aquaplane
Well-Known Member
You may be suprised how much fun can be had taking a Mirror on a Eurocamp holiday to Isle de Re, small boats can be fun. I sailed round Fort Boyard from Oleron too, never saw that lass with the cat suit though
Trailer Sailing to the Med?
- Thread starter Little Rascal
- Start date
You may be suprised how much fun can be had taking a Mirror on a Eurocamp holiday to Isle de Re, small boats can be fun. I sailed round Fort Boyard from Oleron too, never saw that lass with the cat suit though
Little Rascal
Well-Known Member
Last edited:
cynthia
Well-Known Member
Trailer sailer to S. France
A few years ago we trailed a Parker 275 down to the French Med coast. For two years we used La Faviere marina at Bormes les Mimosas as a base. We were craned in and out very efficiently. The area is fabulous with easy sailing out to the wonderful Isles des Hyeres and along the coast towards St. Tropez etc. We used the boat as a caravan en route and found a three week time slot fine, although as always it would have been good to have had longer.
Hope you have a great holiday!
A few years ago we trailed a Parker 275 down to the French Med coast. For two years we used La Faviere marina at Bormes les Mimosas as a base. We were craned in and out very efficiently. The area is fabulous with easy sailing out to the wonderful Isles des Hyeres and along the coast towards St. Tropez etc. We used the boat as a caravan en route and found a three week time slot fine, although as always it would have been good to have had longer.
Hope you have a great holiday!
Little Rascal
Well-Known Member
Am I right to say that this is relatively cheap compared to here?
goboatingnow
Well-Known Member
Little Rascal,
I trailed a 28 foot four winns, right on the legal max 3.5T behind the RR this summer and last from Ireland ( not having any sailboat at the moment !!!). Theres absolutly no problems doing it, I drove from Cherbourg to just outside Nice in 1.5 days at a steady 80Km.I stayed on the boat with SWIMBO! in the truck stops, theres a lovely one near Volcano. I would avoid Paris and the pheriferique, merely for the traffic densities. because the whole trailer was about 9 metres and with teh car the whole thing was about 16 metres, you have to stay on the motoways or you could get stuck. I was especially worried initially at my marina, Baie des Anges near Nice, as the access roads are tight at the best of times, so I did a reccce beforehand. All went well, have done it twice now.
In two trips up and down, I was stopped only once, outside Lyon. very officious cop, and i find thats fairly unusual in france ( well you a brit, so theyll crucify you!!)..Anyways even though i was a little over the combined gross train weight, he let me go.
As to the legals, its a European standard, max width overall 2.55metres, max length is basically an artic. max weight boat and trailer 3.5 metric tonnes. Car must be rated for trailer and all up weight must not exceed cars specs. E+ trailer extension on your license for towing over 750 Kg. Insurance for trailer and boat. Try and ensure you hit the manual tool booths on the mways, as they just charge you for a normal car, the auto ones weight the goddammed rig and charge you class 2 commercial tolls.( DOUBLE OUCH). cost about 90-120 euros in tolls Cherboug Nice.( I wouldnt frighthen you how much diesel the RR took)
usual car stuff for france, two high vis singlets, bulbs, breakdown triangle.
works a dream , no problem. Marina in france was all ready for me, phoned ahead, boat was in the water 30 mins after arriving. Note you need a spare wheel for the tariler as breakdown trucks will not recover a trailer and AA foreign thingy cover doesnt either. I alsol carried a complete spare hub/bearing as I found the long distance ate hubs.
being small is a definite advantage on teh south of france, marinas were often designed when boat sizes were smaller and I found with an 8m boat that i could get in everywhere, ( except port hercule in Monaco he told me he had nothingsafe for that small size!!).
The biggest difficulties and costs were for 12-15 metre boats, few spaces and everyones chasing them. But for me at 8m costs were typically 8-12 euros a night electricity included, showers etc, We cruised mainly from Cannes to monaco, infact as it got hotter we did shorter and shorter cruises,mainly anchoring in little bays doing the day. I know though that the French love going to the Porquelles ( I was there when I had the yacht).
Everything is better and cheaper then back home, the locals are laid back and friendly in a peculiar french way, make sure you have a few Bonjours and the Ca vas handy , never assume they speak english, always open a conversation in French, theyll switch to their superior english soon enough ( especially on teh VHF). I heard one Brit yachtie get a right verbal bashing by just coming on in english looking for a berth.
As to boat registration, get the boat SSR'ed, Then put the number on in nice big letters doen the side near the stern just like the french and italians do That keeps all teh gerdarmie happy and teh douane boys stay away. They do seem to make a beeline for UK boats !!!. ( mind you Nice was with nelson and against napoleon!!). As an irish boat our ensign looks exactly the same as an Italian one, so we had to but up with endless BonJournos everywhere we went. !!. PS, make sure you have a horseshoe buoy and a small flare pack. ( They like that!).
Despite that in 7 months over two summers, never once stopped by the Gendarme Maritime, all the marinas want is a reg document ( anything with your name, a reg number and the size of the boat) and a valid insurance, after that they couldn't care less.
The main thing is to setup your arrival and main base marina in advance so that yo have somewhere to go initially, that requires a trawl up and down the coast.
just do it, its brill..
Any questions justy ask
PS youll be a rarity, and a source of much ammusement, as the french dont have the cars to tow anything larger then a small rib, you never see them towing much even right down in the south
Dave
I trailed a 28 foot four winns, right on the legal max 3.5T behind the RR this summer and last from Ireland ( not having any sailboat at the moment !!!). Theres absolutly no problems doing it, I drove from Cherbourg to just outside Nice in 1.5 days at a steady 80Km.I stayed on the boat with SWIMBO! in the truck stops, theres a lovely one near Volcano. I would avoid Paris and the pheriferique, merely for the traffic densities. because the whole trailer was about 9 metres and with teh car the whole thing was about 16 metres, you have to stay on the motoways or you could get stuck. I was especially worried initially at my marina, Baie des Anges near Nice, as the access roads are tight at the best of times, so I did a reccce beforehand. All went well, have done it twice now.
In two trips up and down, I was stopped only once, outside Lyon. very officious cop, and i find thats fairly unusual in france ( well you a brit, so theyll crucify you!!)..Anyways even though i was a little over the combined gross train weight, he let me go.
As to the legals, its a European standard, max width overall 2.55metres, max length is basically an artic. max weight boat and trailer 3.5 metric tonnes. Car must be rated for trailer and all up weight must not exceed cars specs. E+ trailer extension on your license for towing over 750 Kg. Insurance for trailer and boat. Try and ensure you hit the manual tool booths on the mways, as they just charge you for a normal car, the auto ones weight the goddammed rig and charge you class 2 commercial tolls.( DOUBLE OUCH). cost about 90-120 euros in tolls Cherboug Nice.( I wouldnt frighthen you how much diesel the RR took)
usual car stuff for france, two high vis singlets, bulbs, breakdown triangle.
works a dream , no problem. Marina in france was all ready for me, phoned ahead, boat was in the water 30 mins after arriving. Note you need a spare wheel for the tariler as breakdown trucks will not recover a trailer and AA foreign thingy cover doesnt either. I alsol carried a complete spare hub/bearing as I found the long distance ate hubs.
being small is a definite advantage on teh south of france, marinas were often designed when boat sizes were smaller and I found with an 8m boat that i could get in everywhere, ( except port hercule in Monaco he told me he had nothingsafe for that small size!!).
The biggest difficulties and costs were for 12-15 metre boats, few spaces and everyones chasing them. But for me at 8m costs were typically 8-12 euros a night electricity included, showers etc, We cruised mainly from Cannes to monaco, infact as it got hotter we did shorter and shorter cruises,mainly anchoring in little bays doing the day. I know though that the French love going to the Porquelles ( I was there when I had the yacht).
Everything is better and cheaper then back home, the locals are laid back and friendly in a peculiar french way, make sure you have a few Bonjours and the Ca vas handy , never assume they speak english, always open a conversation in French, theyll switch to their superior english soon enough ( especially on teh VHF). I heard one Brit yachtie get a right verbal bashing by just coming on in english looking for a berth.
As to boat registration, get the boat SSR'ed, Then put the number on in nice big letters doen the side near the stern just like the french and italians do That keeps all teh gerdarmie happy and teh douane boys stay away. They do seem to make a beeline for UK boats !!!. ( mind you Nice was with nelson and against napoleon!!). As an irish boat our ensign looks exactly the same as an Italian one, so we had to but up with endless BonJournos everywhere we went. !!. PS, make sure you have a horseshoe buoy and a small flare pack. ( They like that!).
Despite that in 7 months over two summers, never once stopped by the Gendarme Maritime, all the marinas want is a reg document ( anything with your name, a reg number and the size of the boat) and a valid insurance, after that they couldn't care less.
The main thing is to setup your arrival and main base marina in advance so that yo have somewhere to go initially, that requires a trawl up and down the coast.
just do it, its brill..
Any questions justy ask
PS youll be a rarity, and a source of much ammusement, as the french dont have the cars to tow anything larger then a small rib, you never see them towing much even right down in the south
Dave
Last edited:
TQA
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Some years ago I towed a Jaguar 22 down to Pula in the Northern Adriatic and sailed down as far as Albania. Lots of lovely anchorages in the Kornati, the offshore island chain, which were free to visit at the time.
No tolls on the German autobahns.
No anchoring charges or required mooring use anywhere I stopped.
If you do this DO NOT take the road over the mountains to Pula, go the long way round alng the coast. Ask me how I know this and I will bore you with tales of terror!
Another possibility that no one has mentioned is The Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France, its about 10 miles by 6 miles wide with lots picturesque islands and some interesting towns to visit. Make sure you get the local cruising guide and an uptodate tide atlas for the Gulf. Things get interesting at peak flood and ebb times.
No tolls on the German autobahns.
No anchoring charges or required mooring use anywhere I stopped.
If you do this DO NOT take the road over the mountains to Pula, go the long way round alng the coast. Ask me how I know this and I will bore you with tales of terror!
Another possibility that no one has mentioned is The Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France, its about 10 miles by 6 miles wide with lots picturesque islands and some interesting towns to visit. Make sure you get the local cruising guide and an uptodate tide atlas for the Gulf. Things get interesting at peak flood and ebb times.
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vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
We cruised the whole French Med coast and the area I have recommended is one of the few where it is possible to anchor in good shelter. If really determined you could anchor every night for a fortnight without going into a marina. However, if you do it isn't expensive on the scale of Italy and Spain. Again, if you can get hold of a copy of Bloc for the Med it lists all marina prices.
I wouldn't bother with St Tropez. We berthed at St Maxime opposite for half the money and took the ferry over to gawp at the ferry-sized mobos in St Tropez. Looked in the shop window of a very well-known fashion designer, where we saw a perfectly ordinary pair of plastic flip-flops, suitably marked up with their name, for €130!
The Calanques in your photo (Cassis) get ridiculously crowded and are untenable in easterlies, but beautiful and worth it for a night.