A tow looks like the simplest thing in the world until you are the one rigging it. Two boats, one line, job done. Then you watch a careless tow yank a cleat clean off a foredeck, or you hear afterwards that the helpful fishing boat is now talking about a salvage claim, and you realise the rope was the easy part. The hard parts are the legal one and the loads.
I have been towed twice in France and have towed others three or four times, and the lessons came mostly from getting it slightly wrong. Here is what I would tell a friend heading across the Channel for their first season.
First, decide whether you even need a tow
The most expensive mistake is reaching for a tow you did not actually need. If you are at anchor in shelter with a dead engine on a calm day, you have a problem, not an emergency, and you have time. Sort the fault, call a marina launch, ask a neighbour. A tow that gets metered should be the last option, not the first.
It becomes urgent when the boat cannot hold its position relative to danger: a lee shore, a tidal gate closing, surf over a bar, a gearbox failure tidal channel where the stream is setting you onto rocks. In that case stop weighing options and make the call. If anyone is in danger, that is a Mayday, and the rescue of people is free. The procedure and the difference between Mayday and Pan Pan are laid out in the french distress safety call procedure.
Who tows you, and what it costs
In France, three broad sources of a tow, with very different cost profiles.
The SNSM, the volunteer lifeboat service, will tow you, but towing the boat (as opposed to rescuing the people) is chargeable. The published rates are roughly 340 euros per hour for boats under 7 metres, 600 euros per hour for 7 to 12 metres, and 690 euros per hour for over 12 metres. The clock usually starts when the lifeboat leaves its berth. The charge is cost recovery rather than profit, but it is real money, and a long round trip on a mid-size yacht runs into four figures. I dig into how the service works and who pays in my piece on snsm lifeboat cost.
A commercial operator or a marina workboat will tow for a fee agreed in advance. This is often the cheapest sensible option close to port. Agree the price before the line goes on.
A passing yacht or fishing boat is where it gets interesting, and where visitors get caught.
The salvage trap
Here is the thing nobody warns you about. If another vessel renders assistance to a boat in peril and saves it from real danger, that can constitute salvage under maritime law, and a salvage award can be a percentage of the boat's value, not an hourly rate. Help freely given between friends on a flat day is not salvage. A line taken in worsening weather off a dangerous coast can be.
You reduce the risk by agreeing terms before any line is passed. A simple verbal agreement, witnessed if possible, that this is assistance at a fixed and modest fee or no fee, changes the legal character of what is happening. Get it on the VHF if you can, so there is a record. Do not let pride or panic skip this step.
If you are the one giving help, the same logic protects you. Offer a tow as a favour at no charge, or name a small fixed fee, and say so clearly before you commit. Heroic salvage of a stranger's yacht sounds romantic until it becomes a dispute.
Rigging the tow: the seamanship
Loads in a tow are far higher than people expect, especially getting a stopped hull moving and in any swell. This is where boats get damaged.
On the towed boat:
- Use the strongest points you have. A bridle to two bow cleats, or better, a line led to the mast base or around the coachroof if your cleats are doubtful, spreads the load.
- Pad every chafe point. A snubbed line sawing on a fairlead at full load will part faster than you would believe.
- Keep a sharp knife to hand. If it all goes wrong you want to cut free instantly.
- Steer to follow the towing boat's wake, not to fight it. Someone on the helm at all times.
On the towing boat:
- Take the strain gently. No snatch loads. Build speed slowly until the tow is moving, then settle to a pace the towed boat can steer at, often slower than you think.
- Use a long line so both boats are on the same part of a wave. In open water a floating line or a weighted catenary absorbs surge.
- Plan the approach to harbour early. Towing into a marina is the hardest part. Many crews shorten right up or shift to an alongside tow for the final manoeuvre.
In tidal waters the stream dominates everything. A 2 to 3 knot foul tide can stop a tow dead, and trying to drag a yacht against a Brittany spring is a fool's errand. Time the tow with the gate, or hold off and wait for slack. The water is doing its own navigating, and a tow that would be easy at slack becomes impossible at peak flow. If you have lost drive in a confined buoyed channel, the right move is often to anchor first and only tow once the stream has eased. The mechanics of that, drive loss in a tideway, are in my piece on gearbox failure tidal channels.
An alongside tow for the last bit
Towing on a long line works well in open water but is awkward in a marina, where you need to steer, stop, and turn the casualty precisely. The trick most experienced crews use for the final approach is to shift to an alongside tow, lashing the disabled boat against the side of the towing vessel with three lines: a bow line, a stern line, and a spring led well aft on the towing boat so the two hulls act as one. Offset the sterns slightly so both props and rudders have clear water. Done properly you can drive the pair like a single boat, ferry-gliding onto a pontoon with full control. Practise it once on a calm day before you ever need it in anger, because rigging it for the first time in a crosswind off a crowded visitor pontoon is not the moment to learn.
Fenders matter more here than anywhere. Two hulls lashed tight will grind against each other in any chop, so pad generously and check the lines as you go.
How to call it in
You arrange a tow either directly with another vessel, or through CROSS, the maritime rescue coordination network that answers VHF channel 16 and the phone number 196. If you are in genuine danger, let CROSS coordinate; they decide whether the SNSM, a commercial boat or a nearby yacht is the right answer. If you are not in danger and simply want assistance, you can often arrange it boat-to-boat on a working channel, but tell CROSS what you are doing so nobody launches a lifeboat for a non-event. For the layout of the CROSS centres and how the coastguard tasking works, see cross french coastguard vhf.
Who pays, in the end
Usually your insurer, if the policy covers it. A reasonable boat policy will pick up towing charges and assistance, but cover written for home waters can be capped or vague about France. Read the assistance and salvage clauses before you leave, and if a passing boat ends up making a salvage claim, that is precisely the kind of thing a proper third-party policy should answer. My notes on insurance foreign flagged boat france cover the clauses worth checking for a foreign hull.
A few hard-won rules to finish on:
- Agree terms before the line goes on. Every time.
- The strongest, best-padded attachment point you have, and a knife within reach.
- Slow and gentle on the strain, follow the wake, plan the harbour approach early.
- Work with the tide, never against a strong stream.
- Free to save people, chargeable to save the boat. Keep that distinction clear in your head when you decide what to ask for.
Get those right and a tow is an inconvenience, not a disaster. Get them wrong and a broken weekend becomes a broken boat or a legal headache. The rope really was the easy part.
