Ideas for boat doing French Canals 1st, Med 2nd

[Alfa39]

While there are lots of U-tube blogs on people cruising the oceans try watching "Sailing Magic Carpet" https://sailingmagiccarpet.com/ as they are currently cruising the canals with the mast lowered and 1.4 metres draft and appear to be having no major problems

[Pescadou]

My wife and I are Canadian and we bought a 12 m dutch motor sailer in Turkey. We wanted to get to Europe and the Danube was the most direct route. We have a Gardner LW4 on board so power was not our problem. We have taken PESCADOU up the Danube, up the Moselle, across France (southern and northern), across Belgium, Holland and Germany x2, through the Kiel Canal and the Caledonia Canal in Scotland. She has a draft of 1.65m and is steel. Of course being Dutch built her mast system can be taken down or put up by two old folks so she is a wonderful boat for the canals and open oceans. If you would be interested let us know and we can send you our journals from all our canal trips (ken.weagle@nucleus.com). It is a great way to see hidden places in Europe.



My suggestion is to make sure your boat is comfortable, you carry lots of fuel and water. As for qualifications if you are from Australia all you probably need is you country's qualifications for sport boats, a CEVNI, and a radio operators license. That's what Clio and I both had and there was no problems.


Don't skimp on the power, you WILL need it on the rivers.


As for hitting things we stirred a lot of mud in France, narrowly missed a lot of very large barges in Germany, wrecked a prop in Holland, went aground in the Danube once of a submerged rock ledge, but never damaged our 5mm steel hull.


Have fun!

[NormanMartin]

Agree with an earlier post: watch sailing magic carpet

Beautifully produced

[Buzzman]

Originally Posted by AiniA

I would take a different approach, buy a canal boat for the first few years and then change to a sailboat for later cruising. This avoids having to make compromises for both uses.

^^^^^^^^^ This!


Canal boats are a specialised breed. Virtually flat bottom and slow revving engines with big slow prop. Sailboats are either wrong shape, too deep, or plain too small, compared to a similar length canal boat.

It is possible to take a canal boat, on a very calm day, across the channel, which opens up all the UK canals as well, but many of them are super narrow, so it might be worthwhile buying a UK 'narrow boat' and sailing it (eventually) across the Channel to France, then on the European canals, then sell the canal boat and buy a sailing boat to do the Med, Baltic, whatever.

There'sa few good vloggers on YT that are in canal boats, so I'd search there. Cruising the Cut is one that springs to mind. There's also a young couple doing 'some' of the french canals and rivers on a small sailboat, I think it's called Sailing Magic Carpet, so that might be worth looking at too.

Also there was a foodie program on TV a while back featuring UK chef Rick Stein, in which he toured France on a LARGE canal boat, which is largely limited to rivers and WIDE canals, so that might also be worth tracking down. It's repeated from time to time on free to air in Oz.

[JeanF73]

Been there, done that in thr reverse direction
If you want a sailboat, the one make model I have seen the most often is the Southerly 115 (I have a 135)
90 cm draft, not too wide, not too long.
Mast comes down with a crane in the Netherlands, goes back up in port St. Louis near marseille
Make sure the whole contraption (mast flat on top)is less than 3.50 m from the water
Even so there are a couple canals you will not be able to do

Private message me with a # for what’s app or FaceTime

[Hugo B]

Hi

I have been thinking of doing the same thing, and found these excellent videos that tell you everything you need to know about French canal sailing, including northern European entry points, canal drafts, what to do with the mast, legal requirements and best routes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbM6...ature=youtu.be

and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zIY...ature=youtu.be

More is available on this website:

Sailing Books - Gentle Sailing

By the way, I also live in WA, but I have a European passport so time restrictions do not apply.

[robazurus]

[QUOTE=Buzzman;3285900

Also there was a foodie program on TV a while back featuring UK chef Rick Stein, in which he toured France on a LARGE canal boat, which is largely limited to rivers and WIDE canals, so that might also be worth tracking down. It's repeated from time to time on free to air in Oz.[/QUOTE]

As a teenager I came across a book by some "Mad Englishman" who canoed across France from the Channel to the Med. It spoke to me then, and always.
The Stein show re-ignited the longing. I bought it on DVD and watch it often

[robazurus]

Thank you one and all for the information. It's such a wonderful community, and I appreciate the positivity. Cheers :-)

[JeanF73]

You have a private message

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Toujours

You may want to contact http://http://yachtrubyrose.com/french-canals/. They recently completed a transit of the French canals in their Southerly (believe 39'). They passed through many locks so that may be a consideration in selecting a boat. Enjoy your trip...should be amazing

Nice but a tad expensive for the OP, for sale if you want her:

https://www.theyachtmarket.com/en/bo...-sale/1870975/

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Absolutely, there is no way I would choose a yacht for this. Instead a nice piece of Dutch steel motor cruiser which is designed for the canals will be a much nicer boat to live on. You are going to bash into stone locks and bridges. Not a case of if, but when, so steel is the material of choice.

If you are bashing your way thru you need a boat that handles better. The extra mass of a steel boat works against you as there will be a lot of times, you are holding the boat in place since you don't want to tie off while going thru locks.

We've done probably 75-100 locks in the US (River system and Erie Canal). Never bashed...Lots of fenders and a boat that is manageable in close quarters.


We've hit logs and other debris. In the canals, you shouldn't be going that fast anyway. Fiberglass doesn't just shatter

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Pete7

There are plenty of Magregor 26x over here, but the problem is then buying petrol. Fine if you don't mind long walks with trolley and jerry cans. That said at least you could clear the weed easily enough and tip it up for the shallow bits.

Pete

This is one item we loved on our outboard powered Gemini. You could look over the stern and see if something was hung up on the motor. Usually 10-15sec in reverse would clear it or put it in neutral and the boathook would deal with it.

We could but never had to lift the engine to pull anything off.

PS: One general note: On the Continent, most canals provide a reasonable width (25ft beam cat would be a problem but more typical beams are fine). In the UK, they have some wide canals but a large percentage are narrow with locks that are 7ft wide, so really no opportunity for anything but very specialized boats.

[skyhawk]

seems like this post title and most comments refer to doing French canals
& I'm seeing some mention of some in UK...but aren't there canals in Germany and throughout much of the European continent in many other countries too?

Are they all about the same width and low clearances?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by skyhawk

seems like this post title and most comments refer to doing French canals
& I'm seeing some mention of some in UK...but aren't there canals in Germany and throughout much of the European continent in many other countries too?

Are they all about the same width and low clearances?

They vary quite a bit but most 45ft or smaller boats won't have much of an issue unless it's something like a wide beam catamaran, flybridge power boat or deep draft sailboat.

The 7ft canals in the UK are really the special case where you need a dedicated canal boat when considering typically sized cruising boats.

[goboatingnow]

The main issue with the route to the Med is available draft in the summer levels.