French Marina questions

[Truro Ex Pat]

Happy New year to everyone to start.

I am now looking at my plans for this summer and was looking for advice on South of France Marinas.

I know from past posts that the only way to get a berth between Sant Tropez and Monaco is to buy one but this is not what I wanted to do.

I am thinking it would be best to go for Sanremo for an annual Berth and then look at day trips or possible nights in the marinas along the coast, I know we have some boats already there on home berths but was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to get in to any of the berths for a night or 2 during July and August? or will be a case of anchoring off?

Any thoughts on the idea and information would be very helpful.

 

[Bouba]

Some ports (don’t use the word marina) you can book ahead and others you have to turn up and ask on the day. But usually you can get a place, but it won’t always be one that’s easy to get in or out of
Prices range a lot but we’ve found that Antibes is the cheapest, which is a surprise because it’s the best.
Have a great summer

 

[mcanderson]

Happy New Year to you too!

Some will say that you will end up spending a bit of time motoring to get back to the Côte d’Azur from San Remo and that the coast of Italy in that region itsnt very interesting. I will leave that to you to decide. We are in Beaulieu Sur Mer and all the leases where due to run out yesterday and a new port management team appointed. In true French fashion this hasn’t happened and all leases have been extended until 30 Jun 19 when the new management team is now due to be in. Who this team is is currently unknown as the last bidding process failed to end in a result.

The so what of this is that Beaulieu is more than like likely to turn into an all annual berth port and when I was in the port office paying my fees that week the team thinks that up to 20% of the lease berth holders will leave as the annual costs are so much more than the leaseholder up keep annual amount. So there may be spaces coming up.

As for booking berths on the Côte d’Azur then this link might be useful http://www.riviera-ports.com/en as they cover 5 of the popular ports. We’ve stayed in Cannes, Nice and Golfe Juan. They run a very efficient operation and their English is excellent.

We have stayed in San Remo and enjoyed our stay. The distance to the town and shops is a bit of a niggle, but the port itself was excellent.

Fire any questions you might have and I will do my best to answer them.

 

[Portofino]

Plan sounds good and is a well trodden path . As San Remo is about 16 miles from Monte Carlo
If your boats a 24 M ? It is possibly to find a berth in the season as many other similar size will be out , but there reciprocals looking for night / week or so .
It’s easy to find long term ish shelter if want to hang around for long stay avoiding returning to SR .
There’s plenty of sheltered bays no doubt you have google earthed the strip ?
We get loads of Italian reg boats hanging around in the summer .
Presume you have decent tender to pop in and replenish stores on those days @ anchor ?

As far as contacting on spec or attempting to book we tend to just turn up and while hogging the either the visitors berth ( if nowts already on it ? ) or the fuel pontoon ,I get few 100 L - wife pops into the office and flutters her eyelashes :encouragement:
Seems to work , for a 15 M berth , but I,am not sure how comfortable and capable you are and how practical using this tactic will be nosing into a port in a 24 M - the big ones sure ?

VHF and phone comms in my experience, not so good so I just don’t bother .
Officially you suppose to phone / V HF etc but in my experience the only one that listens and reliably answers is Port Vauban theses days .As it’s busy in the season with some pretty big boat movements.
Cannes is another port that listens / responds to VHF but sometimes they can’t be arsed finding a berth for a caller so say “ non “
I ve sat on the helm and listened to the VHF rejections while wife’s in the office and 9/10 she returns with a map ette with a cross marked for berth for the night .
I know there’s various “ port berth “ sites and probably apps etc but a face to face trumps the lot results wise .

About 10 miles E of SR round the next headland is this place
https://www.marinadegliaregai.it/en/

It’s got everything you need and decent car parking if you have a valuable vehicle? Costs a lot less than SR so for the sake of another 10 miles might be worth doing no some maths on the savings on offer for an annual .

They (24 M ) and I guess other sizers do have breakdowns etc requiring haul outs , so on paper an empty berth until it’s relanched .As said there’s a lot of incomers in the summer so that berths usually occupied on a add hock basis .

There are plenty of provisioning services that will bring stuff to your boat eg Cap 10 + loads more .

Hope this helps .
See you around.

 

[Truro Ex Pat]

That sounds quite promising we are 17 m so tend to get put in an 18m plus and I know Antibes only has 23m or 15m as that was the preferred marina if we could have got in.
I did try the Ports site and registered and sent booking requests but go no luck so as you say may be better to turn up and try.
Thanks for all the info guys today most useful.

 

[Truro Ex Pat]

You don't happen to have the cost for the marinadegliaregai for a 17 m or 18m berth on an annual basis or the day and week rates.
I have looked online but could not see them shown.