SN6North by Canal du Midi
Routes Between the English Channel and the
Mediterranean
click
here for canals chart
SN6 =
South to North via Canal du Midi
- Best time March/April to September early October -
If your boat has the right draft this is an excellent way to get
quickly from the central Mediterranean to the English Channel - Some
lovely cruising up the West coast of France and a much easier route than the
Portuguese coast or Azores options all to windward......
NOTES ON THE CANAL DU MIDI.
Biggest problems
Draft - 1.6 metres (5ft 2 inches)
MAX! Less in high summer -
Width 5.5 metres - (18ft.)
Height 3
metres but be warned that the height of 3m is to the centre of the bridge arches
- the sides may be as low as 2metres (6ft 5inches)
The length of the locks
is 30metres (98ft 4inches)
So although this can be a good route for many
big
catamarans with a shallow draft, the width when you add fenders may be a
problem.... Also be aware that in mid summer when there is a drought water can
be lower than advertised in the Canal du Midi. Unlike the canals in eastern
France where you can push your keel though the soft mud the Canal du Midi was
blasted out of rock... It is not unknown for boats on the limit to have to be
craned out and put on lorries when the level drops in mid summer.
At some point
you will have to buy a license for the time spent in the river canal system -
fairly inexpensive and check on the web site http://www.vnf.fr
for info.
There are basically 4 entry points to the canal
system on the Mediterranean coast of France - Port St Louis, Sete, Port La
Nouvelle and Agde - the last two have lower drafts (can be as little as
1.20Ms) than Sete or Port St Louis.
If you are heading for the Canal du Midi then Sete is probably
best. Go to the yacht club to have your mast very expertly craned down and
loaded aboard. Take down your mast and get lots and lots of
fenders or rubber tyres to surround you topsides and protect your hull from the
rough concrete walls that you will regularly be coming alongside in locks.
The tyres should touch the water.... It may be worth making a couple of X's out
of wood with a bolt through to support the mast. - there
are normally stacks of tyres at the cranes left by boats going the other way.
Covering them in plastic rubbish bags secured with lots of sellotape and
constantly renewed is helpful in keeping black marks off the hull.
You have to get through a railway bridge that only opens morning
and evening. This gets you into the Etang de Thau which is buoyed and
shallow outside the channel.
Into the Canal du Midi - into the Canal lateral de la
Garonne onto Bordeaux and the Gironde River. Past Montech, Bezier, Carcassonne,
Toulouse and lots of charming villages and towns....
THE FRENCH CANAL
ROUTES TO THE
MEDITERRANEAN
If you are thinking about using the
French canals to passage between the UK and the Mediterranean then this
booklet contains all the information you need'
It describes the Routes,
the regulations the paperwork - How where and when to get the
qualifications and license, the depths, air heights, locks and a whole
lot more.
There
are 'charts/maps' throughout, the distances, dimensions & main stopping
places and is the only publication to list ALL the possible stopping
places on the Rhone River!/
Over 2700 copies sold....
This
book has become the standard work for transiting the French canals to
the Mediterranean and back
Download now
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Canal du Midi
= My log and some pictures of a recent transit. (SN7)
The
Scenic Route =
My log and some pictures of a recent transit. (SN6)
DISTANCE FROM Sete to Bordeaux - 503
Kilometers - 139 locks. Each lock takes between 30 minutes and an
hour depending on the situation when you arrive and you can only move in
daylight hours!
When you get to Bordeaux and re-step the mast, the trip down the
river to Royan or straight through the shallows out to sea, requires the appropriate
chart or pilot book - the Gironde is a serious river with fast flowing currents.
DISTANCE Royan to Falmouth - 355 nautical
miles -
note: The prevailing winds are out of the
north - NNW until you get to the English Channel.......
(It is perfectly possible to day sail north from Royan - the only
really challenging
bits being possibly the Chenal du Four and around the Channel Islands.)
You need Navicarte #11 - Canal du Midi - L'Atlantique to Mediterranean.
Some canal tips
1. Take off your masthead light, wind vane and vhf antenna
- put a bucket over the top of the mast to protect it - they always seem to get
bashed.
2. You will need 2 lines to each tyre fender (by law) As
you will need as many as possible buy some cheap nylon rope to fix the 'fenders'
as you will probably not have enough short lengths in the locker.
3. Keep a knife available in the cockpit just in case
one of the mooring lines gets snagged and hangs the boat up as the water goes
down in the lock.
4. If you are short handed (only 2) and you have a
long enough line - fix a block on the bows and lead the fwd warp through the
block and back along the deck to the cockpit - that way who ever is in the
cockpit can pull in or let out the lines in the lock if the other one gets stuck
on the lock side and is unable to get back on board.
5. You will need a hammer or preferably a mallet to
hammer metal spikes into the bank to moor to at night. Frequently keel yachts
can only get their bows close to the shore as the rivers/canals frequently
shallow at the sides.
6. It may be worth considering having the mast taken by
lorry to your destination - Certainly makes the trip easier in terms of moving
around the boat.
7. At some point
you will have to buy a license for the time spent in the river canal system -
fairly inexpensive and check on the official web site http://www.vnf.fr
for info. The license is based on the time you intend staying in the
waterway system - by day/week/month/year.
8. Under European (and of course French) law anyone
operating a boat on the European canal system is required to have a 'boat
driving license' as issued by their own country of origin. You can travel
in any European river or canal with only the license issued by your own
authority. Catch 22 is that the British authorities do not require you to
have one! Under the new French 1991 law you need a Certificate
of Competence which is issued by the RYA. You may also pass the French test -
cat C for boats less than 15m and slower than 20Km/h. Many sea boats do the
transit without the certificate. (If you rent a hire boat in France as a Brit you are not
required to have a certificate.)
NAVIGATION FEES
Licence (Vignette) Fees 2022
Navigation fees are simply based on boat length. The vignette
certificate should be displayed at the front of the boat, on the
starboard side.
VIGNETTE DURATION |
To 8m
length
|
8m to
11m |
11m to
14m |
14m
+ |
Year (Jan-Dec) |
9.10€/m
+90.90€ |
9.10€/m
+208.30€ |
9.10€/m
+396.70€ |
9.10€/m
+517.70€ |
Month (30 days) |
7.90€/m
+29.00€ |
7.90€/m
+42.10€ |
7.90€/m
+55.10€ |
7.90€/m
+70.30€ |
Week (7 days) |
4.30€/m
+16.10€ |
4.30€/m
+24.30€ |
4.30€/m
+32.30€ |
4.30€/m
+40.20€ |
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