For harbour offices and tourist offices: a guide to pass on, free and up to date

Why this guide exists

Every summer, the French Maritime Prefecture names the leading cause of call-outs: “inexperience, lack of preparation and irresponsible behaviour”. Summer 2025 in the Mediterranean: 3,536 call-outs, 3,928 offences, 48% of them for speed and navigation zones and 42% for safety equipment (2025 review). The Var is the leading French department for motor boating, the Alpes-Maritimes the second (SNOSAN, summer 2025). Breakdowns and mooring failures account for more than four operations in ten; groundings are “often linked to a lack of knowledge of the geographical area” (SNSM, 2025 review).

The rules exist, but they are scattered: one order per bay, one buoy-booking method per town, outdated maps, almost everything in French. This guide brings them together for the person about to set off within the hour, and keeps them up to date.

What the guide gives your boaters

• One guide per area, from Saint-Tropez to Menton: channels, speeds, swimming zones, permitted anchorages, ports and VHF, with a link to the order in force (example: the golfe de Saint-Tropez).
• The rules in ten lines, repeated at the top of each area guide, and the official 2026 watchword, PEA: Prepare, Equip, Alert (French Maritime Prefecture).
• Mooring buoys and how to book them, zone by zone, with the dates, the sizes accepted and the right channel (the buoy map).
• What to do in case of breakdown: 196, channel 16, PAN PAN or MAYDAY, the rental company, towing (the breakdown sheet).
• Can I go out today? The winds of each basin, the shelters and the pitfalls (the basin-by-basin guide).
• The fuel stations with their opening hours and the harbour office’s channel (the stations).
• The first trip, the marine forecast, Posidonia, jet skis.

Everything is written from the official texts, cited at the bottom of each page with the date they were consulted. The guide replaces neither the orders, nor the harbour office’s instructions, nor the day’s weather forecast, and says so.

How to pass it on

• A link on the “boating” or “ports” page of your website: https://sunseahub.com/guide-nautique/, or straight to the guide for your area.
• A QR code printed at the harbour office counter, at the fuel station, at the tourist office: write to us and we will send you the QR code for your area, ready to print.
• A sentence in your welcome booklet or your boaters’ charter: “Before setting out, read the guide to the bay: rules, buoys, safety, in four languages.”
• The four languages: every page exists in French, English, German and Italian; the language selector is at the top of each guide.

Correcting and adding to it

A new order, a buoy zone that changes its booking method, a station’s opening hours, a mistake: write to contact@sunseahub.com. The correction is made and dated, and the page keeps a record of it in its sources. The buoy zones are reviewed every spring, when the seasonal orders are published.

The guide is published by SunSea Hub, management software for boat rental companies. It sells nothing to boaters: the only commercial link is the directory of the rental companies that use it, labelled as such.

Official sources

• French Maritime Prefecture for the Mediterranean — 2026 safety campaign
• French Maritime Prefecture for the Mediterranean — summer 2025 review
• SNOSAN — review of the 2025 summer season
• SNSM — 2025 operational review

Sources consulted on 26 September 2026. This guide helps you prepare a trip; it replaces neither the texts in force, nor the rental company’s instructions, nor the day’s weather forecast.