Best West Country Pilot?

Little Rascal

Little Rascal

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I'm planning a trip to Devon/Cornwall with my trailer sailer in the spring. I would like some recommendations on the best pilot book? I'm a small boat so some detail on the shallow bits/smaller ports/anchorages would be nice.

The plan is to cruise Falmouth to Teignmouth in a couple of weeks, weather permitting... (and I'll be using the Admiralty folio.)

I'd welcome any opinions!

Cheers
 
There is of course the almanac (but you'll know that).. or West Country Cruising Companion. I asked a similar question for the solent and the Channel Pilot by Tom Cunliffe came up - might be useful, don't know as I have not got it yet. Visitmyharbour.co.uk is also worth a look. Many nice Harbours and Anchorages along there - The Yealm is gem.
 
Mark Fishwick is very good, but only covers the bigger places.

I would recommend you look for a copy of:

South England Pilot: Start Point to Land's End (Part 4) Robin Brandon.

Part 3 - Heigisbury Head to Start Point would cover the rest.

As it is 30 years old all the light info etc will be wildly out of date, it is black and white, with poor photography, but it is unrivalled for sketch map coverage of the smaller spots. Well over 100 anchorages are shown between Beer Head and Land's End.

It is the one local pilot I would never get rid of
 
THe French pilot books are best believe it or not, Pilotes Cotiers, I had the full set for French waters and would have bought the ones covering the South Coast of England had we not been about to move to the USA probably not easy to find in the USA but on the shelves of most French Chandleries like U-Ship, Big Ship and Accastillage Diffusionany or all of which may do mail order to the Uk via their websites /online catalogues.
 
If you've only a few weeks, the Mark Fishwick book is very good. It'll get you into a lot of really nice places.

For the more obscure stuff - As the coast is mostly open between 'towns/harbours' you'll need to look at a chart and sea state to find the bolt holes.

If you can get hold of 'local knowledge', that helps too! I walked round Nare Head the other day and found a 45' yacht tucked into a cove with a beach that I didn't know even existed!
 
NPMR said:
If you've only a few weeks, the Mark Fishwick book is very good. It'll get you into a lot of really nice places.

For the more obscure stuff - As the coast is mostly open between 'towns/harbours' you'll need to look at a chart and sea state to find the bolt holes.

If you can get hold of 'local knowledge', that helps too! I walked round Nare Head the other day and found a 45' yacht tucked into a cove with a beach that I didn't know even existed!
Click to expand...

I find Ken Endean's book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yachting-Monthlys-Channel-Havens-Anchorages/dp/0713670991 pretty good for the smaller places, so use a combination of this and Mark Fishwick. I recommend the Lizard peninsula as a cruising ground: scores of anchorages between the Lizard and Helford.
 
Thank you for the suggestions. I will probably get Mark Fishwick and the Ken Endean book to supplement it.

Can anyone tell me anything about the Erme or the Avon? There doesn't seem to be much info on them (very shallow?) yet there are moorings visible on google earth...
 
NPMR said:
I walked round Nare Head the other day and found a 45' yacht tucked into a cove with a beach that I didn't know even existed!
Click to expand...

Google Maps (satellite view) can help find a lot of these places. Or Bing, which sometimes has higher resolution pictures than Google.

What I'd really like is a decent way to load all the pictures for a certain area into my iPad so that they'll work (complete with zooming in and out, etc) even without phone signal. Maybe it exists now, but it didn't when I last looked a couple of years ago.

Pete
 
Little Rascal said:
Thank you for the suggestions. I will probably get Mark Fishwick and the Ken Endean book to supplement it.

Can anyone tell me anything about the Erme or the Avon? There doesn't seem to be much info on them (very shallow?) yet there are moorings visible on google earth...
Click to expand...

They are little visited, but both are covered by the two books.

The Erme is an all-tide anchorage, suitable in winds from the NW and you stay afloat so suitable for fin keels. You anchor off the beach (Mothercombe iirc). However it's in a private estate with quite strict ideas on access, and you may well be turned off if you land (this is by repute, I don't have first hand knowledge of landing but have anchored there a few times. It's quite pleasant but not worth more than one night). Going further up the estuary and drying out on the sand looks quite feasible, but is, I understand, prohibited by the land owner and anyway would be pretty exposed were the wind to turn around and come from the S.

The Avon is another matter. You enter over a partly drying bar and round a fair dog's leg, and streams run fast. But once inside it's very pretty and you can go pretty much anywhere without being hassled. There is a good pub at Banham as well!. You have to be prepared to dry out as there isn't room to anchor in the one pool (off the E bank), and tides are reputed to sluice through it anyway. Only hazard (apart from shallows) once inside is I believe an electricity cable several miles up, but I've not been that far myself.

I'm sure Devonians will soon be along to give more detail and/or suggest favorite drying-out spots in the Avon.
 
Little Rascal said:
Thank you for the suggestions. I will probably get Mark Fishwick and the Ken Endean book to supplement it.

Can anyone tell me anything about the Erme or the Avon? There doesn't seem to be much info on them (very shallow?) yet there are moorings visible on google earth...
Click to expand...

How big is your boat and what's her draught?
Fishwick covers both the Avon and The Erme in a reasonable amount of detail. The Avon is great if you can take the ground but the entrance is very narrow and shallow at anything other than high water - springs for preference - and the bar dries at low springs. It is completely sheltered once you are in but the entrance is dangerous in southerly winds over Force 4. The run ashore at Bantham is well worth the effort. The Erme looks bigger but the navigable water is very limited and Mary's Rocks (east and west) are significant hazards. At low water springs you can walk across almost dry foot from one side to the other. For the bold spirited there is a sheltered lunch stop just inside the entrance provided there is not too much south in the wind and the the swell is modest.

I would strongly recommend Fishwick for the whole of the West Country.
 
I've known the South Hams Avon since I was a baby and I subsequently learnt to sail there, in a Mirror dinghy and a Skipper 14, when aged about ten. We visited in 2007, with a trailable shallow draft boat. These photos were taken then. I wouldn't enter with a boat that couldn't take the ground.



01.jpg



03.jpg


P.S. is the Photobucket option now unuseable?
 
Coaster said:
I've known the South Hams Avon since I was a baby and I subsequently learnt to sail there, in a Mirror dinghy and a Skipper 14, when aged about ten. We visited in 2007, with a trailable shallow draft boat. These photos were taken then. I wouldn't enter with a boat that couldn't take the ground.



View attachment 36053


View attachment 36054


P.S. is the Photobucket option now unuseable?
Click to expand...

When did you take that lower pic? I am almost certain the cat on the sand is Belladonna, my Dazcat 10. I was last in Avon three or four years ago.
 
jamesjermain said:
When did you take that lower pic? I am almost certain the cat on the sand is Belladonna, my Dazcat 10. I was last in Avon three or four years ago.
Click to expand...

Photo taken at 1058 on 08/09/2007.

September often seems to bring good weather to the South Hams.

I might have some other photos taken at the same time but they would take a while to find.
 
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