"A partly sheltered piece of water near the shore where ships can ride at anchor."

I have appreciated the magnificent Rade de Villefranche which has sheltered vessels for untold thousands of years (although open to SW gales) since I first anchored there as a Midshipman in Lord Mountbatten's flagship. But "shelter" does not guarantee safety from error or neglect, and there have been plenty of accidents over the centuries. The most dramatic was on July 2nd when the giant cruise liner Millennium (94000 tons, 2450 passengers) hit the western shore while testing her propulsion controls, which apparently jammed in astern.  One enormous propeller blade sheared off (to be recovered later by inquisitive divers) and the ship quietly departed without reporting the accident to the locals. Just a routine "computer failure", but quite frightening.

Much earlier shipwrecks are documented, notably the Genoese ships Lomellina of 1516 and Sainte Dorothéa of 1693, both due to unexpected SW squalls. Most of the crews drowned ­ being able to swim was unusual in those days. The Lomellina wreck was discovered in 1979 and many of her artefacts are displayed ashore in the famous Citadelle. Meanwhile the wreck site is a well-charted prohibited anchorage between the two mooring buoys, though many yachts still drop their heavy anchors right on top, under the benevolent eye of the French Navy semaphore on Cap Ferrat. If a prohibition is not enforced, why keep it.

There must have been many incidents when Villefranche ­ the sole seaport for the Duchy of Savoy until Nice harbour was constructed in the 18th century - was the base for the Genoese, Savoyan, Russian, French and American Navies, and there are many models and pictures of ironclads in the excellent Villefranche Naval Museum in the harbour car-park. The Royal Navy's frigate HMS Wrangler drove ash

ore in 1955 when a cable parted ­ we sold the ship off to South Africa where she gave another 20 years service. In those steam-ship days it was difficult to keep steam up ready for emergency, but a similar accident claimed the well-known charter yacht Midsummer in 1990. There the problem when the anchor dragged (just below the owner's villa) was the air-start engines, when someone had forgotten to top-up the air bottles. The sailing cruise liner Club Med II almost stranded when the hawsers securing her to the buoy parted in an Augus

t squall; but she just got away with it ­ as I often have.

Soon after, a jolly nocturnal outing turned into tragedy when a small speedboat left the Darse (harbour) and crashed into one of the big mooring buoys. The four young occupants were catapulted onto the buoy and were badly injured but luckily survived. They blamed the fact that the buoy was not lit by a marker light, but nobody can mark all obstacles at sea ­ it is up to seamen to find their way by proper navigation. And what if the light was one night extinguished and some careless boater ran into it?

Villefranche plans to lay moorings in the bay to accommodate the hundreds of yachts which anchor in the Roads on a summer Sunday. But then who is accountable if the mooring breaks? When in 2001 Joe Doran's classic 40ft sail-yacht dragged ashore on Cap Ferrat and broke up, he alone was responsible for the heartbreak because it was his own anchor and the yacht was unattended. Ditto for the small motor-cruiser which sat on the car park at the head of the bay for a year after grounding in 2005, prior to being dismantled on-site. And this August, a fine Sundancer 355 (British flag again ­ oh dear!) drove ashore with only three children onboard, the owner and wife being ashore for shopping when the squall hit.

Of course boats sink even in the Darse. Erroll Flynn's famous Zaca was one, so rotten the decks let in all the rain so if the pumps failed she sank until resting on the bottom ­ no harm done. (Since happily restored - see "The Old-Timers" in Reporter 120). And Adnan Kashoggi's Mohammedia caught fire in the Voisin shipyard ­ the firemen's efforts did extinguish the blaze, but (as often) the vessel sank under the weight of water.

But it's not all gloom ­ though the shipyard closed 15 years ago as unprofitable due to the high rental demanded, the famous dry-dock is well-booked and is again surrounded by marine artisans as in the old days. Villefranche Roads is a favourite port of call for cruiseliners, and will always remain a picturesque destination for yachts. Except that there has been a marked reduction in those over 50-metres length since the imposition of compulsory pilotage both entering and leaving the roads. A racket benefiting the Nice pilots. I will stay with my small boat, and pilot myself.  

From Riviera Reporter 123 Oct/Nov 2007 

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