Port Revel is located on a man-made lake of about 13 acres (5 ha) that was remodeled in order to reproduce real sailing conditions.
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 some ships) are to be found here.
A lake area of about 5 ha is available, allowing 5 ships to sail freely without mutual or outside interference. Port Revel's lake has been designed in accordance with rigorous quality standards.
The lake is large enough, but not too large so that travelling distances between exercises are not too long,
The lake features :
This equipment is supplemented by a number of leading marks on land, and an observation tower.
The lake is refitted time to time in order to be accurate in depth for the benefit of the trainees.
Currents are a main feature at Port Revel as 3 days out of 5 in the Ship handling Course are conducted with currents.
A portion of the (old) Suez Canal when it was still 16m deep and 80m wide on the bottom with 3(hor.) in 1(vert.) side slopes.
All types of quay are in use at Port Revel: solid quaywalls, fully open wharves on piles and berths on a rubble slope.
A unique feature at Port Revel is the wave generator. It is the only one of its kind in the world.
The protected area must be at least 10 000 m2 to be considered operational and 81% of the Port Revel lake is protected.