French canals from Port St Louis to Le Harvre

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I am about 50 miles away from Port St Louis where I believe you can have your mast taken down ready for the canals. Has any one any experience of this who to see, what boatyard, can they make the cradles(I want to carry the mast on board. What about all the rigging, radar etc. Frankly it all scares me but I suppose it will all work out. The next problem is I am now on my own my partner Sue has done a bunk and gone back to England. Is it possible to do the canals solo? does any one want to join me and help out. Quite an interesting few months ahead.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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I am about 50 miles away from Port St Louis where I believe you can have your mast taken down ready for the canals. Has any one any experience of this who to see, what boatyard, can they make the cradles(I want to carry the mast on board. What about all the rigging, radar etc. Frankly it all scares me but I suppose it will all work out. The next problem is I am now on my own my partner Sue has done a bunk and gone back to England. Is it possible to do the canals solo? does any one want to join me and help out. Quite an interesting few months ahead.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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Have you got your CEVNI? Once you take the mast down, you are a motorboat.
 
Information about Port St Louis, the southern end of the Rhone. Information about Port St Louis, the southern end of the Rhone.

ICC and CEVNI (which has nothing to do with becoming a motor boat). ICC and CEVNI

Navigation Fees for the French Waterways - the VNF Vignette Navigation Fees for the French Waterways - the VNF Vignette.

Un-stepping, re-stepping and carrying the mast through the rivers and canals of France Un-stepping, re-stepping and carrying the mast through the rivers and canals of France

Ecluses (locks) Ecluses (locks)

Navigation guides and charts Navigation guides and charts


. . . and much more, on french-waterways.com french-waterways.com :)
 
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If you carry the mast on board - which is perfectly feasible, just make sure it is well strapped down. The for and aft movement will be like a battering ram - and you WILL get large washes on the Rhone and Saone. I would argue that there is no substitute to cargo straps to retain and re tension the mast. Ropes will stretch too much especially initially leaving you with a large moving object!

Plan your X frames BEFORE you start downing the mast - you may even find discarded ones in Naval Services where you will dismast.
 
What size are you?I,once(on a delivery in the 70's) with 1 crew did Le Harve to Port St Louis,in 11 days,so if all you want to do is get home it certainly won't take you a few months.
Best of luck it's a great trip.
 
loads of good advice on here but I would suggest that putting a detailed plan in order would be a good start. Grehan's website in particular is well worth spending a lot of time over. You need to be very well organised before the mast comes down - I've just come down the Rhone and with the Sirocco blowing and a current in excess of 2 kts in places a vicious sea resulted and there were reports of a French sailing boat who lost his entire rig over the side just north of Valence. What is your draft if you don't mind me asking - anything over 1.5 m and some of your routing decisions may be made for you! Anyway best of luck - its great fun (and i have done a lot of locks solo this year) ; keep asking the questions and you will get a lot of help on here!
 
we are currently returning from Belgium to St Jean via the Canal de Meuse, and have found nowhere to moor when ascending except the ladder behind which the control rods are situated. Bollards are too high and set back and impossible to lasso. I have always before thought the ladder was a no-no, but it certainly seems to work. We are two this trip, but it would work for singlehanded too, particularly with a length of rope made up, perhaps with a hook.
 
lThe most difficult were the "unmanned" smaller locks. "Floating bollards" (Rhone) or the ones where there are "step down" bollards (Saone) ascending the lock are straightforward, although do need some organisation. The smaller unmanned locks are the challenge. My lines - pre-rigged from my centre cleat (short line) and a longer line from my aft cleat. Enter the canal and stop the boat adjacent to one of the steel ladders preferably close to the activation (blue) and emergency (red) poles. Feed a loop of each line through a rung and when one is happy, activate the blue pole - although a good half the locks I did were on "remote controles" - just press BASSINEE. Always have a boat hook immediately to hand - came in very useful on a number of occassions. I did check with the VNF guys whether using the ladders was OK and they said fine; recognising that if one got it wrong and trapped then there would be safety issue. Such a breath of fresh air after UK nanny state! Use loops rather than threading lines through the ladders. Just step the lines up as the water rises. In the really big locks there are notices specifically saying don't use the ladders - and with a rise of 15 metres that sounds a good idea!

Of course if the locks are unmanned then there is no one to notice what you are up to - when the locks are manned I often did request assistance and all were very helpful. A better manned and equipped company than VNF I would challenge anyone to find!

Pleased to report that my crew has now returned and being solo is no longer an issue! (coincided with when the weather got warmer)
 
Yes, good. Thanks Andy.
I did some single-handing 'going up' on the C de Garonne last year and that was more tricky. Push button controls up on the lock-side that one has to get to. Ladder on the other side in a very inconvenient location. Quite a lot of clambering out, pushing the button and then descending as quickly as was safe, to take up the line(s) before the lock started filling.
I didn't do much, and I probably would have got a reasonable technique together with some practice, but I'm not sure how I would have coped with a deep lock and a long, awkward, ladder.
 
And of course for yachts the lots of fenders. We found that a breast line was difficult as there is a tendency for the boat to swing about on ascending locks. We found ladders invaluable as well as bollards as they seem to be always in the wrong place. The VNF are currently doing a survey of boat owners and the positions of bollards seems to be a universal criticism
 
Many thanks for all the info, I think I will be taking the mast down and have it transported to Rouen. I think that takes some of the worry out.
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Probably a good idea. We have left our mast in Rouen and found that they were very helpful. We are in St-Jean-de-Losne at present and are over wintering here after spending the last three months on the canals and have had a fantastic summer. We might see you on your way through.:cool:
 
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