Harbour

Port Manec'h

3.1Nevez, FranceMorbihan

Maximum length: 42 ft
VHF channel: 9
Maximum draught: 5 ft

Small harbour at the mouth of the Aven and Bélon rivers on the south coast of Finistère, in the commune of Névez. 585 moorings on buoys, 1.8 m maximum draught.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Entry between Pointe de Penquernéo and Pointe de Beg-Morg on the buoyed channel into the river mouth. Strong ebb current on the Aven at spring tides. VHF 9 for the harbour master. Boats can also anchor outside the yellow buoys that mark the moorings, in sandy mud with good holding, though it rolls in a west or south-west swell and is calmest in a northerly. Kerdruc and Rosbras lie 1.2 NM upstream as more sheltered anchorages inside the estuary.

Practical

585 moorings on buoys, with about 16 white numbered visitor buoys marked V in two rows on the south-east side, up from the usual eight or nine. A night runs around 20 euros, more for a larger boat, with a free washing machine and dryer; the public toilets are modest and there is a shower. Harbour launch in season, water at the slip. The harbour closes from mid-October to mid-April, and an SNSM webcam shows free visitor buoys. Bakery and small grocery in the village, nearest supermarket at Névez 4 km inland.

Ashore

Sentier des douaniers GR 34 runs along the cliffs east and west of the harbour, with the restaurant La Châtaigneraie a two-minute walk from the buoys. Plage de Port Manec'h sand beach below the village. Dinghy trips up the tidal Aven and Bélon rivers have to be timed to the tide. Bikes can be hired in the village for the 7 km ride north to Pont-Aven, linked to Gauguin and the Pont-Aven school of painters.

History

Port Manec'h developed as a sea-bathing resort at the end of the 19th century, frequented by painters of the Pont-Aven school around Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard from 1886 onwards.