Advice re Harwich to Southend

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tim_ber

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Hi,

Does anyone have any tips re the following, please?

Thinking of taking the boat to Southend to anchor off and watch the air show towards the end of May, BUT picking up friends (that don't like sailing) from somewhere near Southend.

Is it feasible? I don't know Southend, Leigh-On-Sea, Benfleet.

Ideally, I'd be able to pick up the non-sailors from somewhere (boat draws 0.6m and will take tender with me) on the morning of the air show and drop off in the late afternoon.

That is the bit I am unsure of. The chart shows a creek up to Leigh-On-Sea, but it looks like it dries before a landing point.

You can see I am in the early stages of planning this. Would be a lot easier if they were all sailors of course !

Thanks in advance.
Tim
 
there,s a big pier that is 1 and a 1/3rd miles into the thames estuary.if you have your dinghy i suppose they may be able to walk the pier but dont know if it will be closed over the holiday weekend but doubt it.very shallow and tidal so you may have your work cut out if they only want to be on there for a couple of hours.was going to go last year but the weather was atrocious so aborted the idea and i was only going from the blackwater!!!!!!!!
 
tim_ber said:
Hi,

Does anyone have any tips re the following, please?

Thinking of taking the boat to Southend to anchor off and watch the air show towards the end of May, BUT picking up friends (that don't like sailing) from somewhere near Southend.

Is it feasible? I don't know Southend, Leigh-On-Sea, Benfleet.

Ideally, I'd be able to pick up the non-sailors from somewhere (boat draws 0.6m and will take tender with me) on the morning of the air show and drop off in the late afternoon.

That is the bit I am unsure of. The chart shows a creek up to Leigh-On-Sea, but it looks like it dries before a landing point.

You can see I am in the early stages of planning this. Would be a lot easier if they were all sailors of course !

Thanks in advance.
Tim
Click to expand...

I am only really familiar with facilities east of the pier and your choices are limited. You could either:

a) pick up a mooring at TBYC and get the trot boat to ferry out your crew OR
b) pick up a mooring/drop hook just off the slipway outside the Halfway House pub (Still marked as Halfway YC on many charts), row in the grab your crew.

If I had your draft constraint my window for this would not greater than 3 ish hours either side of high water (10:00 on the Saturday I think).

In the spirit of the whole visiting yachtsman thing I am sure other clubs on the west side of the pier would aid you as well.

Regards

Paul
 
This is my patch. Watching the airshow from the water is great (and noisy) unless it's a bit breezy - the Thames chop is not pleasant.

Don't even think about using the pier - it is very unfriendly for boats and there is no passenger transfer point.

Drawing only 0.6 you could easily get up Leigh Creek to collect passengers at Bell Wharf at least an hour before HW but you will need to follow the buoys. That is realistically your only pick up point. I've done when I had a Snapdragon.

Quite what you do with them after the show is a problem. If it is LW then you could drop them by dinghy on the sandbank opposite Chalkwell shelter and they could walk ashore with getting too muddy - shorts and old plimsoles/crocs necessary. On a fine day there will be lots of people walking out there at LW.

The lack of alongside places was a major reason for moving to Bradwell after a few years on a drying mooring at Westcliff.

See here for Bell Wharf.
 
Last edited:
ninjod said:
In the spirit of the whole visiting yachtsman thing I am sure other clubs on the west side of the pier would aid you as well.
Click to expand...

Just don't try Thames Estuary YC - their jetty is right by the main flight zone and there is an exclusion zone about 200 yards off. When I belonged you had to get away early before the patrol boats started.

The OP would be better off taking his non-sailing friends to Clacton Airshow and making them suffer a bit!
 
Thanks

Thanks for all the info.

Yes, Clacton would be a much better idea unless the weather is perfect. The Southend trip sounds like a lot of flaffing around.

Cheers,
Tim
 
Thanks

Default Thanks
Thanks for all the info.

Yes, Clacton would be a much better idea unless the weather is perfect. The Southend trip sounds like a lot of flaffing around.

Cheers,
Tim
 
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