UK motorboat wanting to head south inland

Heather and I are getting closer to moving full time on our pearl 43 motor boat and cruising off to holland and the heading south all inland or germany area.... just looking for ideas and routes
has anyone else done this on a motor boat and can your recommend routes to us please
we would hope to have at least a 2.5 k a month budget and want to stay away as long as possible, would this budget be possible
would anyone fancy a cruise in company ?? and has anyone done it before
our draft could be a problem ( 45 ft flybridge motor boat ) but we guess there would be plenty of routes
no time limit just want to escape the rat race for as long as possible

any advise very welcome

thanks

Heather and Steve

Air draft could be an issue on some of the smaller canals, maybe, but if you get a copy of the routes that Viking River Cruises offer.... I'd bet you can go anywhere their longboats can go.

Most of the (few) European rivers I've been on have a serious stream of commercial traffic, another indication you can probably go lots of the same places.

-Chris

heathernsteve said:

Heather and I are getting closer to moving full time on our pearl 43 motor boat and cruising off to holland and the heading south all inland or germany area....

Heather and Steve

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Hello to you!


You are starting a great adventure, all good for you!


I recommend looking for information by buying books and searching for information on the web. Also welcome to join the European Boating Discussion on pages such as https://www.boote-forum.de/, they will of course discuss local language, but I also believe I can succeed in England?


These discussion boards can be found in different European countries so where are you going to go, find a local discussion on pages and they can certainly give you the best recommendations on sights and free / cheap places doging to eat, buy food, diesel etc.


Here is another example of web data sources where, for example, the bridge below the heights of the route ...

EuroCanals Guides

NBs

Does Active Captain cover Europe? If so, it should be a great help.

in our plans the alps keep getting in the way for us heading south...lol

Hi Heather and Steve,

Lots of possibilities open for you but what is your draft and perhaps more importantly your air draft?

Air draft needs to be below 3.50 mtrs for the French canals and ideally draft of not more than 1.20 mtrs.
Holland and Germany would be mostly no problem.
How about through Holland to the Rhine (I am assuming you are a planing or semi planing hull) then up the Rhine and into the Main, through the Rhine,Main, Danube canal into the Danube and down to the Black Sea and on to Turkey, the Bosporus and into the Aegean? That is easily doable for your boat and would keep you going for a couple of years if you took your time. Oh, and be the trip of a lifetime too.
If you need any assistance getting you from the UK through Germany onto the Danube or advice on the Rhine please let me know.

Best regards,
Rob
Moonshadow

Hi Rob

thanks very much for your recommendations
yes our air draft is a problem and yes we are a planning boat

do you know if there are any restrictions like visas, licences, permits to do this kind of route ? also any dangerous places you wouldn't want to stop at ?
we have been looking and the route you say seems the only way inland we can get to warmer climates..
if all goes very well with our plans we would look at heading off this spring, if not spring 2019
we would be renting our house out and living aboard full time so would want to winter somewhere as mild as possible

thanks again for your advise Rob

heather and steve

we have been checking and hope we are right that the electric supply for the route to the black sea would be 220v to 240 volts+

heathernsteve said:

Hi Rob

thanks very much for your recommendations
yes our air draft is a problem and yes we are a planning boat

do you know if there are any restrictions like visas, licences, permits to do this kind of route ? also any dangerous places you wouldn't want to stop at ?
we have been looking and the route you say seems the only way inland we can get to warmer climates..
if all goes very well with our plans we would look at heading off this spring, if not spring 2019
we would be renting our house out and living aboard full time so would want to winter somewhere as mild as possible

thanks again for your advise Rob

heather and steve

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Hi Steve,

No visas needed until you get to Turkey as long as the UK is still in the EU.
Suggestion would be:
Southampton - Dover
Dover - Calais crossing Traffic Separation Zone.
Once out of zone turn northwards (follow chart and bouyage to avoid sandbanks)
and head for Nieuwpoort for first overnight stop after Dover.
Continue up Belgian and Dutch coast and enter through Haringvliet lock and into Haringvliet and overnight at Stellendam or Hellevoortsluis marinas.
Continue up Haringvliet and Hollandsdiep into Waal (Rhine) and overnight at Bijlandsplas or Emmerich on Rhine. From there its straight up the Rhine in 2-3 days to Frankfurt and into the Main. Up the Main and then into the Rhine, Main Danube canal onto the Danube. From there you are downhill to the Black Sea transitting Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and Romania where you will enter the Black Sea at Sulina.
It is a fantastic once in a lifetime journey. Security is no problem as long as you are sensible.
You will be against the current on the Rhine but absolutely no problem with a planing hull. The Rhine is very busy with commercial traffic but you will get used to it. There are ample stopover possibilities.
If you want to go then we should talk beforehand about your preparations. I can certainly help you on the Rhine (where I live) and through to the Danube.
A few years ago I did the journey downstream from where I live near Cologne to Dover in 2 1/2 days. Dover - Frankfurt upstream I would estimate at 5 days.
Let me know.

heathernsteve said:

we have been checking and hope we are right that the electric supply for the route to the black sea would be 220v to 240 volts+

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Yes, 220 volt with standard euro plugs. If you have not got a generator on board take a small Honda or Yamaha portable as you will want to anchor sometimes on the lower Danube.

wow fantastic information and thanks again

the current was going to be one of my questions, is there speed restrictions, can we plane at say 20 knots ?
we have a genny but i think most of our stuff works on 220v as our marina voltage drops to that on peak demand like winter times, the AC is the only thing that struggles.

our boating background is mainly east coast, south coast, channel islands and most of holland and a bit or france and belgium

we are very used to holland so hope that will help us with our journey, if we can't sort out our finances for moving aboard we will be going to holland again next year for 3 weeks holiday.
is there a route map you would recommend please Rob
would there be any recommendations on over winter places ?

thanks again and hope you have a great new year

steve

heathernsteve said:

wow fantastic information and thanks again

the current was going to be one of my questions, is there speed restrictions, can we plane at say 20 knots ?
we have a genny but i think most of our stuff works on 220v as our marina voltage drops to that on peak demand like winter times, the AC is the only thing that struggles.

our boating background is mainly east coast, south coast, channel islands and most of holland and a bit or france and belgium

we are very used to holland so hope that will help us with our journey, if we can't sort out our finances for moving aboard we will be going to holland again next year for 3 weeks holiday.
is there a route map you would recommend please Rob
would there be any recommendations on over winter places ?

thanks again and hope you have a great new year

steve

Click to expand...

Steve,
There is no speed restriction on the Rhine or Danube other than avoiding wake in critical areas. There is a restriction of 13 kmh on the Main-Danube Canal.
The Rhine is free flowing along the entire stretch you would be travelling i.e. there are no locks. The Danube has 18 locks in total.
You can easily cruise at 20 knots if it is safe to do so.
Some issues you need to be aware of:

You will need a CEVNI International Certificate of Competance (from RYA) for inland waterways if you don't have one already have one.

Your VHF will need to be ATIS (Automatic Transmitter Indentification System) enabled for this journey. You may be checked on this by the water police.
You therefore need an ATIS number for your vessel which can be got from OFCOM. The VHF then needs to have this number added which is usually simple to do but repeat the actual VHF needs to be ATIS compatible. Raymarine and most other manfacturers sell combi VHF radios which can be switched between Sea and ATIS usage. With ATIS enabled your VHF sends out your number automatically when you push the push to talk button and outage is automatically reduced to 1 watt instead of 8 watts. You can buy handheld VHF's but be aware that they are not legal for ship-ship or ship-shore usage in Germany.

You also need to be conversant with commercial ship blue boarding and although not strictly binding for private boats, commercial skippers will expect you to comply. Blue boarding (or at night a white flashing light to starboard of the helm) is used by commercial ships to signal to ships coming in the opposite direction which side they want to pass each other. The upstream vessel always has priority as to which side of the channel he wants to use and the downstream vessel shows his agreement. The reasons for this is when going upstream against the current most vessels will want to use the inside of bends where current is less. Conversely downstream vessels will want to use the outside of the bend where current is strongest. Hence an upstream vessel will display a blue board (or white flshing light) to indicate to a downstream vessel that he wants to use the inside of a bend and pass the downstream vessel starboard to starboard rather than the usual port to port procedure. You need to keep your eyes on all commercial vessels and indicate to them your own compliance (as a private vessel you have no blue board) by moving across the channel early and in a definite manner. Remember always that these commercial vessels coming downstream in particular may be moving at 15-20 knots fully loaded and cannot stop or take evasive action very quickly.
Hope this helps.

just making plans to get the boat ready, booking a lift in march for the boat to be copper coated and teak deck to be renewed for tec dec
got a couple of sea cocks to change and engine service end of march

still thinking of route and may split it over 2 years