Riviera Reporter
| Aug 12, 2016
Six years ago during the Monaco Yacht Show, Bosun Will Black of the 183-foot (56m) Perini Navi S/Y Burrasca was involved in a tender accident and went missing. His family has recently started a campaign to raise money for a scholarship in his name…
Michael Healy
| Aug 01, 2016
For a display of real opulence, look no further than the ports of Monaco and Antibes. The rows of huge yachts, presented stern-to, inspire awe, if not envy. They cost more to buy and maintain than even the most sumptuous residence. So what is the…
Michael Healy
| Dec 08, 2015
The Germans have a concise word for it, Umweltschutz. And Italians call it Salvaguardia dell’ambiente. There will be much talk in these languages and others at the UN’s Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Le Bourget, Paris from November 30th to…
Michael Healy
| Oct 24, 2015
“Où vous allez comme ça?” was the challenge from a police launch as I motored from Menton to Beaulieu. Luckily the sight of my privileged Blue Ensign reassured him, as I was not ordered to stop and show my papers or worse. It does not help official…
Michael Healy
| Sep 17, 2015
The most important event in the megayacht world takes place September 23rd-26th – the celebrated Monaco Yacht Show (
www.monacoyachtshow.com). This is its Jubilee year, the 25th edition, and it will be bigger than ever with berthing space (stern-to…
Michael Healy
| May 30, 2015
Responsible seamen – that means all of us boaters – continue to reflect on the recent mass tragedies of the sunken Korean ferryboat Sewol and the Costa Concordia beached on the island of Giglio not far from the Riviera. Reports of maritime disasters…
Michael Healy
| May 03, 2015
Just 50 years ago a radical decision taken in the French parliament in Paris was being implemented along our coast. It was the dawn of the yacht marinas, developed in the 1960s by the pioneers Pierre Canto (in Cannes) and Camille Rayon (Golfe Juan),…
Michael Healy
| Feb 08, 2015
Peaceful times in the Riviera ports, except for occasional violent weather that has, over the centuries, sunk many ships and craft on our Coasts; yet not far away, conflict rages in Syria, Libya and Iraq. One day, Britain will be caught up in some…
Michael Healy
| Nov 29, 2014
The 2014 season on the Riviera is finished – the culmination was the Monaco Yacht Show and Les Voiles de St Tropez, especially for the classic and racing yachts. The big yachts and their hard-working crews usually settle into a winter refit here, or…
Michael Healy
| Oct 10, 2014
One of the world’s most beautiful bays is right here on our Riviera: Villefranche, with its historical old town and waterfront, classy boutiques and restaurants, military citadel (now serving as the mairie and housing an open-air cinema plus three…
Michael Healy
| May 25, 2014
The beneficial rays of the sun are what bring many of us to the warmth of the Riviera – and soon we may find a better use for surplus rays than roasting our backs on the beach, for which I hope most of us have more sense. Solar-heated houses are…
Michael Healy
| May 01, 2014
The news from Monaco this spring (2014) has been very upbeat about the prosperity of this unconventional city-state. NO external debt, NO income tax (for most residents), NO unemployment, NO crime (relatively), NO riots (or water cannon!), NO…
Michael Healy
| Oct 13, 2013
Travelling along the Riviera coast by sea, road or rail revealed a phenomenon new this summer: an amazing number of large yachts anchored not far offshore. This is sometimes because of parsimonious owners or charterers avoiding marina fees, but it…
Michael Healy
| Jul 03, 2013
Of all God’s creatures among us, some seem less admirable than others: snakes, wasps, cockroaches, and moths. In the nautical field, the méduse (jellyfish) romps home unchallenged … by several lengths. The villain along our Riviera coasts, the…
Michael Healy
| May 12, 2013
Old and feeble. I’m referring to the French annual Boat Tax – the droit de passeport – for residents in France who on January 1st each year own and/or operate a foreign-flag vessel over 7 metres long or with motorisation over 22 fiscal HP (about…
Nick Kent
| Apr 28, 2013
Maybe you’re looking a buy a boat, or, more likely in these difficult times, you’re looking for the next best thing – hiring one.Either way you’ll need you know the ropes – lines, as seamen call them – before you cast off into the beautiful blue…
Mike Meade
| Mar 13, 2013
During the Mitterrand years, France learned just how fiscal greed can be catastrophic to a vital and mobile local industry like yachting. A socialist-inspired tonnage tax saw Riviera yachts fleeing to more tax friendly havens like Spain and Italy.…
Michael Healy
| Jan 20, 2013
“Marriages are made in Heaven”, and many would agree. In France they are also made only in the mairie. Anglo-Saxon countries vest in priests the power to celebrate marriages, though Registry Offices are an alternative to a church wedding; and…
Michael Healy
| Nov 07, 2012
A few weeks ago there were 30 grand yachts anchored at the bottom of our garden enjoying the warm Indian summer. Now, there are none even though many fine days remain over winter to go boating. Where have they gone? West. In the days of the now…
Russell Lunt
| Feb 29, 2012
This year the Antibes Raft Race will take place on April 21. You don't have to be a yachtie to turn up for some family fun and contribute to some well-deserved charities. THE HISTORY In a note to the 1977 edition of ‘The Boatswain's Manual’ (c) 1977…
Michael Healey
| Oct 28, 2011
The Old-Timers 2007 – year of the bi-annual Monaco Classic Week (12-16 September, just before the Monaco Yacht Show). Which new veteran yachts will be attracted to Monte-Carlo for this wonderful event, organised since 1994 by the Yacht Club de…
Michael Healy
| Nov 20, 2006
The recent society "wedding" of film-star Pamela Anderson by a Riviera megayacht captain off Pampelonne Beach near St Tropez has rekindled interest in the thrill and glamour of being married at sea. This subject was treated in Riviera Reporter N° 48…