Arran

[lustyd]

Hi all, I've sailed north past Arran a few times on both sides and can't seem to catch it on a good day. Does anyone have any useful advice on tides, side of island, distance off? I wouldn't mind but every time I do it we've come from the Isle of Man in a single hit so Arran is tedious to say the least!

Oh, and if anyone has £1.5M to buy Ailsa Craig, I'm willing to buy the explosives to get rid of that persistant stupid rock that follows sailors for 15 hours at a time!

 

[Bav32]

Should have been there last weekend - fabulous weather. One of the main "things" about Arran is that it is just big enough to control it's own weather so can differ quite a bit from the surrounding area. All the seasons in one day sometimes.
What side is best? Probably the east since there are more sheltered anchorages anchorages, although beware of the mainland offshore easterlies at night causing a little bit of rolling swell etc.
Distance off? I presume you don't want to be looking at the chart all the time so in general if you look at the slope of the land at the shore this tends to continue under the water. You will notice the key words of "generally" and "tends to".
Only big worry is the island at the south end, Pladda. DO NOT repeat DO NOT attempt to pass between Arran and Pladda unless you are an adrenalin seeker with no keel. Check the chart1

 

[Spyro]

Only bit you need to worry about distance off is on the west side near Pirnmill and one little out crop on the NE side of the entrance to Lochranza. Just enjoy the rest. Cant think of any places to stop on the West side but on the East there is Lamlash, Brodick , Corrie, Lochranza on the North. No tides to worry about except around Pladda they can kick up a bit of chop and a small back eddy just north east of Pladda itself. But I wouldn't plan my journey around it.

 

[lustyd]

Thanks guys - I was there last weekend and you're right it was great. Sunset on Saturday was spectacular despite the requirement to motor for some of it. I was thinking more in terms of wind and tide for passing rather than cruising. The west seems to have very odd winds and the east seemed to have no tide to help (lucky me, I saw the whole tide cycle!). As I guess you saw it last weekend you probably know how frustrating it was chasing the wind lines in the water which turned out to not be wind lines so I was wondering if a bigger gap to the east may give better wind once out of the shadow. That said, just north of holy island we got a great blow coming out of Lamlash so maybe closer was better here?
With distance off for depth, this is the thing I find most different to cruising elsewhere. 99% of the time the depth reads ---- but then it goes 90, 60, 50, 30, 10 in about 15 seconds so very little warning

 

[OGITD]

Ha-HA!

99% of the time the depth reads ---- but then it goes 90, 60, 50, 30, 10 in about 15 seconds so very little warning

You know what I'm going to say! .....

It's a Submarine! .....

 

[jimi]

Last summer

 

[lustyd]

Last summer

This summer

 

[cliff]

With distance off for depth, this is the thing I find most different to cruising elsewhere. 99% of the time the depth reads ---- but then it goes 90, 60, 50, 30, 10 in about 15 seconds so very little warning

That long? wow you must have been sailing over one of the gentle slopes. ---- to 90 to 10 to "crunch" in about 5 seconds is par for the course while sailing the west coast.
Anyway welcome to the land of deep water inshore sailing.

 

[pagoda]

Only big worry is the island at the south end, Pladda. DO NOT repeat DO NOT attempt to pass between Arran and Pladda unless you are an adrenalin seeker with no keel. Check the chart1

Pladda is easy to avoid, though I was talking to some folks in Lamlash who helped recover 2 Mobos who had gone through the gap close to LW (!) and wrecked their outboards . Most of the south end is like that, peppered with dykes (igneous intrusions) some considerable distance off the beach.
If you have the balls, you can sail between Hamilton Rock and Arran - just NE of Lamlash at HW. I went through it on a puffer about 1966 (light -minimal cargo), but still quite exciting. Skipper was showing off a little.
If you want so see some interesting underwater profiles - try the West edge of Otter Spit - up Loch Fyne, for some excitement.

Graeme

 

[lustyd]

Pladda is easy to avoid, though I was talking to some folks in Lamlash who helped recover 2 Mobos who had gone through the gap close to LW (!) and wrecked their outboards . Most of the south end is like that, peppered with dykes (igneous intrusions) some considerable distance off the beach.
If you have the balls, you can sail between Hamilton Rock and Arran - just NE of Lamlash at HW. I went through it on a puffer about 1966 (light -minimal cargo), but still quite exciting. Skipper was showing off a little.
If you want so see some interesting underwater profiles - try the West edge of Otter Spit - up Loch Fyne, for some excitement.

Graeme

Is that the spit at Otter Ferry? My first sail to Scotland 4 years ago ended on a mooring buoy next to the Oyster Catcher at 3am on a very cloudy night in March - the lack of light certainly made it "exciting"!

 

[Billjratt]

. 99% of the time the depth reads ---- but then it goes 90, 60, 50, 30, 10 in about 15 seconds so very little warning

It helps to have a working echosounder on the West coast. Have you by any chance cut/shortened the transducer cable? My ST60 is happy registering hundreds of feet, and doesn't do "---" since I repaired a chafe from the steering rods touching the cable.
If you look at the tidal atlas, or your electronic plotter, you will see the current can tend to run across the channel between Arran and the Ayrshire coast rather than up/down it.

 

[lustyd]

It helps to have a working echosounder on the West coast. Have you by any chance cut/shortened the transducer cable? My ST60 is happy registering hundreds of feet, and doesn't do "---" since I repaired a chafe from the steering rods touching the cable.
If you look at the tidal atlas, or your electronic plotter, you will see the current can tend to run across the channel between Arran and the Ayrshire coast rather than up/down it.

sadly not my boat and skipper doesn't yet have the atlas. That would explain a few things though. I'm sure the sounder is fine though, just a bit old.