French inland route to Mediterranean

[nornie lees]

Hi All. Anybody done it in Bavaria? Reason im asking is my Bav37,2002 has a 1.85 draft according to handbook.  Last year I got her cleaned on the Haslar sealift 2. Along the side of the lift is a measure rod fixed to the steel structure. My yacht touched bottom at 1.75m? 100mm less than handbook?
 Is the handbook referring to fresh water.
fully loaded to maximum weight.
Before you ask, yes I did check height with my own tape which confirmed 1.75m, im thinking I could remove sails empty one water tank, remove most my unnessarary tools,spares etc . Ive read 1.8m draft its possible,  I would go early spring when more water availible in canals/rivers.

comments please.

Ray

[Odysseus]

Good luck, doubt if you will make it. 1.5 mts is the limit as I hear from friends who have gone through the canal du midi



Sorry about that.

Odysseus

[Symphony]

1.65 is the nominal max draft. Would not attempt it with a 1.75. It is for that reason I specified a shallow draft keel on my 37 of same age.

[IslandAlchemy]

Not a chance with 1.75, never mind 1.85.

[nornie lees]

Thanks for the info chaps, looks like the bumpy route then.

Ray

[Ripster]

Was talking recently to a couple who have done this in the last two years and they said 1.5m limit too.  Not everwhere of course, but even at 1.5 in their opinion, you would need to be careful.

[gregship]

two years ago delivered a yacht to alicante, owner wanted it to go via french canals draught 1.25. went via canal du somme in aug, very dodgy, canal du nord and seine ok ,canal lateral ok for 1.25 but would hazard a guess that 1.8 to shallow. rhone ok for your draft, we came out at sett dodgy in places. its the lock sills in the smaller canals that get you . hope it helps

[MarkTheBike]

Hi all

Ray, I've been looking for a post I submitted a while ago but can't find. The gist was that we bought Figaro (B34/2001) from a well-travelled Guernsey family and the plotter was full of hundreds of waypoints, including plots via the Seine (I think), down the Rhone and into the Med. Figaro is 1.85m so having read all the comments here, I don't know whether the previous owners actually went there, plotting overnight stays, or whether they were idly daydreaming and sticking in waypoints 'just in case'. If you like, I can jot down some of the w-p lat/lon's to clarify the route. I must admit, I was quite surprised as we lived next to the Canal de Deux Mers between Bordeaux and Toulouse for about 12 yrs and, although a lot of it was over 2m deep, it wasn't consistent and I'd assumed all French canals were the same. However, the Deux Mers is in the south west and it may be different in the north.

[nornie lees]

Hi all, Mark.

 Why I asked this question is im reading a book "Sailing There" cruising across Europe and the Mediterranean, written by Patrica Vellinga. They motored a new Formosa 41 ketch 1.8m draft from Rotterdam to the Camargue via Paris. It sounds like an "Interesting" thing to do, 202 locks seems the worst bit. Apart from the mozzies , smell diesel fuel, engine hrs etc .

Ray

[MarkTheBike]

Hi Ray

Hmm, that sounds interesting and kind of bears out the positioning of the w-p's on the plotter. Although our plotter is very old (an 8-colour Furuno 1850) and the C-Maps show no detail inland, I remember thinking that the plots looked like they headed through Paris so that ties in with the book. In fact, I'm off to the boat on Sunday so I'll note down the w-p's and let you know. Perhaps you can see if there's a correlation with the route in the book. If so then it would certainly warrant further investigation and I would be extremely interested. I often cycled down the Deux Mers, dreaming about taking a boat to the Med. Fantastic adventure. And for me - the mozzies outweigh all the locks, the diesel, the engine hours. I hate the little tinkers. They eat me raw.

ps. is the book worth getting out of the library?

[Symphony]

Not sure how they got a 1.85m through. The "official" max draft is 1.65m in the main canals (although of course deeper in some places and in the rivers) and 1.45m in the Canal du Midi - and this often means ploughing through the silty bottom.

Plenty of information available on using the canals on the web, in numerous guide books and on the VNF website which has all the official information and up to date advice on things like canal and lock closures.

[MarkTheBike]

Yeah, Symphony, I do agree it seems unlikely they made it down there but I'm always hopeful. I will make a note of the w-p positions and see if they agree with any of the rivers and canals (which, as I said, aren't shown on C-Maps). I suppose I could always phone the broker and see if he'd contact the previous owners and ask them.