Beaulieu River, shoal draft and Solent cruising

[davidmh]

No one has mentioned anchoring in this thread yet, in many places like Studland you have to anchor much further out with 2.1 rather than 1.6 draft, also time periods for going in and out of chichester, beaulieu, newton will be significantly restricted.

David MH draft 1.5 metres

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Please can anyone advise on whether it is preferable to have a shoal draft keel for Solent cruising? We are buying a boat that we hope to keep at Bucklers Hard and cruise around the Solent, south coast and northern France. We have a choice of 1.6m or 2.1m keels. Obviously there is a drop in performance for the shallower keel, so knowing how restrictive the deeper keel may be would be helpful.

Having run aground at Bucklers Hard this weekend despite my "shoal" draft 1.7, I'd recommend something less than a meter...

 

[Homer J]

Despite having Beaulieu as a home port for the last four years, I managed to go aground in January. Just off the Southern end of Gins pontoon - there is a shallow spot that catches many out.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Doesn't surprise me. This was a shallow spot just a few yards d/stream from the trip boat pontoon, got swept there by the vigorous Spring ebb flow whilst trying to get a line on. All over in a couple of seconds. Stuck for 3 hours, bit embarrassing but gave the wedding guests something to gawk at.