Harbour

Bassin de St Nazaire

Name: Bassin de St Nazaire
Address: Saint-Nazaire, FR

1.2Saint-Nazaire, FranceVendée

Type: Harbour

Locked commercial basin at the mouth of the Loire in Saint-Nazaire, used as a transit stop by yachts entering the river on their way upstream to Nantes.

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Enter the Loire estuary on the flood to counter the ebb current, which exceeds 3 knots at springs off the Pointe de Chémoulin. The bassin is entered through the Écluse sud or the Écluse Joubert, both run by the Grand Port Maritime Nantes Saint-Nazaire. Port control on VHF 12 before approach. Commercial traffic has priority, including car carriers and LNG tankers bound for Montoir.

Practical

Yacht berthing is limited, most pleasure craft lie alongside the quai des Marées or on the east pontoon, arranged in advance with the Grand Port. Water and electricity available on request. Pornichet marina is 6 NM west on the open coast for a conventional marina with all services. Fuel, chandlery and supermarkets in the town of Saint-Nazaire around the basin.

Ashore

The former German submarine base, a 300 m long concrete bunker built in 1941, stands on the north side of the basin and is open to visitors, housing the Escal'Atlantic ocean liner museum. The Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard, builder of the Queen Mary 2 and the Harmony of the Seas, runs guided visits from the basin. The Pont de Saint-Nazaire over the Loire is 2 km south.

History

The bassin was dug between 1856 and 1881 to serve the ocean liner trade to the Americas and the shipyard. The German Kriegsmarine built the submarine base over the old lock in 1941 as one of five U-boat bunkers on the Atlantic coast. The bunker survived 28 Allied bombing raids between 1942 and 1943, which destroyed 85 per cent of the town but left the concrete roof intact.