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mooring fees in europe?

philandiz

By philandiz
in General Boating

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Anyone know about mooring fees in France? Are they generally cheaper than UK?Also can anyone recommend any good waterways maps of the water system there? Dont think Nicholsons do a European guide.

 

Yes, it's generally cheaper. A bloke I know on a 34' sailing boat was paying about £15/week in Northern France with all facilities, and now he's paying about £20/week near Lyon with free electricity. The other thing is that if you want to leave your boat and come back to the UK for example, so you don't move the boat for 6 months, you'don't have to pay the cruising licence (which is also much cheaper).

 

When you start do get down towards the Med however, things start to get very expensive. My friend tells me that he has seen loads of boats coming up from the Med onto the French rivers & canals because they couldn't afford the hideous mooring fees. The Southern river marinas have thus also become more expensive.

 

Cruising facilities like waterpoints are few and far between and pump outs are virtually non-existent in France. Also it's not uncommon to be stopped at locks and asked for your paperwork, licences, etc, so everything has to be in order.

Edited by blackrose
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carlt Veteran II

carlt

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Posted
Anyone know about mooring fees in France? Are they generally cheaper than UK?Also can anyone recommend any good waterways maps of the water system there? Dont think Nicholsons do a European guide.

Generally much cheaper, or free. Stopping in the middle of nowhere is less common, especially on the more commercial waterways.

 

Imray do a good map and their book is the best for information about the waterways (rules, draught, headroom, distances, even tunnel profiles) but no use as a tourist guide.

 

I like Hugh Mcknight's book.

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ChrisG Collaborator

ChrisG

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The best waterway guides are the Navicarte series, which are in French and English - there's six of them, but you can choose which to buy depending on where you plan to go. I went through the french canals a couple of times a few years ago, and found these really useful. The French price is about £15 each, but I think they cost quite a lot here - but you can get them online.

 

I think the Imray map is a useful overall guide, but it isn't very detailed. Most towns and villages have free moorings, but in a few specific places you may have to pay a bit - but most are considerably cheaper. Inland waterways marinas aren't as frequent as here, and many might have problems accomodating a long narrowboat - everything is widebeam there, even the smallest canals being designed around the Freycinet gauge, 5m beam, by 15m long. In the north and on the Rhone, locks are much, much larger! Remember that you need an ICC to skipper your own boat there, and if you have good french, a VHF (and an appropriate training qualification) can be handy.

 

I think narrowboats are regarded as a bit of an oddity there - dutch barge styles, converted peniches, and steel cruisers are extremely popular.

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Travis Community Regular

Travis

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Hiya Phil,

 

if I remember correctly you have a Dutch Barge, same as us. We looked into the possibility of taking ours over and spent a few days in Holland to take a looksee. What we found was that boats over there are a lot cheaper to buy than over here. Eventually we decided that our best plan would be to sell Travis over here and get more (a LOT more) for our money in Holland. If we were to buy one on a mooring that would remove that problem as well.

 

An example...just as we left the main railway station in Amsterdam we saw a huge barge, must have been 90ft long, the main cabin alone must have been 40ft long. Price ? 100,000 Euros. OK I know that it would need work and this sort of statement sometimes invites negative comments on here, but it is true and just shows the difference in boat values between the UK and the continent.

 

My wife loved the idea! she was not looking forward to sailing Travis over the Channel, secretly, neither was I.

 

Regards, Andy.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Hiya Phil,

 

if I remember correctly you have a Dutch Barge, same as us. We looked into the possibility of taking ours over and spent a few days in Holland to take a looksee. What we found was that boats over there are a lot cheaper to buy than over here. Eventually we decided that our best plan would be to sell Travis over here and get more (a LOT more) for our money in Holland. If we were to buy one on a mooring that would remove that problem as well.

 

An example...just as we left the main railway station in Amsterdam we saw a huge barge, must have been 90ft long, the main cabin alone must have been 40ft long. Price ? 100,000 Euros. OK I know that it would need work and this sort of statement sometimes invites negative comments on here, but it is true and just shows the difference in boat values between the UK and the continent.

 

My wife loved the idea! she was not looking forward to sailing Travis over the Channel, secretly, neither was I.

 

Regards, Andy.

 

Andy, I'm not sure you're comparing like for like. Isn't your boat a new build Pinder or something?

 

I expect you'll find these boats that you're looking at in Holland are old and have thin hulls. Yes, some have great lines but I'd rather have a nice replica or new build any day of the week.

 

As an example, I went to France a couple of times to look at barges, but from previous surveys that I was allowed to view I never found anything with 5mm all over (my thickness criteria). Instead I was told that a French surveyor would consider any ultrasonic thickness reading of over 3mm to be satisfactory!

Edited by blackrose
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carlt Veteran II

carlt

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Posted
Hiya Phil,

 

if I remember correctly you have a Dutch Barge, same as us. We looked into the possibility of taking ours over and spent a few days in Holland to take a looksee. What we found was that boats over there are a lot cheaper to buy than over here. Eventually we decided that our best plan would be to sell Travis over here and get more (a LOT more) for our money in Holland. If we were to buy one on a mooring that would remove that problem as well.

 

An example...just as we left the main railway station in Amsterdam we saw a huge barge, must have been 90ft long, the main cabin alone must have been 40ft long. Price ? 100,000 Euros. OK I know that it would need work and this sort of statement sometimes invites negative comments on here, but it is true and just shows the difference in boat values between the UK and the continent.

 

My wife loved the idea! she was not looking forward to sailing Travis over the Channel, secretly, neither was I.

 

Regards, Andy.

Unconverted barges, over 70' are cheap over here, too. They are tricky to find moorings for and cost a fortune to fit out.

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moggyjo Proficient

moggyjo

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I met a guy at a marina on the Lee that bought boats over from Holland on a regular basis and sells them here.

My partner bought a Dutch Barge over there, built in 1915 he bought it over (on a ferry) 7 years on, he had a full hull survey done recently and it was still good. Mind you the blacking that they used over there, was so good the surveyor found it difficult to get an area to do ultra sound tests on where as I had my boat blacked over here 3 years ago and it was coming off in locks etc on my way back to Oxford, wish I could find out what they use there.

Someone else I know bought a DB over there for £30,000 and had it on the market here recently for £120,000 :D

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Travis Community Regular

Travis

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Blackrose, 3mm? thats about the same as a Springer when they were new? Enough for me, our old 30 footer is still going strong. Surely thats down to good maintainance.

 

Carl, most of the boats we looked at came with the moorings. Most of the owners who were selling were not replacing their boats, they were moving back to houses or suchlike. Granted there were some "sheds", but we were very surprised at the prices.

 

As well as the Amsterdam area, we also have looked briefly at northern France, there are bargains there too. Taking into account the time/cost we sail/truck the boat from the north west to the continent we feel there may be a better way to own a boat over there.

 

I didn't suggest to Phil that this is the only way to do things, I merely let him know my feelings.

 

Andy.

 

PS Our boat is a Pickwell and Arnold Replica.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Blackrose, 3mm? thats about the same as a Springer when they were new? Enough for me, our old 30 footer is still going strong. Surely thats down to good maintainance.

 

Andy.

 

PS Our boat is a Pickwell and Arnold Replica.

 

Fair enough, if you really want to sell your solidly built Pickwell & Arnold replica & replace it with a 100,000 euro Springer, then carry on... :wub:

 

You don't have to cross the channel, you could spend about £4 to get it taken across on the back of a lorry.

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saltysplash Experienced

saltysplash

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My aquaintance moved his 100 odd ft dutch barge to france back in april....to date he still hasnt paid a penny/euro in moorings.

 

When i crew'd Disponibel (90ft hargenark circ 1910) from Amsterdam to Chatham a few years ago we cruised through Holland and Belgium as far as Neuiport and never once paid for moorings on the way......till we arrived at Queenborough and paid our 5 squid for the pleasure of mooring to the lighter opposite the all tide landing.

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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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Blackrose. I also dont give a toss if you like my humour or not. I was also offering a different perspective.

 

Read the posts again. I was actually complimenting your boat & your builder and suggesting that you might not get a boat of the same standard if you sold up and bought in Holland. For some reason you took offense.

 

Mike

Edited by blackrose
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blackrose Veteran II

blackrose

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ER....this will make you laugh......We own a springer and are going to take THAT to Europe. Chill the F out and stop taking yourselves so seriously!!!!

 

It's ok, we've kissed & made up by PM :wub:

 

I've seen narrowboats in France, not a common sight but you tend to come across one or two in marinas that the Brits frequent.

 

How are you getting it across?

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