apropos of Canal du Midi

DeeGee

DeeGee

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Strangely enough, with my nominal 1.8m draft, I was reading Featherstone's notes in his West France guide - and it seemed that 1.5 was about the safe limit. So I got to thinking... and you can take this seriously or not... Avon used to (still?) do these great big inflatable fenders, like turning marks in offshore racing. Suppose you hooked them up tightly to either side of the keel, longitudinaly, then inflated them. Probly have to dry alongside or haul out to fit... but I only need to jack the boat up by a foot /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif maybe someone can do the sums on the volume of air needed to lift 8tons by one foot... maybe that is not quite the equation?? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
You CANNOT be serious!!!
Imagine the effect this would have on the ability to steer.
If I were you, I'd use another canal route.... or have the boat trucked.... or zail the long way round.
 
We used to flood the empty holds with water using fire hoses on a coaster I was on in order to get under some of the bridges on the Rhone when it was in flood - made the stability a bit dodgy with all that free surface effect. Going the other way would be equally as interesting as you reduce the wetted area in contact with the water and reduce the waterline length (and shape).
Would love to be there to watch!
 
From my (admittedly limited) experience I would agree with that. We hired an ex-Broads cruiser for a week's trip on the CdM. It was a bit cheaper than the more modern boats, but we quickly discovered why. It was a dreadful boat - quite the most uncontrollable craft I have ever tried to control. The forward steering position leaves half of the boat invisible so you're sticking your head out of the window, bus driver fashion, half the time. Then the steering failed completely. It's an interesting experience twiddling a wheel with absolutely no response from the rudder.

The canal was good, though. Built in the 17th century and still great engineering. The local method of operating the staircases involving the generation of a mini tsunami is quite entertaining too...
 
Of course, this is a great example of horses for courses. For next summer, what I would give for an Ovni... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

So it is round the long way, will probably be looking for crew across Biscay next May
 
The actual max draft of the canal du midi is 1.6mtrs.

The problem comes in summer if there has been a drought. The canal is fed by a series of reservoirs and if they run out of water because of lack of rainfall there is no way to fill them. The 1.6mtr charted depth then drops lower..... can be a lot lower. Because part of the canal was blasted out of rock when you go aground you really go aground - not soft mud like elsewhere...

Another way to raise the boat is to take the mast, anchor and chain out of here and travel without filling the fuel and water tanks.

A much simpler way is to use the Rhone - Saone canals route to Le Havre... no problem with your draft on that route..

Michael
 
Hi Michael - we came through 18 months ago and our 1.35m draft only just made it in October. The water level in the top pounds was down 5-10cm as a result of the VNF managing the water supply even though there had been rain since the summer.
One of the issues is that the action of the water downstream of the lock scours a slightly deeper hole (we saw 2m frequently) but deposits a hump of silt about 50m downstream. Waving at the lock keeper usually ensured they flushed extra water down to lift us over the hump.

Tony
 
Tony hi,

The last time I did it was in a Prout 33 with .75mtre draft and I touched a couple of times even then - probably old bikes or other debris. I think the 'working' barges used to scour out the bottom of the canal and keep a sort of constant dredging action going but now they hardly operate at all and the hire cruise boats are very shallow draft. It is a delightful and beautiful canal and I think the French do an excellent job of looking after it.

regards

Michael
 
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