Wick; skirt the Pentland Firth and cross northeast to Orkney or go “round the top” passing Cape Wrath on your way to encircling Scotland!

GO WEST………..through the Caledonian Canal, down Loch Ness and out into Loch Linnhe, then Tobermory, and the whole West Coast is open to you if you have the time !

EAST…………harbour-hop along the sunny Moray Coast, visiting traditional fishing villages such as Lossiemouth, Portsoy, and Buckie; then maybe go northabout to Helmsdale and down the northern Firth shore, wilder and rockier than over on the Moray side.

Perfect shelter can be found in the Cromarty Firth, then head south again, back to Inverness.