Riverly Reviews 

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. We are just now returning to our home in Minnesota after our month in France, the first week of which was aboard the penichette “Clamecy,” from Joigny to Corbigny on the wonderful Canal du Nivernais.
Our cruise was everything I dreamed it would be — the magnificent French countryside, the fabulous restaurants, and the ancient ecluses with their friendly locktenders. The boat performed flawlessly, every component working as advertised, and clear explanations of everything before we left Base Joigny. There were explicit manuals onboard to answer any questions that might arise. But as I said, everything worked perfectly.

My only issue (and it is a very small issue) is that when I tried to reserve a WiFi box in advance I was told there would be no problem simply asking for one on the day of our departure. Except there were no WiFi boxes available and we had to do without, which created a few problems for one of our passengers who runs a business back home. She was able to get her work done in a few of the larger villages where we moored.

I posted on Facebook as we travelled and so many people were completely taken by the beauty of the Yonne River Valley. They want to try their penichette in the future. I highly recommend it.

Bonjour!

This was our third time renting with Locaboat in 3 years. We continue to go back to Locaboat because the boats are in outstanding condition, they provide excellent training and handover for non-boaters like ourselves, and the variety of locations to rent from and boat on is really interesting.

The check in and check out process was good. The instructions were helpful but we were certainly glad that one of us had boat experience, especially when docking in strong currents and wind. It was a lovely route, though, and we enjoyed the experience. The boat we had was old but OK - a more updated interior would have been nice.

The on-site staff were great. They drove us to the grocery to get food for our trip and arranged a taxi before and after our trip. Their English was good so we had no communication issues.
One problem we had is that the heat wouldn't come on in the last few days of our trip. Luckily, the weather wasn't too cold or it would have been a real problem.
Also, the steering from the bridge seemed sloppy and hard to control. We don't remember this issue when we rented the same model boat a few years ago.

All the staff were friendly and helpful with excellent English. The introductory instruction was very thorough. The boat performed faultlessly. We enjoyed our 7 nights and highly recommend this company.

The information and instruction provided allowed us to easily manage the boat and the locks plus plan our stops and sightseeing. The boat was a good size for our family of 4 to be very comfortable. Everything provided on board was of good quality and worked well.

Awesome experience as always! Excellent quality boats, easy to manoeuvre, and great to be able to travel slowly without unpacking.

The overall experience was great, since the very first contact with Locaboat. You were very kind changing our first reservation of boat type and drop off location.
I think that you could improve the briefing pré departure about the boat funcionalities and the route to follow.

If you are doing this for the first time MAKE SURE YOU GET A BOAT WITH BOW THRUSTERS

Okay where to start.
Enjoyable mostly, with times of high stress.
With two of us on board we were given some instruction on the basics. Never having done this before it was a bit daunting and all too quick to take on.
I found steering very difficult at first.
The only thing we were told about the locks was don't jump off the boat as people have hurt themselves and even ended up in hospital doing this. First lock 10 minutes away and end of holiday for some.
The seat for the steering was to say the least, very very uncomfortable; it seemed to have been repaired badly at some point.
As no instruction was given about ropes, we were totally inept at getting the ropes around the bollards.
We looked up the best way to do it on YouTube after three days of messing about.

Now I was sure that I had ordered a boat with bow thrusters, but that model was not available in France, so without them we were floundering about in high winds with the boat swinging around uncontrollably, with our limited ability.

Without the help of other people at locks getting ropes for us and helping out we would have been packing up and abandoning the trip.
The boat was not easy to handle for two people, as the information suggested when we booked, and we are fit over 60s who run and cycle.

On the trip we met two women. One had fallen into a lock, and the other had fallen and hit her head and ended up in hospital.

In short, to hire out a boat without thrusters, to two people, with no experience and no adequate warning on the booking site, is to be honest nigh on insane. It very nearly spoilt the whole experience.
I would not recommend it to young people let alone older persons.
People we met, who had bow thrusters, wondered how in the world we had managed, as even with them they had trouble, and most of them had more people on the boat than just two.
When we mentioned this when we returned the boat the explanation was. “Well thirty years ago no boat had thrusters.” Yea well 70 years ago vehicles had no power steering and drum brakes, and cross ply tyres , but I would not expect to go to Hertz and hire one today.

I will be doing a Youtube video of some of the experiences and will have to BLEEP out quite a bit through the locks. The worst one was a Five F lock and that was just from my wife,who is normally not given to profanities.

Le Boat, another company who hires boats, does have a warning on their website about boats needing at least three people to operate them.

The back up service and emergency call out worked very well for us when we had a mechanical problem.

We enjoyed our cruise. The boat was well outfitted, performed well and was comfortable. There were a few small details that popped up: when a lock master was not present, we called our base for some assistance, they helped. Our ending base was titled differently than what we were expecting, but all ended well. We will return for a different canal cruise in the future.

The Penichette was well prepared and functioned without problem. The checkout was adequate and courteous and the customer service was all that we could ask for.

Check in and orientation were good . The checkout was a bit chaotic. Boats had good layout. However there was a problem with the batteries as the alarm sounded twice at 3 in the morning. We were able to find the inverter (as we are familiar marine systems) and turn off. Likely a weak battery.

The boat was poorly maintained and had mould due to standing water. It flooded when filled with freshwater. The batteries were weak which prevented the heating from being used unless the engine was started

This is the third time we have rented from Locaboat. The boat was clean and everything worked as expected. We will be renting from Locaboat again. There are a few things that I think should be included: a few extra rolls of toilet paper, dishwashing liquid and hand soap.

We had a wonderful trip. The boat was lovely. Staff were helpful. Really good value

We had a great two weeks on Yonne and adjacent canals. This was our 12th trip with Locaboat. Craft was in good condition, staff helpful and the weather cooperated. We'll be back.

Booking and main office staff helpful although trying to arrange for separate 1/4 fee invoicing to each of 4 couples required my repeated checking

Very helpful staff on ground in Lutzelbourg although irritating wait before I by-passed the over busy reception office and got a member of harbour crew to allow us to get on boat and load our luggage and food.
Some aspects of billing and insurance cover confusing and troubling as presented by welcome office.

Boat well equipped and in good order although one toilet very smelly on arrival aboard.

Many restaurants closed. Information needed.
More information about boulangeries and supermarket locations along the canal would be very helpful

The boat was well-appointed and the staff was friendly and helpful. We would have benefited a great deal from much more information on the river we were planning to navigate. The River Yonne is quite shallow if you move off the channel (which is just a dotted line on a paper map). Unlike canal boating, I had to monitor the depth meter at all times to avoid inadvertently running aground. You cannot moor on the shore of the river, so we had to find a pier for docking. However, all of the piers we passed were full of boats and the site we planned as an overnight destination was too shallow to approach. We ended up boating for over 8 hours and finally tied up to a moored boat with the permission of the owner. Not a relaxing vacation. We also could have used up to date information on the state of the river. The staff gave us the information they had—which was that there were no navigation issues on the river. However, there were issues. We did not know the river had flooded a few months before (learned this from a lock keeper). And most importantly that the dam by one of the locks had been breached—which meant very strong currents rushing across the entrance and a whirlpool to navigate. If we had known about the treacherous water we would have either gotten some specific instruction on how to navigate that kind of water, or more likely, taken a different route on a canal.

This was a great adventure for our group of 6 who had minimal experience with such a large motorboat. The boat was clean. A good orientation was provided by the staff. We interacted with the service department 3 times during our one week voyage and they responded quickly to address our concerns. We had a few issues with the bow thrusters and it would have been helpful to know at orientation that the switches in the forward starboard cabin were under the bed.
The bedding and towels provided were a bit tired and should be replaced. Overall, we would recommend Locaboat to those wishing to try a self driven boat tour of the River Lot.