Canal du Midi: Help

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Monika

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We are intending to go to the Mediterranean via the Canal du Midi. The draught of our boat however is 1.65 m or 5'5. The guidelines in the Almanac is 1.60. I have tried to ring various numbers in France, but no answer. Do you have to declare what the draught of your boat is? Does 5 cm make any difference? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. What other canals in the French system can be safely navigated with a draught of 1.65?
 
I did some research on the French canals myself, and if I'm not mistaken the draft on the canal du midi - is set in stone. By this I mean the canal has been blasted out of the rocks, so there is little margin for error. I think that even with 1.6m draft you may have some problems (apparently the water level can be lower in the height of summer) and I wouldn't risk it.

You could always go one of the other routes instead - Le Harve - Paris - then onto the canal systems through the Burgandy & Loire regions - then onto the Saone and Rhone. This has a max draft of 1.8m & the bottom is silt not rock. We were planning to do this in our 1.7 (ish) m draft boat, but have now decided to do the bay of biscay instead so we can visit the north and west of Spain too.

Good luck either way
 
If you send a pm to Grehan he did it last year in a lift keel with a draught of only a metre. I understand he had an issue or two with depth but I'm sure he will be only to willing to help with information etc.

If you do a user search for Grehan I believe there is an option to send a PM (personal message) through that page.

Chas
 
Entirely agree. Canal du Midi is subject to low water due to droughts but it depends when you go. With your draught I wouldn't. Better bet is Seine to Paris then you have either the Loire (my choice) or several others down to the Rhone. You will sometimes be forced into the bank by a "Peniche" and possibly ground in mud but easy to extract yourself when it is past I am told. Don't forget you need the inland waterways endorsement to your ICC and carry a copy of the CEVNI rules. Don't be put off by this, its easy enough to pass a little RYA exam and it actually teaches you things you really need to know. Recommend Derek Bowskills book "The Channel to The Med" for anything you need to know.
 
Ive done the seine and the canal du centre with 1.03 m draft for the last 2 years and travelled with a yacht of 1.8m for about 10 days they got stuck a few times in the canals and we towed them off its only silt so its no problem just a bit of hassle.
Never done the canal du midi but wouldnt do it cutting it so fine.The navicartes are the "charts" of the canals but there pretty unreliable just good for finding out how far the next town lock or bridge is pm me if you want to speak I will send my phone number
Regards
 
We traversed the Canal du Midi in May 2005 in a shallow draught Sadler 34 drawing 1.4 metres. We touched bottom many times but only twice seriously. Once was in a lock near Carcassonne where we were grounded when the lock was emptied. The lock-keeper partially refilled the lock and we held the boat on the motor until the lower gate was re-opened. The other time was below a lock when we firmly grounded close to a landing stage while dropping the crew off. The lock keeper opened the lower sluice, sending a wave of water down that helped to lift the boat off the mud.

Several times we touched bottom fairly hard in the centre of the canal, particularly below locks on the Med side of Carcassonne. None of these was enough to stop us.

In summer the water level reduces due to low rainfall and over-use by hire boats, so that levels would almost certainly be insufficient for us. You may recall that last year Colin Jones reported in PBO that he had his boat transported back to Carcassonne by road from the Med due to uncertainty of depth in this stretch.

A previous boat of mine drew the same as yours and traversed the Midi twice approx 15 years ago. However, it is generally held that silting and lack of water have contributed to a reduction of depth since then. I think that you might get through in winter or very early in the spring but you have little or no chance later in the year. Every time we told lock-keepers that we drew 1.4 metres they laughed! We did meet other (French) users drawing the same as us or more who regularly used the canal with few problems.

PM me for any specific advice.
 
What a great forum this is and so many useful answers so quickly, I can't wait to show them to the skipper. I am sure he has more questions and I will send pms.
 
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