BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide
Noise and music at anchor: etiquette between rental boats
VHF reserved for safety calls, amplified music, generator noise: the sound etiquette to observe between neighbouring boats at anchor.
In summer, in the busiest anchorages (the Lérins, Porquerolles, the calanques), boats sometimes anchor just a few dozen metres apart. Loud music there is never just one crew's business.
VHF is not a radio station
Channel 16, the one every VHF-equipped boat monitors at all times, is reserved for distress and safety calls, as our guide to VHF at sea explains. Playing music over it or using it as a party speaker is both forbidden and dangerous: it can drown out a genuine distress call.
Amplified music: courtesy before regulation
Many coastal towns regulate sound near beaches and anchorages by local order, particularly in the evening — the exact rules vary from one harbour to the next, but the spirit is the same everywhere: a boat's noise shouldn't be imposed on neighbours who never asked for it. Turning the volume down at sunset, once crews start having dinner or settling in for the night, is an unwritten rule that's universally observed.
The generator, quiet but ever-present
On larger boats, a generator running overnight to recharge the batteries carries far across calm water. Switching it off as soon as possible, or limiting its use to daytime hours, does as much for a peaceful anchorage as keeping the music down.
Why noise wears people out more than you'd think
This isn't only a matter of politeness. A landmark review of the health effects of noise, published by Basner and co-authors in 2014 in The Lancet, found that noise exposure, even at moderate levels, disrupts sleep and raises next-day fatigue (see the study on Google Scholar) — reason enough to convince even the liveliest crews to turn the music down a little earlier.
The right habit
Before anchoring for the night, take a look at the boats already there: their position and mood give a good sense of how quiet the spot is expected to be, a point our guide to overnight anchoring covers in more depth, as does our guide to general anchoring etiquette.
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