Bridge learance on Rhine, Main & Danube rivers

[ortactoo]

Hi Everyone
This is my first post on the Forum so a little bit of my sailing history to introduce myself. I started sailing dinghies over 50 yrs ago and have crewed, sailed and owned many sailing cruisers since then. Ive owned yachts from 22ft to 33 ft sailed mostly in UK waters but also Croatia,Spain, Balearics,France, Portugal, Ireland and a couple of 1500 mile trips. The last ten years or so I've done quite a bit of motor yacht delivery which I found surprisingly enjoyable.
No longer enjoying the hardships of sailing I am thinking of taking a motor yacht from Rotterdam to the Black Sea via the Rhine, Main & Danube rivers but cannot find the minimum clearance under Bridges on this route. Some say 7mtrs others as little as 5.10 . If anyone knows the answer or has any other useful info I would love to hear from them especially if they've actually done the trip themselves.
Regards
Ortactoo

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by ortactoo

Hi Everyone
This is my first post on the Forum so a little bit of my sailing history to introduce myself. I started sailing dinghies over 50 yrs ago and have crewed, sailed and owned many sailing cruisers since then. Ive owned yachts from 22ft to 33 ft sailed mostly in UK waters but also Croatia,Spain, Balearics,France, Portugal, Ireland and a couple of 1500 mile trips. The last ten years or so I've done quite a bit of motor yacht delivery which I found surprisingly enjoyable.
No longer enjoying the hardships of sailing I am thinking of taking a motor yacht from Rotterdam to the Black Sea via the Rhine, Main & Danube rivers but cannot find the minimum clearance under Bridges on this route. Some say 7mtrs others as little as 5.10 . If anyone knows the answer or has any other useful info I would love to hear from them especially if they've actually done the trip themselves.
Regards
Ortactoo

Hello Ortactoo

I have not traveled there but I have investigated it.

Maps showing air draft are available here:

Voies navigables de France

The Rhine is in a class of waterways with a 9.1 meter minimum draft.

I will let you review the maps for your planned route to determine the controlling clearance.

[valhalla360]

How big of a boat are you looking at? We had a flybridge power boat and it only needed 12' (less than 4m)?

Part of the problem is river levels go up and down depending on rainfall and snow melt. Often by a few meters. During flood events, all boat traffic can be stopped.

We haven't taken our own boat but did do a viking river cruise last year. If you can stay shorter than their boats, you should be fine (keep in mind everything on the top deck folds down and the helm station retracts) but that still leaves a boat with 2.5 stories above waterline.

While going under a bridge near Bratislava, I had to kneel on the top deck and could easily reach up and touch the bridge beams as we went under.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by ortactoo

Some say 7mtrs others as little as 5.10 .

A vessel with an air draught of 5.1 m should do it. The commercial traffic works on an air draught of 6.0 metres, but sometimes they have to wait at a bridge for the water level to drop.

Some of the commercial cruise boats have their bridges on hydraulics, so they can drop the bridge when the river is high.

Plenty of informational resources available, including:

https://www.elwis.de/DE/dynamisch/ge...fs=RHEINGEBIET

and

Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine - Informations about the waterway (for both draught and air draught).

[mariner-dovb]

Hi ortactoo, Durchfahrtshöhe: minimal 515cm (Luitpoldbrücke Passau): Lowest Bridge in Danube at normal water. However this waterlevel can change.
Greetings
Norbert

[taxwizz]

If people are learing at you from the bridges and shore, you are probably not wearing enough clothes.