In today’s environmentally sensitive world, choosing the wrong place to drop anchor can have serious ramifications.
The captain of the 100-foot motor yacht Anchors Away was an old hand at Med cruising. He’d been with the yacht’s owners for almost two decades and knew all the best places to take them on their annual August holidays. They were two weeks in, making their way west along the South of France, when he saw that one of his favorite spots in a protected cove was remarkably empty considering the time of year. “What good luck,” he thought, as his mate let out the chain.
As soon as they were settled in, the boss asked to be taken ashore, the wife requested hors d’oeuvres and the grandkids demanded the inflatables asap. With the whole crew scurrying after the family, no one heard Anchors Away being called on the bridge radio. The next morning the maritime police came alongside and handed the captain a court summons.
That was the moment he learned that anchoring in this cove was now forbidden.
Variations of this fictional worst-case scenario play out all too often in the French Med these days. Anchoring regulations have become complex since 2021 when the Préfecture Maritime de la Méditerranée began to enforce widespread restrictions for yachts over 24 meters LOA.
“To go from Cannes to Monaco a yacht captain would almost need a bloody lawyer on the bridge, because there are so many regulations coming out way too frequently,” says Christophe Bourillon, CEO of the Professional Yachting Association (PYA).
Usually stemming from ignorance or confusion, anchoring in the wrong place can be a serious matter. Take, for example, the 213-foot motor yacht that was impounded and whose captain went on trial after damaging coral in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2013. Or, the 197-foot yacht that chose the wrong place to drop the hook in Hawaii’s Kailua Bay in 2018. Her owners paid $100,000 to compensate for the environmental damage. In France, captains personally are being held liable. Fines can reach $150,000 and in the worst case, a skipper can be banned from operating in French waters for a number of years, as one Hungarian captain recently was.
In all these cases, the reasoning behind the restrictions is valid: concern for the sea floor, whether it’s covered in coral or, as in France, Posidonia seagrass meadows, which produce oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide and provide a critical habitat for sea creatures.
Still, even well-meaning captains can slip up. Bourillon relays the story of one captain in the Bay of Cannes who, seeing that the coast guard was on the water nearby, asked if he was in the correct place. They said he was, but it turned out they did not know the area. Another “very professional man” who had printed the latest charts before heading to the South of France was caught anchored over a wreck. “We found out that the poor man had printed, just 18 hours before his trip, the latest charts, but they were the UKHO charts, which were more than one year out of date compared to the French ones,” Bourillon says.
“To go from Cannes to Monaco, a yacht captain would almost need a lawyer on the bridge, because there are so many regulations coming out way too frequently.”
Enforcement can appear arbitrary too. “If your anchor is in the restricted area, but the boat is seen on AIS to be outside of the line, you are good. Conversely, if the anchor is outside of the restricted area, but the boat is seen, because of the length of the chain, to be in the zone you’re going to be fined,” Bourillon says. “It’s absolutely stupid.”
Bourillon’s top advice in France is to call the local sémaphore (radio station). “At the end of the day, it’s the radio station that knows whether you are in the right place or not. Record your call with them and get them to tell you that you are in the right place.” And if they reach out to the boat, pick up the call or the police might be the next one to reach out. “When I talk to the French Admiralty, they say, ‘Christophe, it’s not so much that they are at anchor in the wrong place that pisses us off. It’s the fact that they don’t answer the calls when we call them on 16,’” Bourillon says.
The Nav&Co app, updated by the French Admiralty, is a good resource, but Bourillon advises against using the private Donia app, which is no longer being updated.
Finally, if you do get a summons, the PYA can help. “When [captains] see ‘tribunal’ and ‘police,’ they rightly freak out. So a number of captains have been coming to us, and we’ve been working with them. There are ways to contact the court system before going to trial. And usually the fines are much lower. We’ve had fines of €2,000 or €3,000.
“But it’s always quite emotionally draining for the captain, because at the end of the day, it’s the captain who is responsible.”