Transiting the French Canals on my own.

[mainsail1]

Both my crew have had to drop out at short notice for good reasons. Do I try doing the canals from South to North on my own in early September or is that a silly idea?? Advice gratefully received.

 

[dgadee]

Both my crew have had to drop out at short notice for good reasons. Do I try doing the canals from South to North on my own in early September or is that a silly idea?? Advice gratefully received.

Draft?

 

[ingenious]

Both my crew have had to drop out at short notice for good reasons. Do I try doing the canals from South to North on my own in early September or is that a silly idea?? Advice gratefully received.

I guess you already know the route and made sure you're boat will fit draft and clearance wise?
If not, this is a good site: Navigation Information | Canal Routes to the Mediterranean
As this is on the yacht forum it's a yacht with lifting keel and mast down or removed?
This YouTube channel is a boat like that sailing north to south but not solo. Sailing Options
There are others who have done it solo and there is a downloadable book called French Canal Routes to the Mediterranean by Micheal E Briant which is very good. The author is very helpful
I was going to do the North to South, most of it solo but various things changed and I bought a boat in the south. I have come up the Canal du Midi with one part time, elderly crew member but am solo at the moment running up Canal du Garonne towards Bordeaux. Locks are tricky, especially going down but manageable with practice and helpful eclusiers.i haven't done any big rivers and the big locks on the Rhone and Seine look scary in the videos.
I would also mention that I am on a cruiser rather than a yacht and spent a lot of time making it as solo-able as possible including a crazily expensive DockMate that I haven't actually used much.
Take lots of fenders and fender boards!

 

[LittleSister]

I have no experience of it, but I have been very interested in the possibility and finding more about the views and experiences of those who've done it..

I believe forumite Monty Mariner has done it, and if I remember correctly he said in a thread a few years back he found it do-able, but you needed to be fairly agile, and work out a system for carrying your lines with you while you climb the ladder to get your lines round a bollard when going uphill through locks.

. . .
Locks are tricky, especially going down but manageable with practice and helpful eclusiers.. . .

What is the particular problem going down? I would have thought going up would be more of a challenge, as you can't reach or see the bollards above you when you arrive in the bottom of a standard lock.

. . . i haven't done any big rivers and the big locks on the Rhone and Seine look scary in the videos.
. . .

The advantage of big locks, I would have thought, is they will have floating bollards or continuous vertical bars to put your lines round.

 

[ingenious]

What is the particular problem going down? I would have thought going up would be more of a challenge, as you can't reach or see the bollards above you when you arrive in the bottom of a standard lock.



The advantage of big locks, I would have thought, is they will have floating bollards or continuous vertical bars to put your lines round.

Sorry, brain fart, I meant to say going up, having to climb up to get a rope on a high bollard
I actually did one yesterday by getting off the boat with the bow rope and walking it in on the Dockmate
On the big locks. Yes, some have floating bollards or vertical tubes your ropes can slide on but some have a series of bollards all the way up and you have to transfer from one to the other. Even on the floating/sliding ones, the spacing between them is quite wide so you can often only get one on which is fine if you have a flat sided boat but a typical yacht profile will tend to want to swing. Sailing Options damages their boat like this in a lock in Paris.
As I said, I haven't encountered these yet as the big one in Beziers has sliding pillars

 

[[194497]]

I haven't been through the European canals but I have some experience of single handing on the English canals. The main thing is that there's a lot more clambering and walking needed to get through a lock when you're by yourself on a boat, so you'd probably want to plan for a steady pace and not be in a rush.
On a canal boat, a single centrally fixed midship line is a huge help - one each side is ok but slightly less convenient on occasion. Either way they need to be run so that they won't snag on anything, and preferably so that they can run upwards or downwards without problems, so I guess a midships cleat right on the toerail would be good.

 

[mainsail1]

Thanks for the replies so far. Yes, I have read up on the journey, including Mr Briant. The boat draws about 1.6m and I intend to have the mast taken North by a carrier so I should think the draught would be about the same in fresh water as the boat will be lighter. I hope to hear from someone who has actually done this journey via the Rhone/Soane and canals to Le Havre. Obviously I still hope one of my other crew will save the day but the deadline is approaching.

 

[doug748]

I think you need a crew, even then it's very tiring work.
You will be slower on your own and unlike sea sailing you have no time to relax under auto pilot. Plus you have to eat, shower, wash up, shop, brew up, do maintenance and the rest Hammering away day on day would be very wearing and there are often times when you need to be in two places at once, there is a real possibility of getting into a serious pickle.

Doing the full monty to a deadline is a different proposition to going at your own pace 2 or 3 locks a day.

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