French canal boating: the essential kit

Julian and Vanessa Dussek took their Southerly 115 down through France to the Med, about 1,000 miles. Listed here are items they found essential or desirable

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Essential kit for French canal boating

Extra-long ropes

Don’t stint on these. You will need more and longer lines than your normal complement. Warps need to reach up and around lock bollards, which may be set well back from the edge, and then back down to you. Mooring bollards or rings on quays are often designed for barges and may be a long way apart. We bought our ropes from boat jumbles.

A rope-cutting knife

When going up or down in a lock there is always the potential for a warp to get jammed. The tension on it can become frightening as your boat is either being dragged underwater or suspended from the lockside. It’s essential to have a good rope-cutting knife at hand.

Fenders

You can’t have too many. Concrete quays and lock sides are unforgiving and abrasive. Sailing boats with their elliptical sides need big fat round ones fore and aft with a row of cylindrical fenders along the side. The stern is particularly vulnerable when leaving a concrete quay. Fender socks are useless as they hold dirty, wet grit. Rubber tyres are frowned upon because if they break free and sink they may jam lock gates, although they are permitted if made to float and are attached at two points.

Fender board

A fender boat for a boat which is essental when French canal boating

A notch in the fenderboard stops warps from being worn away on rough lock sides. Credit: Julian and Vanessa Dussek

You need a stout plank to hang outside the fenders. In many locks the water rises very high, allowing fenders to float above the lock edge, leading to direct contact between your glassfibre and the stone edge. Ouch! A length of scaffold plank solves this. You will need to cut a notch to prevent the ropes from being worn away.

A long boathook

By long we mean about six to eight feet. It is not intended for pushing or pulling the boat but as a means of handling warps so it can be quite slender and can be made very cheaply using a 1in (2.5cm) pole from a DIY shop and a boat hook end. It will be needed under two circumstances:
■ Passing lines up to lock keepers when ascending – they do not like you throwing your lines at them!
■ Reaching bollards some distance from the boat. Jumping ashore with lines is unnecessary, potentially dangerous and sometimes impossible.
You will also need a shorter, stouter boathook for pushing and pulling, and probably a spare for when you drop one overboard and lose it!

Lifejackets

In many of the big locks, and in all the Rhone ones, it is mandatory to wear and be seen to wear a lifejacket.

VHF Radio

The large locks on the Seine and Rhône require you to contact them by radio, the frequencies are given in the guides or pilot books. Because the lock keepers may be juggling with several ascending and descending barges it is essential to be able to listen for their instructions.

Steel mooring spikes

You will need a couple of stout steel spikes (and a hefty hammer) to moor to if stopping at the riverside away from quays and pontoons.

Even if they are well sunk in they are likely to pull out if a barge passes close by, the suction created is enormous.

The number of idyllic rural halts was less than we had anticipated because of underwater rocks and debris plus bushes and other obstacles on the bank.

Strongly recommended

A bimini or other form of shelter from the sun

You will not have your mast up and may need to reconsider how you fix your sun shade. Make sure it will not be obstructive in the locks. The sun in the centre of France can be seriously fierce.

Water strainer, filter and alarm

A water filter on a boat

The Vetus water filter is easily accessible and above the waterline so it can be opened without turning off the seacock. Credit: Julian and Vanessa Dussek

One of the main hazards of cruising the inland waterways is an obstruction to the engine water intake, often by weed or polythene bags,

We fitted an external strainer and inside the boat a Vetus filter above the waterline so the top could be unscrewed in a hurry without having to close a seacock.

We also fitted a Halyard alarm on the water intake pipe.

This goes off whenever there is an obstruction on the intake side.

It turned out we never had an obstruction in over 1,000 miles of canal motoring.

Midship cleat

A yacht moored while French canal boating

A midships cleat is always useful. Credit: Julian and Vanessa Dussek

Inland cruising involves a lot of temporary mooring.

It is a major activity and it pays to have a simple and safe system.

Our technique is to approach our preferred bollard which will be on the side to which the stern will kick when reverse is selected.

As the boat comes to a halt we drop a bight from the midships cleat over the bollard, at this point the propeller should be dragging the boat into the quay.

If we have misjudged our distance off we motor gently ahead against the warp and as long as it is firmly cleated off the boat will inevitably come to rest against the bank or quay.

Leaving the engine running gently in gear with the helm appropriately positioned will hold the boat safely as long as you want.

Books and maps

We found the Guides (charts or maps) invaluable for navigation, showing as they do locks, navigable channels, and canalside facilities.

And Hugh McKnight’s Cruising the French Waterways is a gem we wouldn’t be without.

Mini mast

We had our mast removed and sent ahead by road, but even with the mast stowed on deck you may need to make up a small one for the courtesy flag, burgees, and perhaps a spotlight and steaming light.

You may also wish to fit a wireless aerial

Bicycles

Bicycles make shopping, eating ashore and exploring much easier.

We have folding bikes which can be stored in bags and five years on, they are still in good shape.

An alternative is to buy cheap, second-hand bikes that can be abandoned at the end of the trip.

Little hooks

Keys on little hook

Put hooks up wherever you can – they will always be useful. Credit: Julian and Vanessa Dussek

Living aboard you can. never have too many little hooks, for clothes, keys, binoculars, anything – a very cost-effective improvement.

A form of heating

Even in May, we needed our oil-fired heater and hot water bottles in Northern France.

An electric fan heated is useful if you have shore power.

Knowledge of the French language

Effort in preparing linguistic skills as well as the boat will be rewarded.

Understanding some of the lock keepers on VHF, however, can be testing even for fluent French speakers.

Time, time, time

Too many people treat their transit across France as a quick route to the Med.

You should allow as much time as you can possibly spare.

When again will you have the chance to traverse the whole of France at walking pace, through major towns, villages, farms, and vineyards?

All of French life is there.

Source of information for French canal boating

Websites

www.vnf.fr The official site for Voies Navigables de France. Apart from buying your permit here you should check on planned closures of sections of waterways.

www.meteo.fr This is the French weather site. Rainfall is your major concern. Heavy rain in the north may, for example, lead to flood conditions later on the Saône and Rhône. Local flooding will close locks.

www.theca.org.uk The Cruising Association has an inland waterways section where you can get answers to your questions. They also publish Cruising the Inland Waterways of France and Belgium, now in its 29th edition, which is edited by Gordon Knight.

www.masttransporte.de We used Herr Graf to take our mast down to the Med and were very happy with the service.

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