We’ve received some important information from St Cast Marina.
Post Brexit – 9th May 2023
I checked and the special status for Saint Cast and Saint Quay did finish on 30th September 2023. They hope it will start again on 1st June 2024.
We are delighted to inform you that, following discussions we have pursued with the relevant authorities during the off-season months, we have been granted the same derogation for the ports of Saint Cast and Saint Quay as last year, that is to say, as temporary PPF ports. Visitors to the above-named marinas will, therefore not need to call at any permanent PPF port, such as Saint-Malo, Le Légué or Roscoff, prior to sailing to Saint Cast or Saint Quay for the period June 1st to September 30th, 2023
A copy of the official Declaration of Arrival/Departure notice is below. This stipulates that it should be completed and sent to either Saint Cast or Saint Quay as the first ports of call. The port office in the marina concerned will then forward the Declaration to the relevant maritime authorities in Saint Brieuc.
email address stcast.plaisance@cotesdarmor.cci.fr
Arrival / Departure document customised for Saint Cast: Controle-aux-frontieres-2023 St Cast
Procedure information: PROCEDURE BREXIT PORT ST-CAST – GB[2019]
Following our previous announcement concerning the granting of temporary direct entry/departure status to the ports of Saint Cast and Saint Quay, please be advised that, following further consideration, the ports of Lézardrieux, Tréguier and Trébeurden have now been accorded similar recognition for the 2023 season.
The procedure necessary for access to these ports in the Côtes d’Armor is given in the attached document.
Please note that the particular Declaration attached hereto is for the port of Saint Cast. Similar versions for the other temporary status ports will be available on their websites, and can be downloaded by those wishing to visit the marinas in the Côtes d’Armor.
Please note that all such visits must start and terminate in one of the ports shown above.
Report July 2023
When we were here, all the pots in the approach have disappeared. We have been here early season, and most things are shut. Even now in high season, outside of weekends, the area is surprisingly not busy. Yet, it is a well-run marina, and the beach provides a great open skyline and it is one of the best Marinas on the coastline, I think.
A few discoveries for us, at least. Up the hill towards the post office( so quite a trek from the marina) is a proper fishmonger and a very good butcher, but check times and seasons.
Walks. Westwards is ok, eastwards do not bother beyond the beach. However, take the bus (E 2.50) from behind the Tourist Office to St Briac ( St Malo direction)and there is very fine walking from the west of the town, northwards and onwards and the very small village is charming. Too many fine beaches to count.
Also, in the same direction, take the bus to St Jacut and walk the peninsula, hopefully taking in the ruins of the castle up the river. If out on the sands in the north, do take care as they advise to be off them 1.5 hours after low water, and they do cover very quickly indeed.
Both really are fine walking areas, but unfortunately, buses are infrequent even in high season.
Saint-Cast is one of our favourite marinas. It is open at all tides and has excellent, modern facilities. Next to the large marina are 4 restaurants and the main town lies at the end of a scenic promenade walk and has a good range of shops and restaurants which stay open all year.
The marina is well organised and they are able to take fairly large boats, so give them a call if you are interested in staying. Well worth a visit if in the area.
The management and staff at Saint-Cast are very proactive and make a great effort to ensure their marina remains one of the best in Northern Brittany.
2017 has seen the addition of more pontoons, especially a long pontoon around the inside of the wall for visiting fleets and extra mooring for visitors.
Navigation – Approach
The port of Saint-Cast is situated to the South East of Saint-Cast Point, overlooked by a signal station and flanked by rocks 500 metres to the North East. Officially it is not advisable to pass between the Point and the Bourdinots Shelf, uncovered rocks (2 metres) situated ¾ of a mile to the North East of the Point, and signalled to the North East by a Cardinal East buoy. It is preferable to leave the shelf to the east before heading to the entrance of the channel to the port. There is, however good room between the rocks and the land if approaching from the West, and you take care.
The journey to St Cast from Guernsey was approx 51nm. Head for NW Minquiers and then SW Minquiers. A buoyed channel with red and green buoys mark the entrance channel quite clearly as you arrive at the marina.
There can be a large number of pot buoys in the approach – may be a gamble at night.
Opening hours :
Season time (July 1st to August 31st)
The marina is open from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM
The marina office is open from 8:45 AM to 1:00 PM and from 2:00 PM to 7:15 PM
Offseason
The marina office is open from 9:00 AM to 12:00 AM and 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
It has 825 places on pontoons, including 40 short/medium stay places for visitors, and approx. 180 buoy moorings. The marina can take boats as large as 50ft. The marina office says there is 2m of water below datum.
Once you get in – look for the Visitors Pontoon.
Personnel should be on hand afloat to greet incoming boats at all times throughout the week from 08h00 to 21h00 (from 07h00 as from July 1st). Call VHF channel 9. The port personnel are normally in a red rib.
If you are 10m or more, turn left between C & D pontoons and go right to the end until orange ‘V’s start to appear on pontoon poles. If 9m or shorter, turn left after D and again go right to the end.
The shower/toilet and office block include 18 well-appointed shower facilities with wet and dry areas, en-suite hand basins, hair-dryer and electric razor plug points. Separate washbasin facilities are also available for a quick wash and brush-up. The facility has a non-slip floor with underfloor heating, with hot water provided by solar panels, and also includes two washing machine/dryers and a dishwashing area. Hair dryers are now available on request at the front desk.
WiFi is available free of charge in the Marina office. It is available on some of the pontoons and seems to be much improved. A booster wifi antenna may help. There is no charge for WiFi which is welcomed. You no longer need a code. You log into the marina “port” WiFi and provide your details, and you should then have a connection. VPN does appear to work.
The credit card-operated refuelling berth provides a 24h/24h service, and a pumping station can accept lightly polluted treatable water as well as highly polluted residues.
Contact information
The Telephone number for the Marina Master’s office is +33 (0)2 96 81 04 43.
E-mail: stcast.plaisance@cotesdarmor.cci.fr
stcast.plaisance at cotesdarmor.cci.fr
web site www.cotesdarmor.cci.fr
www.cotesdarmor.cci.fr/infrastructures-e…
Facebook: www.facebook.com/portdesaintcast
Facilities
Contact info
Radio Channel: VHF channel 9
E-mail: stcast.plaisance@cotesdarmor.cci.fr
Tourism website
www.saintcastleguildo.fr/index.php?lang=…
Car Rental – available from Garage Les Mielles, 13 Bd de la Vieuxville. Telephone: +33 (0)2 96 41 76 04
Website – www.dinan-capfrehel.com/commerces/garage…
You can contact them by using garagelesmielles@gmail.com
Taxi – Useful taxi number is 02 96 41 86 16 – they speak good English and are based in Saint-Cast.
Weather Forecast
france.meteofrance.com/france/meteo?PREV……
WebCam
data.diabox.com/?id=108&view=webcam
Tides
tide.frbateaux.net/54
www.very-utile.com/horaire-maree-saint-c…
Guide du Port – www.guide-du-port.com/port-saint-cast-le…
The Marina being built & other info
www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/426044/new-…
www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2053…
marinas.com/view/marina/8496_Saint_Cast_…
Some Forum chat
www.ybw.com/forums/index.php
At the Marina
There is now a large shop at the start of the promenade with a large selection of clothing together with nautical items and a small chandlery.
The Fish Restaurant is impressive and has a fish shop connected.
The marina has 4 restaurants within the large square building at the top of the marina. In good weather, they all have an outside area across the road which is a great place to sit and what the world (or boats) go by.
There is now also a small shop that sells all the essentials; wine, cheese, and croissants in the morning. Very useful. Oh, and washing up liquid. New in 2022. Opens at 8 am
The big market day is on Monday in July and August and is really worth a visit.
Markets
Monday
Restaurants
There are so many excellent restaurants in St Cast, we have created a separate page – the only marina to have this.
See Digimap’s restaurants page
Lifting dock
The lifting dock opened at the start of May 2012. Repair/maintenance facilities are also available.
Situated next to the boat handling area, the careening area has a 1,250 m² fully impermeable surface, including boat hoist alleys, and is likely to accept twenty or so boats from 6m to 15m in length, 4.30 overall beam.
Last but not least, a twenty-ton boat hoist and 2.5-ton dismasting/stepping jib are installed over the dock to complete the range of equipment available.
Please contact the marina office or handling service for more details and modalities.
In 2019, one of our readers had a bad case of rope around his duoprop that couldn’t be resolved by a commercial diver. He has kindly provided the following information.
“The hoist in St Cast (22MT weight limit) is booked through the port office and can be paid there cash or credit card (single lift EUR 201 including TVA).
Rouxel Marine (Jeanneau dealer +33 2 96 41 08 79) located between St Cast and Matignon did a very good job (neat, tidy, thorough, professional). They accept cash or card at the main office/workshop and at their sales office in the port.”
The entire facility is managed by the Côtes d’Armor C.C.I.
Bus Service
The bus service from St Cast to other destinations is a bit of a mixed bag, depending on the time of year.
The service from St Cast to St Malo is excellent. The Ti Bus (now called BreizhGo) runs three times a day and twice a day on Sundays, but pick up a timetable from the tourist information centre or look online for more details. The bus stop is behind the tourist information centre and you pay as you get on. The grand sum of 2 Euros will get one person one way and the journey takes about one hour. The trip is very scenic and takes you to the St Jacquet sur mer peninsula and over the Rance barrage. If you are interested in going on to Paris, the bus stops at the very modern train station, making it very convenient to connect to the rest of France. To get from here to the Intramuros takes about 10 to 15 minutes on foot or there is a shuttle bus for those of you who don’t want to work up an appetite for lunch.
The bus service from St Cast to Dinan is somewhat different. We discovered that it only seems to run until the 26 May, although the tourist information office didn’t know this and neither did a lovely old French lady who spent 20 minutes with us as we all waited fruitlessly for the arrival of a bus that didn’t arrive! Bus information as of August 2017. Thanks, Damon
Walk
We had a lovely walk along the path away from the town direction, to the next little bay as recommended by Jean. You start at the orientation table to the North of the marina and walk along a path. You have to walk around a campsite – lovely little bay, good swimming, nice picnic area and a very short walk up over the hill into town – café open in season and at weekends. If you continue walking, you arrive at another couple of beaches and again you can walk quite quickly back to Saint-Cast. Head along the Rue des Nouettes for the upper Town and then down the Montee du Panorama path.
Bookings
Please call the marinas direct if you wish to find out how busy they are. Nearly all the Brittany and Normandy marinas DO NOT take reservations and so beware of 3rd party sites offering bookings.
Video – www.facebook.com/portdesaintcast/videos/…
Gavin May report 2022
Been tidied up with Facilities no longer that green and orange colouring and now more subtle shades of grey! In late May, most visitors’ berths were occupied, not that anyone was on any of the boats. In fine weather, it is still a fantastic spot with good marina staff. The fine sweeping beach is still there, as is the 20 mins walk to the baker and Carrefour! Cafes and bars next to the marina if the place is new to you.