Prepping for the French Canals

Cherbourg – Getting supplies

Part of our time in Cherbourg, France was spent building fender boards to protect the hull as Chinook traveled through the narrow locks. Main ingrediants – four 14 foot boards, water noodles, CFD fire hose and hockey socks.

  • Fender boards in our rental car
  • Building fender boards in Cherbourg
  • Noodles for Chinook

Tancarville – Removing the Mast

Tancarville (just inside the mouth of the Seine River) has a small industrial port equipped with a crane tall enough to remove our 18 meter mast. Jamie and Jessica arrived in time to help and Kevin was instrumental in getting the job done.

Pierre did an excellent job on the de-mast and our mast/boom was transported to Port Napoleon on the Mediterranean my FastMast.

  • Sails down … boom off … ready to de-mast
  • Taking down the weather vane and windex
  • Down she comes
  • Lowering the mast
  • Wrapping the Mast
  • Using the sail locker for storage
  • Job well done! Thanks Jamie, Jess and Kevin

Sainte-Mammes – Fender boards installed

After Paris we would soon meet our first narrow lock. We stopped in St. Mammes for the night and everyone on board helped install our 2 tier ‘Canadian’ fender system. Thanks Carolyn, Krista, Geoff, Angela, Lauren and Scott.

CFD firehose (stuffed with water noodles) fit between the hull and the top board. Small fenders covered with hockey socks fit between hull and the bottom board.

Lots of work but well worth it as we ‘sailed’ through our first narrow lock and many more to come.

  • Hockey sock protection
  • CFD Firehose protection
  • Stern Protection
  • The art of stuffing
  • Ready for battle
  • Our first narrow lock

3 thoughts on “Prepping for the French Canals”

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