Towing to South of France

NickRB · 21 January 2011, 23:18

Hi,

New user to Ribnet and looking for some advice.

I am planning to buy a RIB and trailer it to the south of france in august for our holiday.

I have towed a large twin axle caravan to france for the last 5 years so no problem with general towing.

We are planning an overnight stay halfway down france in an Ibis hotel and my question is relating to security for the rib and trailer overnight at the hotel. I would have usual hitchlock and wheel clamp and steel cable to secure trailer to tow vehicle but am I asking for trouble by leaving the outfit unattended overnight? I thought of immobilising the trailer by removing one of the wheels also?

What does everybody do when stopping for the night?

Would really appreciate any advice or guidance in this respect.

Many thanks for any replies

Nick

martini · 22 January 2011, 08:00

Welcome.

Using a hotel that has a gated carpark might work as a deterrent. I stayed at an Ibis on the A6 at Auxerre, a little way south of Paris on my way down once. They had a fenced compound with keypad entry.

Link

Nos4r2 · 22 January 2011, 09:52

Off topic a bit, but have you got the ICC? It'd be a bit of a letdown if you got there with the boat but couldn't use it.

NickRB · 22 January 2011, 10:07

Hi,

Not got the ICC yet but this is on the checklist along with SSR, VHF licence.

Doing lots of research for this trip!

Pikey Dave · 25 January 2011, 20:47

Technically (unless something's changed recently) you don't need an ICC in France. However if you do get pulled it is another bit of paper to chuck at the Gendarmes, Douane, Affaire Maritime, Gendarme Maritime or Navy or any of the other agencies the cheese eating surrender monkeys have up their sleevies

I've found that an SSR number clearly displayed along with a red ensign is much more efficient at keeping the bizzies away

little joe · 22 February 2011, 20:57

Been towing a rib to south of france each summer for about 6 or 7 years now.never had any problems with boat,but had a laptop stolen out of motorhome whilst 6 of us asleep at motorway services a few years back.started off with a 4m searider and now we tow a ribeye 785 fully loaded with all sorts stuff,bikes,windsurfurers,tents etc,but it tows very well considering.

Normaly we camp for the better security and convenience of a camp site,the odd time we have used a hotel have found one with a locked compound,and there are quite a few like that.

We go to the bay of st tropez and leave the boat in the water for the several weeks we are there,the campsite is on the beach,bit more concerned by that than the journey down,but touch wood, no problems yet.

Fantastic sailing area,only problem is it leaves it very difficult to enjoy sailing backin the uk again,in fact our boat is normaly parked all year apart from its med trip nowadays

Adrian

little joe · 22 February 2011, 21:08

Forgot to mention,been stopped on sea several times but never asked for any paperwork,but i do have icc if it came to needing it, which providing its your own craft,i dont think you do.

I do have the boat ssrd and all the relevant safety kit ins etc and i think as long as you respect their speed limits, no go zones at least try to make it look like you know what your doing etc you shouldnt have too many problems ,in any case if stopped my normaly pretty fluent french deserts me totaly

NickRB · 25 February 2011, 21:38

Many thanks for that Adrian,

Very useful. May come back to you with other queries if that is ok?

Cheers

Nick

Vincent Vega · 18 January 2012, 13:18

We've been travelling to the South of France (Frejus) or Spain (Pals) for the last 10 years or so whilst towing a boat and have never had any problems.

We tend to stay in a Premiere Classe or Campanile (cheapo) and have always done the same as you with wheel clamp, chain and hitch lock. We obviously have the outboard locked to the boat as well and touch wood we've never had any issues.

We're off to Spain again this year and I'm also in the process of organising my RYA Level 2, Coastal endorsement plus ICC. We've been doing this for 10 years without even realising that we needed them so I guess we've been extremely lucky. ;-)

Vincent Vega · 19 January 2012, 10:41

I've only just realised that this was a thread going back to 2011, I forgot we are now in 2012. Oooops!!!

sib · 30 January 2012, 16:27

Might be a stupid question, but do you deflate the tubes on a long run like that, also to help get through the narrow Peages ? If so is there a canny way of stopping the deflated tubes from flapping around ?