Visitor mooring in South of France

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Rich_saunders

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Hi,

I'm after a little advice....

I am chartering a Monte Carlo 47 Fly (without skipper) for a long weekend in the summer from Frejus with the intention of spending the first night in St tropez following by Port Grimaud and finally Monaco. Can any advise how easy it is too book a mooring in these places and how accessible the visitor moorings are?

Thanks
Richard
 
Probably best to post this on the MoBo forum ... this one is more about how to make your own antifoul using chillies :)
 
Richard, If you are going in August good luck! You could try booking a berth but it is a bit of a bun fight down there in August. The only real bit of advise I can give is to berth in St Maxime not St Trop. St Maxime is a lovely town with a good atmosphere and not the high prices of St TRop. You can visit St Trop by ferry just across the bay for a day trip.
 
All the places you mention get very crowded (and noisy) in the summer. Better to find some smaller and less expensive places to stop. Definitely pre booking is recommended.
 
I doubt as a charterer you will be able to pre book you will end up outside waiting for the capitaine du port to shuffle the places around and give his regulars a spot, after which you may be very lucky and get a remote berth but I doubt it in August.
 
Hi
I live in Cannes and keep my boat at Beaulieu Sur Mer near Nice. August is THE height of the season here and us locals, if we can, get away from the SoF. Don't like to disappoint but visitor moorings are scarce at the best of times along the coast. The way it works is that if you plan to be away for any period of time or just overnight you let the Captainerie of the port know. Supposedly so they know you probably havn't sunk, but really so they can let out your berth to a visitor. You wont see dedicated visitor berths like the UK and the ports are all small and crowed so you can't moor against another boat either. So your only option really is to radio/phone your intended port and see if there is a space. Some ports have moorings but they can be as expensive as a berth in a port . However some eg Cannes don't often bother to come out and collect your euros but again its hit and miss. So your best option is to anchor. Now there are plenty of good anchorages just about everywhere and its clear blue water and virtually no tides to worry about. There is a big drive on now against anchoring on top of the sea grass for obvious ecological reasons. In the summer you will see crowds of boats in the anchorages so its good practice to get in a bit early especially in between the isles de Lerins off Cannes which is a must if you come here. A good web site for a guide to the ports around here is www.mooringspot.com
Good luck
Mick
 
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We too have our boat in Beaulieu Sur Mer and as others have pointed out it can be a bit busy at that time of the year. However you might want to contact some of your destinations early and see if you can prebook. You might want to try ports close by as well as there is an excellent train service that runs along the coast from St Raphael to Ventimiglia. One of my neighbours in Beaulieu Sur Mer works in the port at Monaco and I will ask him about booking in two weeks when I'm back on board.
 
Following on from Micks post, the owner of the boat I use out of Port de Borme has his boat lifted into the yard from mid July to the end of August. Even after the lift and additional (off season) storage ashore charges he makes a tidy profit having visitors use his berth..
 
Nope, people just ask that you try to not anchor on the seagrass. Quite civilised. No asks me about my anchor choice or is upset that my boat is modern. Very different to UK boating.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Because ... ?
Click to expand...

Because it damages the type of eel grass there which is different from that in Studland. Lots of good published research supporting it. That is one of the fundamental flaws in NGM and Colliers argument. They use as evidence this research hoping that no one will notice it is about a different species in a different location.
 
In the anchorages I've visited so far I can generally find a spot where I can drop my anchor without having it set in weed. It helps that you can see down at least 10 m.
 
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