transporting a mast in France

[Dreamcatcher]

Being New to this canal lark, doing CEVNI this weekend, We are thinking of sending our Masts, she is a ketch, via road freight to the Med from Le Havre.

Any names of Hauliers, storage, and to satisfy my insurance company value of masts etc.

Thank you /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[TonyBri]

We recently transported our mast from Port Napoleon - evidence suggests that all the usual places where you can get your mast dropped/raised have contacts and links for mast transporting. We used a German guy very successfully - booked via the internet/e-mail; left the mast at Port Napoleon when we enetered the canals. The mast was waiting for us at the place at the entrance to the Gironde whose name I can't remember. Excellent service, moderate price range. Think we paid something like €450-€550 for a 13m mast.

Do a search on YBW - I'm sure he has been mentioned here and covers all of Europe.

Mast lift-out and storage at Port Napoleon was approx €70, cost about €180 to get it stepped again (takes longer so more hours on the crane).

Price for transportation included boom and pole etc but you might pay more for two masts.

We saw some boats with a couple of metres of mast hanging out at each end - can't recommend that when going through the locks plus it gets in the way - we'd go with road transport every time.

BTW - our insurance company didn't ask for extra cover for the mast transportation.

 

[smb]

Hi,

In May/June this year we used the following companies.

Le Havre www.cnhm.fr
Transport www.deryachtgraf.de
Med www.port-napoleon.com

Costs for our 12.5 metre mast were -
300 euro for unstepping and (minimal) wrapping
500 euro for transport (40 euro per metre) including insurance
90 euro re-stepping

At both ends we were responsible for all preparation except for the last/first few turns of the bottle screws and attaching the sling.

These companies were recommended by other posters here and have a good reputation, however whilst I am happy to pass on the details things did not run smoothly for us so I personally cannot recommend the first two. In the end the mast was delivered in the back of an artic laying on top of boxes of potato crisps and bog rolls or something similar.

I dont like to wash my smalls in public, so suffice to say 3 days delay in Le Havre and 4 days in Port Napoleon bumped up the total cost by a tidy sum. Had we found somewhere cheaper to unstep, carried our own mast and saved the extra marina expense it would add up to another months cruisng budget.

If there is a next time I would seriously consider carrying it. We would only protrude by about 0.8 of a metre and I guess that on a ketch it would be a similar story. We saw lots of people with the mast on top and providing it is done properly and is not too extreme there does not seem to be too much of a problem. It would need to be very secure to cope with the wash encountered by shipping on the river sections.

At the end of the day it probably boils down to your personal wad v convenience ratio.

Steve

 

[Sea Devil]

These people are the biggest boat road hauliers in France and can also store the mast whilst you travel...
AUGIZEAU TRANSPORTS
Tél : 02 51 55 54 07
Fax : 02 51 54 30 11http://www.augizeau.com This site is in English and French - Probably the largest boat transporters in France/Europe. Visit web site first before telephoning if possible..
E-mail : augizeau@altead.com

AUGIZEAU TRANSPORTS
LE FENOUILLER
B.P. 667

They have branches all over France - please mention my web site if you contact them - they speak english and their web site is in english!