Boat transporters from La Rochelle to Port-La-Nouvelle

[Voyager 5]

Gentlemen:

does anyone know a reliable boat transporter from La Rochelle (France) to Port-La-Nouvelle (France-Med coast)?
Can you suggest a name?
Also if you have any previous price estimate for 28 ft sailboats, just to get an idea...

Here below is a weblink to a map showing the path, the red tract is where we go by lorry, the green is the sailing
http://postimg.org/image/o4h0ovt93/

Pick-up and delivery destinations can be slightly modified, but not too much, as some of you may know from this thread I am trying to study a route for moving my 28 feet sailboat from Sweden to the Med and cutting through France via land/lorry at that specific intersection point would cut in half the miles/sailing time and if the total price for lorry transportation is not too bad it may be comparable to sailing around Spain/Gibraltar once you factor in all the costs (fuel, moorings, boat wear and tear, etc.).

Please note this cannot be done by channels in that area because the boat draft is 1.58m (I believe channels are 1.30m there)

 

[Skipper_Christoph]

Information for depth in french canals can be found here

http://www.french-waterways.com/practicalities/french-canal-depths.html

Why not going up the River Seine, through Paris, the River Marne, Canal Marne a la Soane, River Rhone.
Takes about 2 weeks. We did it about 30 years ago and it was lot of fun.

Cheers, Christoph

 

[Minchsailor]

Also about 20 years ago i knew somebody who took a Westerly Fulmar from Marseilles to Rouen (River Seine) by the canals. That boat has a draft of not less than 1.6m. Took 3 weeks. If you do it, make sure your gearbox/gear shift is in good order as it will get a LOT of use.

 

[Voyager 5]

Thanks guys for the channels suggestion, I have already evaluated it and discarded it for the following reasons:

1) I will be single-handed and find the opening/closing of locks a bit troublesome if I am alone (and there are many).

2) the hard load on the engine (10 hours a day for 20 days at least) will end up in some 200 hours of use and I fear some engine failure, gear failure, etc. and this will cost to fix, plus it would cause delay if I have to go find a mechanic somewhere in the middle of France's countryside

3) some driving license is required to go through the channels, it seems to be a relatively easy thing to achieve, but it is additional paper work, time, cost, etc.

4) draft is not really guaranteed at 1.60m, sometimes it may be slightly lower, some people told me they hit the ground a few times with a 1.55m draft

5) filling up the boat sides with a lot of fenders will cost and will take time

6) the 12m mast will not fit well on the deck of my 8.58m boat, not only it will be a cost and a lot of work to build a structure to hold it, but it will impair considerably the movement on decks and in the cockpit, it's quite annoying to travel like that for 20 days

7) I have considered shipping the mast, but the cost comes at ~1000 eur, and if I add that to the other costs of travel through the channels (fuel, some moorings plus some repair work on the engine) it starts to get close to ~2000 euros. I currently have a price offer (empty return load) to transport the boat on a lorry from north Germany to Barcelona (my final destination is Mallorca) for 2500 eur, so at that point I'd rather put the boat on the lorry and save the wear and tear on the engine and the pain with locks and all the rest.

 

[SteveSarabande]

I reckon it will cost a lot more by sea. Put it on the truck for 2500eu and enjoy the med rather than battling around the atlantic in a 28' yacht.

 

[Tranona]

You may find it better and not a lot more money to ship the boat from a channel port such as Rotterdam rather than sail all the way to La Rochelle. However you will have no difficulty in finding transport from there as most French boats are built in that area and are shipped to the south of France. Contact the marinas or boat dealers on the south coast of France for recommendations.

Actually your engine would appreciate the long runs as most engines die from lack of use rather than overwork!

As an aside, you must be very attached to your boat to contemplate taking it to the Med unless you are looking for adventure getting there. If you just want to sail in the Med it would be far cheaper and easier to sell your boat and buy one already there. There is a very good choice of boats for sale out there at low prices and many have the advantage of being well equipped for hot weather sailing.

 

[Voyager 5]

You may find it better and not a lot more money to ship the boat from a channel port such as Rotterdam rather than sail all the way to La Rochelle. However you will have no difficulty in finding transport from there as most French boats are built in that area and are shipped to the south of France. Contact the marinas or boat dealers on the south coast of France for recommendations.

As an aside, you must be very attached to your boat to contemplate taking it to the Med unless you are looking for adventure getting there. If you just want to sail in the Med it would be far cheaper and easier to sell your boat and buy one already there. There is a very good choice of boats for sale out there at low prices and many have the advantage of being well equipped for hot weather sailing.

I am interested to hear more about Rotterdam: would you just sail there and try to figure out a transport on the spot?
I had no luck contacting companies from the internet, no reply.

I am attached to my boat, yes, I admit it, it's my first boat and I like her a lot
I also like the adventure of sailing it down to the Med, as I really love sailing, but I agree putting it on a lorry is probably a better idea and an easier plan to implement.

However, when it comes to selling boats and prices, here is something interesting, that I am glad to share (not sure how many of you know this). Sweden, and more specifically the Baltic Sea area is a very special place to buy small sailboats (think AlbinVega, Shipman28, etc.), for these reasons:

a) seawater in the Baltic Sea is only 1/5th salinity of normal sea water, so it's a very mildly corrosive environment, not very harsh (this means boats are in better shape)
b) the local market is OVER-FLOODED with 27-28ft boat from the 70s that nobody wants anymore because all swedish sailors have access to cheap loans (plus the economy is buoyant for the middle class) and so they are all buying better, more modern boats. This means there is a lot of desperate sellers willing to give away boats at 60-70% discount price if compared to what they would cost in other areas of Europe (UK and Med comes to mind). And there aren't so many buyers either, so it's really old-boat-buyer's paradise (if only Don Casey would know about it...)
c) swedish people are maniacs when it comes to keeping things in tip-top shape: houses, cars, boats, everything they do is very well cared for, and boats are out of the water in September and back in May/June, they do not stay much in water, the rest of the year they sleep covered under a heavy plastic tent (sometimes even a hand-built "house" or a warmed-up hangar), engines are often maintained by professionally trained mechanics, so when you are buying a boat here you are usually buying an item that is in very good shape (unfortunately I can't say the same thing for most boats I have seen in Italy, Spain, France, Florida or Australia, for example).
d) swedish people do not sail much, they mostly hang around in the archipelago in Stockholm, most of the times the goal is to go from island A to island B, meet friends, anchor on a rock on land, make a barbecue, drink some wine. This is sailing in Sweden, it last for 2-4 weeks (usually in July) and it is a social thing, it's not really stressful for the boat and the wind is mild, they often go by motor, so the boats are not much used, they haven't done 3 circumnavigations like some wrecks I have seen.

There is real value in boats in Sweden/Baltic Sea.

So, overall, I would prefer to keep my boat and find a way to take it down to the Med, rather than sell it, for all the above reasons I do not feel like selling it.

[edit: if any of you plan to buy a boat in Sweden, the right time to buy is September/October when owners want to sell to avoid winter maintenance and drop considerably the price - if you buy in spring or summer the prices go back up - search for boats on Blocket.se or other local swedish magazines/newspapers]

 

[dunedin]

Coastal sailing to La Rochelle then hopping on a lorry sounds quite a fun option

Just had a look in the La Richelle port handbook - they have five companies listed under Transport de Bateaux & Convoyage but looks like mainly sea deliveries. However Gulf Stresm Convoyage say they can arrange lorry transport or have a look here
http://www.navigueralarochelle.com/la-rochelle/services/transporteurs/

 

[Tranona]

Some suggested French companies on www.michaelbriant.com/lorry_options/html

Here what you say about the cheap boats in Sweden. Don't know whether you have sailed in the Med, but the sort of boats you describe are not at their best in the conditions there. Great for getting there by sea, but you may well find not so good in the hot climate and light airs that are common in the summer. Hence the suggestion to buy a boat there that is better suited to the conditions, but agree may not be of the same standard for a given price as in Sweden.

 

[Voyager 5]

Some suggested French companies on www.michaelbriant.com/lorry_options/html

Here what you say about the cheap boats in Sweden. Don't know whether you have sailed in the Med, but the sort of boats you describe are not at their best in the conditions there. Great for getting there by sea, but you may well find not so good in the hot climate and light airs that are common in the summer. Hence the suggestion to buy a boat there that is better suited to the conditions, but agree may not be of the same standard for a given price as in Sweden.

I have been sailing in the Med for about 40 years (since I was a kid), mostly in the italian and french and greek waters. I find Greece to have quite some wind usually, and the areas between Corsica and Sardinia (i.e. Bocche di Bonifacio) as well are quite windy (mistral, etc). My boat is actually not an Albin Vega-type, nor a long keel boat, it's more like a fractional sloop, fin keel. I would expect it to be sailing quite well in the Med.

Then again, I agree with you not all boats are suitable for all seas and conditions, some compromise is always needed.