Two jobs define the cost and the safety of keeping a boat in France: the antifoul that goes on every spring, and the survey that you commission far less often but that matters far more. I have done both, on my own boat and as a buyer, in yards from La Rochelle to Hyeres. They are connected, because both happen with the boat out of the water, and getting the timing right saves you a second hoist bill.
Antifouling: the real numbers
Antifoul in France is not dramatically different from the UK, but the regional spread is wider and the rules on application are stricter than many visitors expect.
For a typical 32 foot (around 10 metre) fibreglass cruiser, a yard will charge between 750 and 1,000 euros for a full antifoul job done by their staff. Doing it yourself drops that to the cost of materials. A litre of antifoul covers roughly 9 square metres, so a 10 metre fin-keel hull eats two to three litres a coat, and good hard or self-polishing paint runs from about 100 euros a tin upward. Add rollers, masking tape, sandpaper, primer for any bare patches and a tin of solvent, and a DIY season costs a few hundred euros against the yard's four figures.
Where it gets complicated is whether you are allowed to do it yourself. French yards now operate under serious environmental rules on collecting paint dust, washings and spent antifoul. A yard with a sealed wash-down bay and filtration may legally require its own team to sand and spray, and forbid owners from doing the dirty preparation. A more relaxed Atlantic boatyard may hand you a sander and point at a tarpaulin. Always ask before you book. The general mechanics of the lift, the storage charges and the booking lead time are in the companion piece on hauling out at a French boatyard as a foreign owner, and they apply directly here because no antifoul happens without a haul-out first.
Choosing the antifoul that suits French waters
The Mediterranean and the Atlantic foul differently, and the paint that works in one is wrong for the other.
In the warm, low-tide Med, growth is aggressive and slime-heavy, so most owners run a hard matrix or a strong self-polishing copper-based paint and accept scrubbing mid-season. In the cooler, tidal Atlantic, weed and barnacle pressure is high in summer but the season is shorter, and a self-polishing antifoul that wears as you sail suits a boat that actually moves. If you keep the boat in a marina berth and sail little, fouling is worse than for a boat that scours itself at speed, whichever coast you are on.
Whatever you pick, sort the anodes at the same time. A zinc anode in salt water is the standard, and a 10 metre boat usually carries a shaft anode plus a hull anode that want checking annually. Replacing them while the boat is already in the slings costs minutes. Replacing them on a special trip costs another hoist.
When you actually need a survey
A survey is not an annual job. You commission one in three situations: when you buy, when your insurer demands it (commonly every five to ten years on older hulls), and when something has gone wrong and you need a professional opinion before a claim or a sale.
A full pre-purchase survey on a 11 to 12 metre boat in France costs broadly 1,000 to 1,500 euros, and an out-of-water survey on an 11.4 metre boat has been quoted around 1,050 euros. Surveyors here bill either per metre of hull or by the day, so a complicated old boat with a sea trial costs more than a tidy modern one. Use a surveyor on the Chambre Nationale des Experts Maritimes et Fluviaux list, or one your insurer recognises, because a survey the insurer rejects is money burned.
If you are buying, do not pay for the survey until the boat is out of the water and you have already screened it yourself. Walk the hull against the hull inspection points from a naval engineer on your own first visit, and only commission the surveyor on a boat you are genuinely ready to buy. A survey confirms and quantifies problems for negotiation, it does not replace your own eyes.
Timing the two jobs around one lift
The whole point of planning is to do everything that needs the boat ashore in a single haul-out.
If you are an existing owner, that means stacking the antifoul, anode swap, seacock and skin-fitting service, a check for osmosis blistering, and any rudder or keel inspection into one week on the hard. If you are buying, it means lining up the surveyor for the haul-out window so the boat is lifted once, inspected, and either bought or walked away from.
The osmosis check matters in France because plenty of 1980s and 1990s production boats here have never been treated. A professional osmosis treatment on a 12 metre hull runs 8,000 to 11,000 euros, roughly 300 to 400 euros per square metre of underwater surface, so a moisture-meter reading during the survey is one of the most valuable numbers you will get. Above 20 percent after three months ashore points to active osmosis. Below 14 percent, you can relax.
Doing the antifoul yourself: the order that works
If your yard lets you paint, the job is straightforward but unforgiving of shortcuts, and the prep is most of it.
Start the moment the pressure wash dries. Scrape off any loose flaking paint, then sand the whole surface to a key, wearing a proper mask because old antifoul dust is genuinely toxic. Wipe the hull down with the solvent the paint maker specifies, not white spirit you grabbed in the chandlery. Mask the waterline crisply, because a wavy boot top is the tell-tale sign of a rushed job that every buyer and surveyor spots later.
Prime any bare gelcoat or repaired patches with the matched primer, then roll two coats of antifoul, putting an extra band on the leading edges, the rudder, the waterline and around the prop where wear and fouling hit hardest. Most paints want overcoating within a set window, often a few hours to a day apart, so read the tin and do not let the weather stall you halfway.
That last point bites in France. An Atlantic relaunch is tied to the tide, so you paint to a deadline whether the forecast cooperates or not. A Mediterranean spring can throw a sudden mistral that grounds painting for two days while your storage meter keeps running. Build slack into the week ashore and you will not end up relaunching with one wet coat.
A sensible annual cycle
Here is how I run a boat kept in France as a non-resident.
Once a year, haul out at the yard near my base, antifoul (myself where the yard allows, otherwise by their team), swap anodes, service seacocks, and eyeball the hull, keel joint and rudder. Budget roughly 750 to 1,000 euros for a yard antifoul on a 10 metre boat, far less if I do the painting, plus the lift, launch and storage on top.
Every five years or so, or whenever the insurer asks, add a proper survey to that haul-out, 1,000 to 1,500 euros for a mid-size boat, timed so the surveyor sees the hull stripped and the moisture meter reads true.
Keep every invoice. A folder of dated antifoul, anode and survey receipts is worth real money when you come to sell, because it proves the boat has been maintained. That paper trail, and the tax and broker mechanics around it, are covered in the guide to selling your boat in France through a broker. The boat you maintain methodically in France is the boat that sells without a fight.
