Hi Rick,
We went a year ago in January, loved it. Booked it all on line with Fly Be out of Bristol, hotel B and B , hire for a week came to about £600 for the 2 of us.
Not the best hotel, but its just a bed at the end of the day.
I'd recommend the ferry trip to Porto Santo, leaves once a day in the morning from Funchal and takes 2 hours but the beach over there is lovely and quite a contrast to Madiera.
There is a Model Boat club out on the commercial pier, But Portuguese is alittle different than Spanish
We may go back this Feb when its abit warmer.
Oh and they have 2 footy teams in Funchal both in the Portuguese 1st Div,