Boat swap in La Rochelle: sail other coasts without chartering

The Seafolk is a club of owners who swap boats for a few days: you sail theirs, they sail yours. It isn't a rental and no money passes from one to the other.

What you get

The Minimes marina has 5,157 berths afloat, 400 of them for visitors. In other words, you're not the only one with a boat waiting at the pontoon.

What you don't have on hand is what lies far from the Atlantic: the Mediterranean, its coasts and its islands. And a Mediterranean owner doesn't have your Atlantic coast. That's where the swap idea comes from.

How it works

1. Sign up and list your boat.
2. When someone sails yours, you earn Knots. Knots are the club's internal credits; you earn them by lending your boat and spend them sailing someone else's.
3. With your Knots you pick a boat and dates, and propose the swap to the owner.
4. If they agree, you swap.

Knots can't be bought or sold. That's what keeps this a swap between owners and not a charter.

Where the club really stands

• It's new: 28 members and 3 boats. Join now and you're among the first.
• Founding membership is free until 31 Dec 2026. A card is registered and nothing is charged before then; from 1 Jan 2027, €90 a year.
• No insurance today. There is no policy in force and no signed agreement. Open: staying aboard at the dock, without sailing, or sailing with a professional skipper. Bareboat (sailing it yourself) is closed.
• It's for people who already own a boat: with no boat in the network there is nothing to swap.

With so few boats, I won't promise there will be a free one on the coast you want tomorrow. I will promise that the more owners join early, the sooner there will be something to choose from.

Join the club

Br, Ignacio López, founder — The Seafolk

This is how yours would look in the club: a sample listing, with made-up data.

Source: Port de La Rochelle, Les Minimes (in French)