A very different 'Round Britain' challenge?

Krusty

Krusty

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Feb 2004
Messages
807
Location
Highlands
Visit site
Nothing to do with facing storms to round the furthest outposts, but possibly as demanding a challenge needing rather different skills and some nerve; and maybe not easy to complete in one lifetime. It would certainly be educational.

''To penetrate all the the inlets of the UK coastline to their navigable limits for your draught''.

Any ideas for a name? (Some might need to curb their imagination)

It would need a sensible definition of 'inlet' to exclude bays and bights.
Mine would be those named on the Admiralty charts as river or loch (lough) or voe.

A definitive checklist would be a good start; organised into sections of the coastline.
 
Last edited:
The length of coastline of Great Britain plus its principal islands is about 19,491 miles (31,368 km). (Quoted from www.cartography.org.uk )

I realise your intention wasn't to track the entire coastline, but it gives you an idea of the challenge you're setting.

PS: If you read the web page you will see the length quoted is highly debatable.
 
Pedantry!

glashen said:
The length of coastline of Great Britain plus its principal islands is about 19,491 miles (31,368 km). (Quoted from www.cartography.org.uk )

I realise your intention wasn't to track the entire coastline, but it gives you an idea of the challenge you're setting.

PS: If you read the web page you will see the length quoted is highly debatable.
Click to expand...

And, of course, all cartographers will tell you that the length of ANY coastline is infinite; the "length" of coastline is meaningless unless you are also told what scale the length is measured at.

Explanation: Coastlines are classic examples of a fractal. In fact, they were the one chosen by Benoit Mandelbrot to explain the concept of a fractal. A fractal is something which can be said to have a "fractional dimension", one of whose properties is that the smaller the measuring stick, the longer the length (or area or volume for more complex fractals) is.

You can visualize it by imagining measuring the length of a coastline using a ruler 1 km long. You'll get an answer, but of course, the coastline will depart from the ruler quite a lot. You use a shorter ruler - the deviations get less, but the distance measured gets longer. And as you shorten your ruler you keep finding deviations from the ruler, no matter how small you go. If you use a ruler 1 mm long, the gaps between grains of sand still cause deviations from the ruler!

Of course, I suppose you could state that there is a limit when you get to the scale of inter-atomic distances, but for practical purposes, coastlines are infinite in length.

For more information see The Fractal Geometry of Nature by Benoit B. Mandelbrot
 
How about naming it after the depth contour you decide to follow - The 10m Tour for those in a hurry, The 0m Tour for brave souls with loads of time?

www.cartography.org.uk says the high water line of the mainland of Great Britain is about 11000 miles. You can't go at night, cost you're too close to hard bits, so 10hrs at 5knots - 50 miles a daywould be pretty good going. 11000 miles at 50miles a day is 220 days. Add bad weather, R&R, winter, etc., I reckon that's 2 years minimum.

If you want to do it propely and include all the islands, 19700 miles, plus passages between islands - 4 years, and that's pushing it.

Well, that's me sorted from when I retire until I'm too decrepit to sail on my own. (I can't see anyone with any sense wanting to come with!!)

I wonder if I'll make it all the way?!
 
Up the creek

Surely it would take less time and effort and be a lot more enjoyable just to explore West Cork, the coast of Norway and the Baltic or even to go down and sail around the Med. for a year.
But then maybe that does not score any points in the bar of a Solent yacht club!
I admit, though that the idea is not as daft as sailing around all the outliers of the British Isles or even the world without pausing to visit any of the ports or anchorages on the way. Seriously though I just can not get my head round this counting idea which seems so popular on here, I would love it if someone can explain the motivation. For me I just like going places in a boat and stopping for a while along the way, I enjoy the solitary anchorage but just love to meet people or go ashore for a drink or a walk, I do like sometimes to have a destination but I am never disappointed if I do not reach it.
Surely someone can explain why chalking off geographical destinations is better than this.
 
Piotaskipper said:
Nothing to do with facing storms to round the furthest outposts, but possibly as demanding a challenge needing rather different skills and some nerve; and maybe not easy to complete in one lifetime. It would certainly be educational.

''To penetrate all the the inlets of the UK coastline to their navigable limits for your draught''.

Any ideas for a name? (Some might need to curb their imagination)

It would need a sensible definition of 'inlet' to exclude bays and bights.
Mine would be those named on the Admiralty charts as river or loch (lough) or voe.

A definitive checklist would be a good start; organised into sections of the coastline.
Click to expand...

" Coast ":rolleyes:
 
A few years ago I proposed a race/rally which I called the Celtic 8.

It would consist of sailing up the Irish Sea through the Caledonian canal, then North through the Pentland Forth and down the West coast of Ireland. And back to the starting point. There could be various different starting points depending on the home base. The race would include a certain number of way points which would accentuate navigational skills but also would make the cruise very much more interesting eg rounding an island inside Strangford Lough; various passages between islands to the West of Scotland; inside Rathlin Island etc etc.

John
 
Piotaskipper said:
Nothing to do with facing storms to round the furthest outposts, but possibly as demanding a challenge needing rather different skills and some nerve; and maybe not easy to complete in one lifetime. It would certainly be educational.

''To penetrate all the the inlets of the UK coastline to their navigable limits for your draught''.

Any ideas for a name? (Some might need to curb their imagination)

It would need a sensible definition of 'inlet' to exclude bays and bights.
Mine would be those named on the Admiralty charts as river or loch (lough) or voe.

A definitive checklist would be a good start; organised into sections of the coastline.
Click to expand...
Interesting idea. Might take more than the duration of a human life time to achieve though.
 
Great idea,Piotaskipper, which is probably why Dylan Winter is already doing it. Look at his videos (link in his modest post above).

I guess you could try "Keep turning right", and meet him somewhere on the East coast of Scotland.

Super Norway photos, by the way. Inspiring - I wonder if we'll have the nerve (and the time) to follow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top