Portsmouth to Plymouth sailing options?

[davethedog]

Evening all,

Looking to sail from Portsmouth to Plymouth in a few weeks and just after what routes people suggest. Am thinking of:

Night 1 in Yarmouth or Poole.
Night 2 in Portland.
Night 3 in Dartmouth. Long day to sail at least 5 miles out from Portland Bill and avoid the races.
Night 4 in Plymouth.

Does that sound about right or any other suggestions? We will be starting from Portsmouth area.

 

[Hadenough]

What's with the 5miles out to avoid the Portland Race? Get there 2hrs before HW Dover and it is slack just before the west going tide. Assuming sensible wind conditions.

 

[Tomaret]

Planning on doing this trip starting tomorrow:-

Portsmouth - Weymouth leaving two hours before HW Portsmouth - Poole as a possible stop if we don't make sufficient progress
Weymouth - Dartmouth or possibly Torquay (if it gives us a sailing angle) Tuesday using inside passage (weather permitting) round the Bill
Dartmouth - Plymouth Wednesday

Mark

 

[RIBW]

...Looking to sail from Portsmouth to Plymouth ........ any other suggestions?

Going in the opposite direction, I did Plymouth - Channel Islands - Hamble and planning to do Falmouth to Solent the same way next month.

There are two advantages of doing Portsmouth - Alderney - Plymouth: Duty Free and a better chance of sailing (compared to the motoring into the endless SWerlies we've had recently).

Just a thought.
Cheers
Bob

 

[Boathook]

Evening all,

Looking to sail from Portsmouth to Plymouth in a few weeks and just after what routes people suggest. Am thinking of:

Night 1 in Yarmouth or Poole.
Night 2 in Portland.
Night 3 in Dartmouth. Long day to sail at least 5 miles out from Portland Bill and avoid the races.
Night 4 in Plymouth.

Does that sound about right or any other suggestions? We will be starting from Portsmouth area.

Anchor in Studland rather than Poole and then depending upon weather I would either do Weymouth or carry on past to Torquay, Brixham or Dartmouth. It's a longish sail but really depends on weather for me.

 

[lw395]

I depends somewhat on the boat.
And the weather.
A 23ft bilge keeler that does not point well will need a few stops.
A 45ft race boat will need less.
Also how the tide times fit into the days.
In a boat that goes well, I'd look at Yarmouth, head for Dartmouth. Fall back to Brixham if the breeze fails.
A full W going tide should take you past the Bill and up into Lyme Bay a bit to avoid the wort of the E.

Studland and Poole are hours off the track, but if you can get there on the first afternoon might be useful.

 

[ianmkent]

sounds like a great trip that I would like to do some time.

 

[Sandyman]

Evening all,

Looking to sail from Portsmouth to Plymouth in a few weeks and just after what routes people suggest. Am thinking of:

Night 1 in Yarmouth or Poole.
Night 2 in Portland.
Night 3 in Dartmouth. Long day to sail at least 5 miles out from Portland Bill and avoid the races.
Night 4 in Plymouth.

Does that sound about right or any other suggestions? We will be starting from Portsmouth area.

Are you sailing a canoe ?

 

[prv]

A 23ft bilge keeler that does not point well will need a few stops.
[...]
In a boat that goes well, I'd look at Yarmouth, head for Dartmouth. Fall back to Brixham if the breeze fails.

I guess we fall somewhere in between - Totland Bay on the first night, then past both St Albans and Portland to Brixham in one fairly long day. Like you, I resent the detour off track into Portland or even Weymouth.

Pete

 

[jdc]

Have you considered doing it in one go, ie one night at sea? I find it much less tiring doing that than stopping in places which are slightly off the direct path. Consider what stopping means: set off sometime awful like 5:30am. Put fenders etc away, get out of harbour, motoring all the while. Flog on all day until you arrive somewhere much later than you'd anticipated, too tired to go to the pub and besides you've got to get up again at 05:30 tomorrow. Then repeat, etc.

Instead, as long as there are two of you (bigger crew not necessary imho), you set off without any particular time pressure and just sail along. If it's a bit slower for a while, so what? Time to do some fishing. You'll get 8 or more hours shut-eye in 24 hours, which is abot all it'll take from Portsmouth to Plymouth. If the wind is from anywhere but dead ahead just carry on, if the wind is on the nose you can anchor to wait the tides at Swanage and again near the Start, eg Hallsands. Why would you want to be in a port?

 

[eddystone]

I have to do the same trip but from Southampton by the beginning of September at the latest. You sound as if you are planning to do it a series of day sails which was also my plan. As the days get shorter it's harder to plan exit from Solent and from Portland where tides give you enough sailing/motorsailing time to get to next destination. I now plan to find crew so that I can do longer passages and avoid having to go into Portland. I was thinking Yarmouth then all the way to Dartmouth or Brixham then Plymouth.

 

[jac]

We have always used the tide on the day we get to the boat to get to the western Solent. Buoys off Yarmouth are one option, or anchored inside Hurst spit, outside Keyhaven. Makes a nice introduction and gets you into the swing of being onboard and of course you need to realise that first day, driving down to the boat, unloading car, stowing everything will probably take the whole morning anyway.

Weymouth & Portland are really out of the way and Studland is no real distance from the western solent so no point going there.

My own suggestion would be to drop the mooring / raise anchor in the Solent about 3 hours before HW Portsmouth so you have roughly 2 hours of weakening foul tide to fight. If that is before first light then I might delay a bit but would be wanting to go by HW-1 at the latest. With prevailing winds, seas will probably be flat. Then head to Dartmouth / Brixham going outside the bill. From there, it's a nice day sail round to Plymouth

 

[RichardTaylor]

I did Portsmouth - Portland, Portland - Dartmouth and Dartmouth - Falmouth last month as a series of day hops. In hindsight I wish I had done Portland - Salcombe instead as it seems a long way (2 to 3 hours) south before heading west.

Coming home we had to make use of a small weather window and did Dart to Solent in one hop.

 

[DoubleEnder]

Two crew and an autopilot, plus a decent forecast, I'd aim to do it in one. Assuming it's a reasonably comfortable boat with at least one sea berth, a means of boiling a kettle. Unless you particularly want to visit those ports I would just keep going, though keep bail out options to hand. Or do you particularly want to take longer for another reason, in which case your plan is good.

 

[davethedog]

We have a 41 foot sail boat so confortable and will be 2 of us (plus the dog) so we can go about 12 hours I reckon then have to pull in somewhere for the dog more than anything.

Am starting to thank along the lines of:
Day 1: get to Yarmouth.
Day 2: Yarmouth to Dartmouth.
Day 3: Dartmouth to Plymouth.

Want to get to Plymouth relatively quickly and then spent a few days there then spend 1 week travelling back visiting other places etc.

 

[LadyInBed]

We have a 41 foot sail boat so confortable and will be 2 of us (plus the dog) so we can go about 12 hours I reckon then have to pull in somewhere for the dog more than anything.

41ft! Get the dog a short length of turf for his needs and don't stop.

 

[White_Belle]

I did this trip last year, we went Hamble -Poole, Poole -Portland, Portland - Dartmouth, Dartmouth - Plymouth. We did get lucky with the weather, admittedly, as we were in a Hurley 18.

 

[davethedog]

Thanks for all the comments and will have a think of what suits us best as the missus is keen to avoid more than 12 hours at a time.

 

[richardbrennan]

I have done this trip many times. I usually go Portsmouth to Yarmouth, I am not a great fan of nights at anchor. Then Yarmouth to Portland, it's easier than Weymouth as you are not tied to bridge opening if using the marina, or extracting one's self from a raft if in the harbour. Then Portland, via the inside passage, to Brixham or Torquay as you can book a berth in the marinas, whereas I have always found berthing in Dartmouth a bit of a lottery and not something to be enjoyed after a long passage across Lyme Bay. Obviously this works best with a morning HW at Dover for both the Needles Channel and the Bill.

These are personally preferences only and I would not suggest for one moment that they are the best let alone the only way to do it.

 

[davethedog]

It is good to get peoples opinions and we are going to start planning our trip soon, with options for the inside or the outside channel at Portland to allow for any weather effects etc.