Navigation charts/books for Rhine, North from Strasbourg

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McIlmoyle

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I wiould be grateful if I could borrow or buy up to date charts/books for the Rhine north from Strasbourg to S Holland. I have bought a cruiser in Strasbourg and wish to transfer it to S Holland for the winter. Any advice or info where to get a chart would be most welcome. I plan to leave on 7th Dec, so urgency is iof the essence. Many thanks
 
I came down the Rhine from Worms last year and had a great time. low cost marinas nd friendly people. Inland Waterways of Germany by Barry Sheffieeld was quite useful as was C Chart nt+ , the Rhine. What I found really useful was a book I borrowed locally covering the Rhine from top to bottom, page to page. In German but perfectly acceptable. Regret have not got the name as gave it back to owner but should be obtainable locally..
 
The book is called "Rhein Handbuch 1" and "Rhein Handbuch2"
as far as I Know they are out of print, but you see them second hand on Ebay in Germany from time to time. You really need them. The upper part of the rhine is quiet something.
 
Difficult yes, if it is a sailing boat. The stream is about 4 to 5 knots and quite narrow. There are two locks before Karlsruhe each one has a height difference of 12 meters. Next difficult place is the Lorelei near Koblenz. Its fairly narrow and quite some stream as well. We did it with a sailboat. The other problem are the unmarked banks. In Germany they require local pilot knowledge for barge pilots . The pilot has to have at least 15 runs at the portion where he wants to get his license for, but is only necessary with a length of more than 15 meters or if the length X width X depth exceeds 100. All in meters.
A 12 meter Bavaria with 2m depth already exceeds the 100 figure. There was an accident for two years ago near Emmerich were the Bavaria collided with a barge in fog. The skipper was found guilty because of not having the Rheinschiffer Patent. This license is very expensive and issued normally only to commercial pilots and only valid for the portion were he has his local knowledge( 15 runs and test). Reason for is that the river has no buoys and a number of sandbanks.
The other problem is if you go down steam and you end up on a sandbank its no fun the river pushes you hard into the bank. The sandbanks are not marked over here. The river Thames is easy in comparison. On the upper part of the Rhine is not so much traffic. After Duisburg it’s fairly quite.
Its all different with a power boat. Just one point, it is not illegal to navigate in the middle if the boat has a length of less than 20 meters. I can assure that the commercial pilots are hating it, if the pleasure boat navigates in the middle instead of the right hand side.
I am local near Emmerich , and I have sailed in the North Sea at least 10000 miles as well.
 
Hello Frank
Many thanks for your help. I would really like to have a chat with you before our trip. I have checked your telephone No from the yacht club website and tried dialling 0033 172 2411185 but no answer - not sure if I have got it right or not!!
I am a member of Lough Erne Yacht club(www.leyc.net) and will be bringing the boat back there in the spring. Our new boat is 12.75m x 3.7m x 1.15m but I am not sure how a 12m Bavaria with a draft of 2m gets over the 100 that you indicate is the limit before you need a skipper. Re Rhine Handbooks 1 & 2, how or where can I obtain these before 7th Dec when we aim to depart Strasbourg for Holland? Re the light system at liorelei, I presume that boats travelling downstream have priority or how does it operate?? We have 138HP diesel and are capable of about 7kn+ with no current - how well should this operate on the Rhine??
Perhaps you can confirm your Tel No and we can have a brief chat.
The other question - where to buy the cheapest diesel on the river? I am told that there is no rebated (cheap) diesel for private boats in both France and Germany.

Regards
Alan McIlmoyle (+44 2892 661766)
 
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