Up the Rance to Dinan

Up the River Rance

The River Rance joins the sea on the west side of St. Malo, Northern Brittany.
About 12 miles upstream of St. Malo is the medieval city of Dinan; this was our destination.

Just above St. Malo, the Rance is spanned by a barrage for the generation of electricity. A lock in the barrage gives access to the Rance estuary. From the Chatelier lock, about 3 miles below Dinan, the Rance is non tidal, with a supposed depth of 1.3 metres minimum guaranteed. So the journey is just possible in Sarah Jane, since with the keel lifted the draught is reduced from 1.5m to a claimed 0.75 metres.

Below the Barrage

At St. Malo we like to stay at Bas Sablons marina, just upstream of the Condor ferry berth and entry lock to St. Malo Basin Vauban. Although the visitors’ berths can be a little lumpy, the facilities are good with very easy access to the the town of St. Servan, which has some very good restaurants and food shops. St. Malo is also pleasant, flat, ½ hour walk or easy cycle ride away. One of our favourite restaurants is at St. Servan, but this remains unnamed, since we don’t want it to become too crowded.

Left is Sarah Jane in a visitors’ berth, with St. Servan in the background. The basin is in reality less packed than in the photo.
Each morning I cycled into St. Servan to pick up croissant and bread, ignoring a sign telling me something was "interdit". Then one morning an agitated resident shouted to me, waved to where two policemen were stopping cyclists further along the promenade and pointed up a side alley. I took his advice.
Later I found that the sign prohibited two wheels. For next year I’m learning to ride a unicycle.

Entry to Bas Sablons is over a cill, with depth over this displayed by digital gauges in the marina and visible from outside on the harbour wall. There is a board gauge near the cill.

Just above St. Malo / St. Servan is the hydro electric barrage, operated by EDF. Sluices control the flow of water in both directions to operate the generating turbines. This obviously disrupts the tidal rise and fall above the barrage.
Looking upstream at the barrage the turbines are on the left and the lock is on the right of the barrage. The area upstream and downstream of the sluices is buoyed off and entry is prohibited. There are also waiting buoys upstream and downstream of the lock.
When the water level below the lock is less than 4m above chart datum there is not enough water to operate. The lock operates on the hour when the water is above this level.
Information on daily lock opening times can be had from the Basin Vauban in St. Malo or the marina office at Bas Sablons. There are numerous guides to the River Rance and chart SHOH4233 is recommended.
The satellite view of the barrage and river on Google maps is also worth looking at.

On the day of our trip upriver ,in early June, low water St. Malo ( 3.1m ) was at 1302. This gave a first lock opening time after LW of 1500 hours.
Our first decision was whether to leave Bas Sablons as late as possible on a falling tide ( about 1130) or as early as possible on a rising tide and hope we could make the lock by opening time. We decided on the latter and left Bas Sablons at 1420 with 2,5m over the cill. This proved no problem and we arrived at the lock first in the queue, with plenty of time to spare.
Locks have in the past been something of nightmare for us.
We damaged our pulpit entering the lock from the River Seine to Honfleur, when we rammed the gate at the end of the lock. With wind behind us and a tidal eddy pushing is into the lock we think the folding prop didn’t open properly to slow us down enough and we couldn’t hook on – BANG!!.
I did a 360 degree spin in Sutton Lock, Plymouth when the throttle cable snapped just as I cast off and the eddy caught the boat. A westerly Centaur behind scraped past us as I was end on to the wall. On this occasion we suffered no damage and the marina rib pulled SJ to a berth without incident.
With twin rudders and no prop wash, steerage is non – existent at low speeds, making it difficult sometimes to exit locks, damage to a couple of horse shoe lifebelts is a testament to this.
We now moor close to the back of the lock if possible, use plenty of large fenders on the stern quarter and spring off. This is especially important if the lock gate mechanism make the exit narrower than the lock.
We’ve also seen several boats spin through 90 or 180 degrees on entry through not being able to hook on properly in the lock. Hanging ropes or chains common in French locks are never in the right place.
Our lock entry technique now is to enter as slowly as possible to maintain steerage then hook ASAP onto the first practical cleat, rope or chain, with a line attached to our centre cleat. This secures us in place and stops the bow or stern swinging out too far; fenders well forward and aft are a good idea. We can shuffle to or fro, “in control”, to attach bow and stern lines. We can then move forward or backwards in the lock, as needed, keeping two lines attached all the time.

The barrage carries the main road from St. Malo and Dinard on the other side of the estuary and the bridge across the lock is at the seaward end. To reduce traffic disruption, boats with masts enter the lock first going upstream and last going downstream.
The photo is looking downstream in the lock, showing the road bridge.

Before leaving Mylor I fitted a new Rutland wind generator on Sarah Jane. It’s mounted on the port side of the radar gantry at the stern of the boat. The rotor blades and fin overhang the boat making it vulnerable in locks. Before leaving Bas Sablons I remembered to tilt the turbine inboard out of harm’s way.

Although we were first in the “queue” at the barrage lock we let three French yachts overtake us. This on the assumption the occupants would know the lock procedures and possibly give us something to raft up against, rather than having to tie against the lock walls.
A word of caution, when the lock opened to disgorge the boats coming downstream they came out like rats from a trap, with one large fishing catamaran coming very fast scattering all before him.

Inside the lock we rafted up against a smaller French yacht crewed by two very helpful and friendly Frenchmen. They spoke no English, but were happy to carry on a slow conversation with Jill in French.

Apart from Sarah Jane there were only four French yachts (20 – 25 ft.) and a 40ft power boat from Jersey in the lock. At peak times however the lock gets very crowded with boats shoehorned in.

We had entered the lock at 1500 on a rising tide ( 5.1m above CD) with a noticeable, but not severe, flow though the turbine to the left of the lock.

Inside the lock the water level was quickly raised the 2-3m to the upstream level with no turbulence and the exit was smooth and without problems.

Above the Barrage


We exited the lock without incident , keeping in line with the lock for a couple of hundred metres to clear the very obvious hazards, before turning slightly to port and heading to the middle of the river.

Most cruising guides to Brittany have a good description of navigating above the barrage, as far as the Chatelier lock. We also had chart SHOM 4233 of the River Rance and a Navionics Gold chart on the chart plotter just in front of the wheel..
There was plenty of water upstream of the barrage, but with no wind it was clear we would be motoring all the way to Dinan.
Above St. Suliac the depth of water reduced such that we needed to stick carefully to the deep water channel. Jill helmed most of the way to Plouer sur Rance and considered that the deepest water was found following the contour on the Navionics chart rather than keeping strictly to the buoyed channel. Typical depths were 1.8 – 2.5 m below keel ( add 1.5m for true depth).
The marina at Plouer sur Rance was reached around 1645 by when depth in the channel dropped to 0.1m below keel ( true depth 1.6m). At this time water level at St. Malo was 8.4m above CD. Here chart shows a drying height of 4.4m above CD and the depth difference is an indication of delaying effect of barrage.
We picked up a mooring buoy, raised the keel and waited at Plouer for 15 minutes for the tide to come up then, slowly followed the marked channel up to Chatelier lock. Needed to follow this channel carefully and depth showed as 0.9 – 1.9 m.



The buoyed channel above Plouer sur Rance marina, complete with marker Heron.

Just below the lock at Chantelier were several of these rickety platforms, presumably used by fisherman. They had a very long light jib attached which could be swung across the water. I’ve seen similar platforms for catching shrimps.

We arrived at Chatelier lock at 1745 with depth of water of 0.9m ( 9.8 above CD at St. Malo).
Below the lock the “deep water” channel at this time was very narrow and with no waiting buoys holding the boat in channel waiting for the lock was tricky.
First opening of the lock on the rising tide was at 1800, with 6 downstream boats waiting to be disgorged.
After safely mooring up in lock I managed to drop the boat hook into the water and watched it drift downstream out of the lock out of reach. Fortunately the lock keeper had seen this happen and shouted to a small cabin cruiser about to enter the lock. They retrieved the hook and returned it to us. Only three boats in the lock, ourselves and two motor cruisers, one British and the local French boat.
Water cascades into the lock through the top of the upstream lock gate. This is very dramatic but there was very little turbulence in lock.

Above Chatelier Lock - Dinan

Once out of the lock we had a choice of staying at the Lyvet Marina, where there appeared to be vacant berths or continuing the 4 miles up to Dinan.

We decided to continue upstream since the river appeared to be full of water. We still had the keel up.

We had no problems navigating the river,although there is a need to follow the red /white and black/white marker buoys.
Water level showed 0 – 0.2 ( 1.5 – 1.7 m actual depth) until about a mile from Dinan when it increased to 4m and above.
For anyone deciding to stay at Lyvet there is a very good towpath running on the right bank all the way to Dinan, ideal for walking or cycling.

Approaching Dinan we passed several vacant alongside pontoon berths on the right bank, all with electricity and water.

At the town Quay we found the last vacant finger berth. This was quite narrow but we managed to squeeze in alongside a local Etap 32.
The finger was very short but we were so tightly wedged in this caused no problems. Apart from ourselves all the other boats on the finger pontoons appeared to be local.

The port office is located in a quaint, half timbered building on the quayside. The facilities are a little past their best but clean and adequate. At the port office I asked if we were OK where we were. The reply was if the berth was empty its free, OK, no problem.

The cost of a berth is, however lower than other ports in France. It cost us €35 for two nights, including showers and electricity

The town quay at Dinan looking downstream.
Sarah Jane is at the first bend about six boats down. The wind charger is very clearly visible.

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It’s a dogs life at Dinan.

The hotel in the background was very popular with coach tours and while we were there a coach, from South Yorkshire, arrived, stayed one night, then was off to the next medieval destination.

On the town quay there is a small manually operated jib crane. While we were there, two boats unstepped their masts to continue on towards Rennes.

The first evening we ate at a very pleasant “country” restaurant on the quayside, Chez Bongrain.
Good food, good value at €35 for the fixed menu for two with a carafe of wine.

The quay has several other restaurants, cafes and bars. Dinan city centre has numerous eating places to cater for any taste or wallet. We alternate when possible, eat out one night, eat on board the next two. So the following night it was stir fry.

Apart from a patisserie on the quay there appeared to be no convenient grocery stores, although are plenty in the town centre. If we return we will make sure we are well stocked with basics.
Dinan is a charming medieval city, well preserved although, as with most of its kind, has been taken over by tourist and craft shops. It’s well worth a visit.

The direct route from the quay to the old city centre is up the Rue Jerzual, a steep hill. Unfortunately Jill had damaged her knee somewhere along the way and was finding walking difficult. It finally gave up totally in Binic – another story. To avoid the hill we caught a small bus that ran from the quay up into the old city. A small tourist train also runs from the quay.




A selection of photographs of Dinan are shown in a separate Blog for anyone interested.

Return down river

Two days after the trip upriver we left Dinan for the return journey to St. Malo.

In contrast to the previous two days the weather was wet and windy.

HW at St Malo was at 0750 (10.65m), so our journey would be on a falling tide.

Coming up on a rising tide we had entered the Chatelier lock on the first opening when the water level at St. Malo had been 10.00m.

Using this as a guide we left Dinan around 0730 to arrive at Chatelier in time for the 0900 opening when water level at St. Malo would again be at at 10.00, but falling.

Once through the lock the river was full with plenty of water downstream, due to the delaying effect of the barrage lower down. We could probly have taken a later lock opening.

The lock gates were open when we arrived and we entered and moored up safely, the only boat in the lock.We were joined shortly after by a small local French boat. They secured the bow line, but before the could fasten the stern the following wind swung them round and the ended up secure alongside, but facing the wrong way. They obviously sorted things out because just above Plouer the cought us up under sail and picked up a local mooring at Mordreuc.

Below the lock with a steady F3-4 following unfurled the Genoa and set of under sail alone.

On the way up river we took a photo of a watermill. We photgraphed the same mill on the way down. The photos below show the difference.

Going up river - rising tide, water level at St.Malo approx. 9.6m.

Going down river - falling tide, water level at St.Malo approx. 9.0m

All went well until we were just above St Suliac when the heavens opened and the wind increased without warning to F7-8, forcing a very quick sail reduction.

We arrived at the barrage shortly before 1200 and had we rushed we could have made this last lock opening before the waterlevel at St.Malo dropped below 4.0m. We were wet and unprepared and with the wind still blowing a gale directly into the lock decided to wait for a later opening.
We picked up a waiting buoy, at the third attempt, had lunch and settled back to wait until 1600, the first scheduled opening after LW.

The wind was still blowing hard and we had half planned, if necessary, to pick up one of the many vacant mooring buoys nearer the shore and stay the night above the barrage.

At 1500, an hour before we had anticipated, the green traffic lights on the lock came on. Fortunately
we were prepared with fenders and warps and the wind, still strong, had swung from the west and the lock was sheltered by the high ground on that side of the river.

Sarah Jane was the first boat into the lock, we had not seen any others waiting, so we moored up right at the back end to give us plenty of room when leaving. No other boats joined us so we were all alone. We entered the lock, tied up and exited without any difficulties.

By 1600 we were back in Bas Sablons for any three day stay, before departing to Binic.