French canal draft

[jonny88]

I am planning to take the canals from le havre to the med in a few weeks and am in two minds about whether there is enough draft. My boat is a long keel, 1.75m. ( quite tappered so only near stern, maybe it could be worse). I get so many comments all of them comflicting. These range from oh, i tried to get a boat delivered proffesionally, delivery company don't entertain anything over 1.6m to no problem, maybe touch in a few places with 1.8m to i know people who have been through with 1.9-2m. Do peaple have real problems down there, do vnf know what the levels are like each winter/april and advise/control large drafdt traffic - i'm sure they dont want the canals clogged up with peaple aground

Any thoughts really helpful

 

[Steve Clayton]

Take a look at www.sailingourdream.co.uk It should help enormously.


Steve
www.seraph-apartments.com

 

[chrisc]

we went down the canal d'lest north and south with 1.85 Metres fin keel,no big problem couple of places it was difficult to get into side and dragged a trail of mud sometimes ,but never slowed down. It is sometimes more difficult to get into side for those with bilge keels

 

[Sea Devil]

if you go early in the year or late should be no problem provided you stick to the main routes - have a look at canals on my web site. you will push mud occasionally but should not be a major problem...

 

[Grehan]

OK in contrast to the positive views expressed here, let me strike a note of caution.

We passaged (is that a verb?) from the Seine to the Med (via the Midi, but you wouldn't want to do that . . ) in Grehan and she's a swing keel Southerly drawing less than 1m when her undercarriage is wound up.

We had no real problems, as you might expect (well, with draft anyway!) but there many times between Paris and the Saone when we turned to one other and said words to the effect that "we certainly wouldn't fancy doing that stretch in anything drawing more than 1.5m". We clonked the bottom a few times - probably a combination of tough luck, the odd rock, and half-asleep helmsmanship.

Many deeper keel yachts carry a sign on the bow "1.8m SVP", meaning they are restricted by draft (Collregs!) in their capacity to manouevre and can one kindly draw to one side let them pass down the centre of the road. Whether the bargees would take much notice is debatable, they have their own problems and an unladen peniche rides very high at the bow, the wheel house is many metres aft.

VNF 'guarantee' 1.8m in many places, but they mean that you can draw 1.8m and get through in the centre of the channel, possibly pushing through watery mud. When a big peniche (they're all big compared to a yacht) meets you head on, you gotta dive sideways. Then you might get a problem.

You'll also want to get bankside at some point, to tie up or whatever - and that's where it's shallowest (er, sorry to restate the blatently obvious). Be careful when exiting 'downward' locks, the outward whoosh of water tends to scoop out the bottom then deposit it in a bar just a bit beyond.

Even the mighty Rhone has bends where the current scours a deep channel but deposits the 'boue' elsewhere to produce quite surprising (and alarming) shallows. 3m changes in depth across the marked navigable channel are not uncommon.

Having said all that, poured that cold water, yachts drawing 1.8m do get through, presumably all OK. Probably means taking more care, watching the depth guage like a hawk, watching out for what's coming 'round the bend, and having a few more scrapes. Certainly, the spring months will be better - more water available to maintain depths. But there'll be lots of branches in the water.

Bon Voyage! We're currently in Marbella, Spain but we hanker to get back to la belle France and the canals and rivers. Spent 9 months there - could easily spend years, we think.

Lots of info on our website. Logbook, tips, places, etc.

regards

 

[paul123]

We went through the Marne with a 1.5m draft and were often scraping the bottom although all published data said 1.7 m was ok.good luck with it.

 

[Kangaloosh]

We came the other way Summer before last with 1.8m draft. We got through but had a hard time. Our route was Rhone/Soane/Centre/Lateral Loire/Seine. We hit hard twice - and went aground in 'soft' stuff more times than I can remember. We 'bounced' across an aqueduct - steel or iron bottom. We left Port St Louis June 1st, which may be a bit late. Two weeks after we arrived in Paris that route was closed. Total of 6wks to get to Honfleur including 10 day stop in Paris. A yacht that arrived 2 days later had taken the Marne route and claimed greater depths. We had followed routing advice of VNF in Chalons - who perhaps are not terribly well informed or knowledgable?
We found mooring up very tricky - our fin keeping the boat well away from the edge. Most marinas could not be entered.
One of our greatest trials was beam; We had just 18" either side (yacht is First 42s7) - the width of our fenders with 4" each side to spare - as we entered over 100 locks, sometimes in crosswinds, the concentration required to get in safely each time is not to be underestimated.
We are returning to Med this season, and will be going the 'outside' way, through Gib again. Never again will we attempt the canals unless in a steel, slab-sided boat with less than 1m draft!!

 

[PeterStone]

<do vnf know what the levels are like each winter/april and advise/control large drafdt traffic - i'm sure they dont want the canals clogged up with peaple aground>

You'd think so wouldn't you but I'm afraid you'd be wrong. We came through from Paris to the Saone in 2004 via the Loing, Briare, Loire and Centre. It wasn't until we were half way through that we found that the depths were down by 50cms between locks 5 and 6 just north of Digoin - after we had already travelled about three quarters of the distance!

Apparently it's been a problem for a while - a leak that they couldn't find. I think it was scheduled to be fixed by the end of the year.

However, we got through ok with our 1.6m draught and we met 2 boats who had 1.8m draughts who got through, even though the lock keepers were posting warnings that depth was down to 1.4m. We were lucky and befriended a couple in a powerful boat (165hp engine) with the same draught as ourselves who offered to go ahead of us and carve a channel.

That was about the only problem we encountered all the way from Calais but I would agree with the comment about depth near the banks and problems encountered when meeting peniches in narrow channels - sometimes you have absolutely nowhere to go and they certainly aren't going to get out of your way!

Ours is a long keeled boat too - in theory with a draught of 1.4m - but it's 1.6m laden and in fresh water. I wonder how many people exceed the authorised depth without even being aware of it. I measured mine to be sure and I was quite surprised at the disparity between the draught on paper and the draught on the water.

Incidentally, following the centre of the channel, we generally found considerably more than 6ft most of the way.

 

[melinda]

Hi everybody
I'am French and live near Paris.

In fact I am here to discover yatcging world because i am interested
if you have comments do not hesitate

 

[Grehan]

bonjour et bonne journee, madame ou m'sieur (ou madamoiselle!)
comment allez-vous?
est vous plaisancier(e)?

moi, j'aime beaucoup les canaux et les rivieres de France . .

 

[Jobs_a_ good_ un]

We travelled through the french canals last year to the med and for 2 weeks travelled with a sailing yacht with 1.8 m keel.they had a sign up saying 1.8m keel on the front of the boat.
often they found it difficult to moor close to the bank because of the shallow depth so the moored along side us .on 2-3 occasions they stopped dead in the middle of the channell and we gave them a tow off the mud and they said they could feel the boat draaging a bit on the odd occasion.
Once we hit the Rhone they had no problem I would say the most tricky bit was through the canal du loing,the canal du braire,the canal du centre
If you do get stuck there will be another boat along soon enough to get a tow from
We went through in August and hardly saw any cmmercial traffic on the canals mostly on the big rivers which are pretty wide and deep
Great fun in fact so much fun Im doing it again this year [image]

[/image]

 

[chrisc]

All this seems to be a good reason to select your route with some care -it is worth going two days to the east and taking the canal d'lest where they still have small barges . Those small barges often have a draft of 2 metres loaded and just use all their power to push through, and clean the canals.

 

[smb]

I am beginning to see sense in your advice. I too was planning to use the 4 central canals route starting in May, but may well keep the Eastern route in mind.

What I am not clear on is how you can get to it in only two days, looks more like 6 to me, assuming a decision made in Paris. Am I missing something?