Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids' stuff.

[celandine]

Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

I can't help noticing that there have been no less than three separate mentions of this tiny scrap of sand, the so-called Brambles, so-called Bank, in less than a week. Somehow it seems to animate Solent-based yotties out of all proportion to its diminutive size. Personally I can't see what all the fuss is about. If anyone wants to match their navigational skills against a real man's sand bank they should try here on the Thames Estuary where you can take your pick from dozens, then go round the corner and mix it with the Goodwins - now that's a sand bank.

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[Talbot]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Totally agree with you, although it is much easier now than 20 years ago (pre-GPS). However, the fact that I only draw 2'9" may have something to do with my attitudes to sand banks.

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[Peppermint]

Re: Quite right

I always enjoy my visits to the E.Coast. Excellent charts and buoyage make it quite straight forward. I try to make it more interesting by taking a boat that draws a bit though, otherwise it can be dull. Still all the nice windmills should liven it up a bit.

Now if you want a place where it's a bad thing to ground, the west of Scotland fits the bill. Rocks are so unforgiving.

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[boatless]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

I've always harboured the suspicion that you mud crawlers secretly bring the stuff down between your bilge keels and dump it there to annoy us.

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

 

[Bergman]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Dead right

And when they've finished there they can come and have a go at the Humber. Better class of sandbank altogether, they move around and sneak up on you.

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[Victorious]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

We are good at going aground.
A solent based boat i used to race on.. was listed in the sailing instuctions for the national championships... As "A local boat.. Knows the narrow channel into the marina well"
Alas as the first competitors arrived for a week of racing... That "local boat" was high and dry on the putty some yards away from the channel!

The skipper did express an interest in doing the Fastnet one year..... " The only bit of the UK we havent hit yet" is what he called it..



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[kesey]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Victorious, please feel free to hit the Fastnet at your leisure. Just tell your skipper that he will be making landfall in Ireland however. We serve a better class of Guinness altogether hereabouts

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[boatless]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Ah but.. haven't you heard? The London Guinness brewery is closing and all our Guinness will, at last, be coming from Dublin.

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

The chief claim to fame of the Brambles Bank is that it has managed to establish itself on a drect line from the Hamble to Cowes (and vice versa.) It is therefore very good at catching the "We'll just pop over to the Folly/Jolly Sailor*" for lunch crowd.


*Delete as appropriate.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Bet you find it will come from Runcorn!



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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk>

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[Peppermint]

Re: Brambles Bank - Bah! just kids\' stuff.

Having recently spent some time with the Solent survey team I can tell you it is very stable and not much prone to change.

So! No excuses there then.

I don't have a problem with the Brambles. It's Ryde bank gets me.

The last time I brushed it we were going to Cowes. My error had got the crew all a twitter as we waited for a shower. The guy in front of me was a Joint Services skipper who reckoned to have hit every bit of shallow in the Solent while racing.
He told a tale of how, with his boss and his bosses boss onboard, he'd come up the eastern solent with the boat on it's ear and the said boss going on about how shallow it was. "We should tack out now" said the boss man. "We can't" say's our man. "Why on earth not " says the boss. "Not enough depth to tack". Apparently they spent about thirty minutes on that tack. Never hit anything. The guy took no credit for the subsequent decent race result. He just knew he was lucky to keep his job.

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