Coastal camping: the pleasure of sailing, quite simply!

Imagine yourself on a beach, it’s summer and the sun is setting over the deep blue sea… Around your campfire, you take advantage of these moments with your family before going to sleep in the tent… Tomorrow, a wonderful new day awaits you: you will take the helm of your little cat (or trimaran – delete where necessary) and head off to another sublime creek where only you can land, thanks to your shallow draft and unequalled manoeuvrability! You like the sound of it?  Then you must have the coastal camping virus…

But what is coastal camping?

As its name indicates, coastal camping is an activity in which you sail along the coast in your little multihull (it works with a monohull too, but it’s not as nice…). As its accommodation is often reduced to the simplest form, the only solution when you stop is to pitch a tent, either on the beach or on the boat’s trampoline. This way of sailing has (very) many advantages: you can change your cruising area at will, as these boats are easily transportable, they are not expensive, either to buy or maintain, and cruises are quite frankly economical - no marinas and no excessive provisioning... In short, a leisure sailor’s delight!

Where and when to go?

The formula’s advantage is that no destination is excluded… With the boat on the trailer, you can go anywhere you want to, from your ‘home port’. Even the other side of the sea, if you organise your boat’s transfer early enough. Once at your destination, all you have to do is leave the car and the trailer in a car park (if it has a guardian, so much the better for finding your trailer again), and the adventures are yours for the taking. .
Amongst the favourite destinations of coastal raid lovers, we find Corsica, Brittany (with the superb Golfe du Morbihan), as well as Scandinavia, Scotland and its canal, the Adriatic and its anchorages, which are as numerous as they are deserted… Finally, the only limit of the formula is your imagination. The cruising period is much easier to define: coastal raids demand real commitment from the crew. With little or no interior living space, coastal camping multihulls are more tiring and offer comfort and protection which is only relative. Unless you are looking for the ultimate excitement of an extreme raid, you would be well advised to choose the summer period to enjoy your cruise, and especially your anchorages, to the full.

What boat for what type of raid?

You would not choose the same boat to go on holiday with the family in Corsica as for a competition raid… In the family of raid or coastal camping multihulls, we find barely-modified sport catamarans, sport trimarans, with or without a small cabin, and cats and trimarans with comfortable liveability for a small family, allowing you to avoid the tent on the beach or the trampoline. All these boats have in common the fact that they can be dismantled and are easily transportable, to take you to discover the playground of your choice.

The sport catamarans

From the Hobie ...