Canal de Midi

[lilianroyle]

I'm planning to go from Sete to Bordeaux in November. The minimum depth on the VNF website is 1.39 which is OK just, anyone been through with a deeper draft?, I know depth depends on the climate and if theres no rain in October I guess we might wait but any information on the canal would be greatfully received.

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[smee]

Take a look at YM (Yachting Monthly) July & Aug 2003 issues as there is an article on a Moody Eclipse 43 doing the trip on the Canal Du Midi with a draft of 1.5M.

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[tony_brighton]

I saw that - was the 1.5m nominal draft or with 7cm added for being in fresh water?

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[charles_reed]

Draft is not too much of a problem as it's soft mud and, providing you don't have a wing-keel, you can plough through the shallow places with up to about 1.6m.

There is one bridge where the overhead clearance is only 3.36m.

It has been extremely hot and dry down there and I'd expect the canal to be well down on its normal depths - far better to try in the spring.

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[rrees]

Was there 2 weeks ago looks pretty low at the moment to me
Was low at Bezier which is near Sete


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[antigualady]

we went though the canal at the end of june moody 333 1.35m but proberly more like 1.4m. we got stuck quite a few times but made it though in the end it is just mud in most places but where the canal is narrow the tree roots across the bottom are the problem.But it was well worth the problems as we saw a lot of france we would never have seen other wise.

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[Erico]

We transited the Canal Du Midi in August with a draft which is normally 1.4m (long fin) but in freshwater with the mast down was probably closer to 1.45. We made is but only just. The levels are particularly low between Trebes and Toulouse. The levels were up to 30cm down on the usual level. There were a lot of hire boats around in August and the level was dropping steadily. I would imagine that this will stop when the hire boat season ends. We found that we were okay once we got to the summit level which was surprisingly full.

We hung around for about a week in Bordeaux and no one with as much as 1.4m came through.

I would say that it will be worth a shot for you in November. We were ploughing for much of the way but only got seriously stuck a few times. Do email me if you want more info.

Eric


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