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The lake

Port Revel is located on a man-made lake of about 13 acres (5 ha) that was remodelled in order to reproduce real sailing conditions. (Map of the Revel Lake)

The lake is located near Grenoble (France) where the wind regime is very mild. Moreover, it is sheltered by a forest. Hence uncontrolled wind effects on ships are reduced to a minimum.

At scale 1/25, the lake area represents a navigable zone of about 5 by 2 nautical miles, allowing several models to sail at the same time at normal manoeuvring speeds.
Deep, shallow and very shallow water areas (less than 10% under keel-clearance for certain ships) are to be found.

The lake has the following permanent equipment and features:

a) the different types of moorings which exist in ports or near the coast:

  • open wharves,
  • solid quays,
  • offshore platform structure,
  • new Panama lock,
  • single buoy mooring

b) the different types of buoyed channel (deep water and shallow water) with different widths, and a length of ship canal (representing, for example, a bend of the Suez Canal),

c) a wave generator designed to produce waves of varying period and height (maximum about 6 m at full scale, or 24 cm for the models),

d) current generators able to produce currents of various directions with speeds up to 3 knots (at full scale),

e) a wind generator designed to reproduce a wind field of 20-30 knots (at full scale),

e) a "track recording system" using the latest DGPS techniques,

f) a "garage" (boat house) for shelter and maintenance of the models,

This equipment is supplemented by a number of leading marks on land, and an observation tower.


Suez Canal at Port Revel


Waves on the lake:

a unique feature

For further reading, see F.X. Pizon's report "Extension of Port Revel in 2009"
and Françoise Massard's detailed report "Latest news from Port Revel".

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