February 10 SPINNAKER - Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club

The Spinnaker‘Beyond’ in the French Canals by John WoolfFollowing a refit at Evans Bay and much help fromclub members, Wendy and I departed Wellington inMay’06 on Beyond a Departure 35 full keelmasthead sloop, bound for destinations in agenerally north westerly direction. Arriving inTurkey in 2008 we heard of people taking theiryachts into the European canal system and weretaken with the idea. We did the research anddiscovered that yachts could sail from the south ofFrance through rivers and canals via Paris to Calaison the English Channel (more photos on back page).allowance of 1.8m but we decided to give it a go anyway.With Beyond’s draft of 1.7m we were right on themaximum draft limit, as some of the canals weintended to pass through had a maximum draftThe French Canals were the highlight of the 2009 cruising season for us. It was a yachties holiday. Navigationis easy and you don’t have to worry about the weather. Also on the small canals you can just find a place thathas enough depth to get within a metre of the bank, drive a couple of tent pegs into the ground and that is youmoored for the night, allowing us to get out the bikes and explore the area. The great thing is once you havepaid the modest fee to the French canal authority, the VNF, the rest is free. No charges for the locks and youcan moor anywhere along the towpaths. Even the marinas on the canals are cheap by European standards andmany villages on the rivers provide a free pontoon where you can stay overnight.The canals are generally raised above the surrounding land so there is often spectacular views of the variedand beautiful countryside. The canals have been a visual feast, as has cruising through the Med but there isnot the space to write about it here.‘The plan’ having set out from Marmaris, Turkey at the beginning of May’09 was to cruise the 1,700nm westthrough the Med arriving at Port Saint Louis du Rhone in Southern France at the beginning of August, which wedid, then dropping the mast motor the 790nm North through the network of canals and rivers of France toCalais, put the mast back up, cross the English Channel and then up the Thames to St Katherine’s Dock Marinain London. The plan worked but it was too many miles in one season and we would have spent another year in theMed if time and funds had permitted.Having got into Port Saint Louis du Rhone we quickly made arrangements to lift the mast out, as the heightrestrictions on many of the canals is 3.4M. Right up until the last minute I intended to ship the mast by truckto Calais to make moving round on deck easier and not to have the overhang at bow and stern when manoeuvringin the locks. I had been told the cost would be Euro 400 – 500 ($930 - $1162) but a couple of hours before themast was to be lifted I finally got hold of the transport company to find it would be twice that! If it is onething I am, is tight. Rummaging through the skip bins round the boat yard we quickly came up with enoughsticks of wood to cobble together a suitable cradle for the mast. Out with the tools and much frantic sawingdrilling and bolting and the job was done. It isn’t uncommon for Europeans to pay hundreds of Euros to have aprofessional cradle made. We made ours in 4 hours for zero.With the mast out on deck of Beyond’ she looked like she’d sailed through a hurricane. It took us a couple oflong days to get the spreaders off, lace these together with the boom, spinnaker pole, standing rigging,halyards and anything else that would fit onto the mast, and to finalise the cradle achieving a pleasinguncluttered result.- 14 -