Rightly or wrongly we assumed that we would easily source our brand of antifoul paint, after all XM Yachting was purchased by Plastimo and brought into the list of Navimo companies, that currently forms one of Europe's largest marine distributors, the Navimo Group. However to our surprise we've been unable to source XM Antifoul within any of the local chandlers in La Rochelle or even Google.fr so we made the decision to change brands... having checked that the International brand seems readily available and popular down in the Med.

Surprisingly some chandlery items are extremely expensive compared to the UK. As an example, below are a few price comparisons (as at Jan 2013) of some of the products we require;

International Primocon 2.5ltr = €86.70, compared to £44.95
International Micron 2.5ltr = €179.50, compared to £80.00
West System Microfibres 403 = €16.50, compared to £6.95
West System Junior Pack = €37.60, compared to £18.50

Needless to say, at these prices we decided to place an order through Marine Super Store (including some additional products that we can't get here) and arrange for shipment from the UK to France. However upon placing our order we subsequently found out that they couldn't deliver most of the items abroad as they are classed as 'hazardous goods'.

We scoured the internet and found a delivery auction site called 'ANYVAN' where we placed details of the items to be delivered, approximate weight, dimensions and delivery destination and then waited for bidding to commence. The response was pretty swift and within 12 hours we had several delivery vans willing to transport our goods varying in price from £175 to £60. We accepted a bid from a small family partnership local to Marine Super Store who were able to pick up our parcel and deliver to us before the 1st March. We can highly recommend them. A lovely couple, Chris and Julie who kept us informed of progress with a final text being received as they arrived at the pontoon (that's delivery to the door).

So now that we've got our maintenance supplies we can book our lift out...