Brighton Marina: How shallow is it?

[Poey50]

Struggling to get in anything anytime off HW.

We only draw 1,2 and drew a line in the mud.

Eastbourne or Littlehampton are much better bets.

We draw 1.68m and had no problem four weeks ago at mid-range. Dredging was very active inside the marina. We were advised to avoid entrance two hours either side of LW.

 

[STOL71]

Was at Brighton Marina last week on a stop over, there are berths with various depths up to 1.70 m.
Touched the ground during neaps when entering and leaving near LW, we draw 1.30 m.

 

[Iliade]

The mud in there was so soft that when I dropped my 'de-encrusting' knife it sank without trace.

The mud might even give a bit of damping to give you a quiet night. Brighton's tidal harbour is never fully calm inside, whereas Ladybee Marina inside the locks at Shoreham is very calm and was a similar price the last time I was there (>25 y.a.)

TV & radio reception was an issue at Brighton if that bothers you.

 

[CLB]

Any change in Brighton, I was intrigued this afternoon flying over to see a plume of something coming out of the marina on the ebb
View attachment 64868

Not the best photo, but taken from 30,000 feet. Does this mean dredging is ongoing, or something else?

Can't see a dredger in your photo. Perhaps it was all the liveaboards emptying thier holding tanks!

 

[Yngmar]

Any change in Brighton, I was intrigued this afternoon flying over to see a plume of something coming out of the marina on the ebb
View attachment 64868

Not the best photo, but taken from 30,000 feet. Does this mean dredging is ongoing, or something else?

That's just the usual bit of mud being swept out by the tide. The cutter suction dredger "Doris" will leave a plume a fair bit east (up in your photo) of the marina, as it pumps the slurry out through a pipeline through the marina wall to an undersea outlet marked with an orange cube east of the breakwater. Doris was dredging actively when we left Brighton a couple weeks ago, but it seems to be slow going due to a lot of "lost items" catching in the cutter suction head (we saw shopping trolleys, sunken RIBs, flat fenders, bent bicycles, etc.)

The mud is very soft (let's face it, it's mostly poop) and won't harm your keel. At springs low tide you can see many traces in the fairway where keels hit the mud and just pushed through (but beware of channel marker chains and above mentioned "lost items"). Songbird (2m draft) was stuck in the mud for two years at every springs low tide. I had less than 1m water at times on Pontoon 25. It was soft enough to poke a meter down with a boathook though. No major harm was caused, although due to touching bottom there was severely increased fouling on bottom of keel and rudder and it is inadvisable to run the engine at low tide if you have a saildrive (raw water intakes fairly deep - much stuff being pulled through and strainer filling quickly).

There's also the occasional backhoe dredger doing the fairway and entrance. Generally the new management seems a bit more no top of things (although changing broken lightbulbs in the East jetty showers still seems to be an unsolvable task - I suspect some new health and safety rule requires people to first be trained in how to safely change lightbulbs).

 

[Ferring]

Left Brighton at low tide yesterday and it was a big Spring. No problems on my 1m draught but several fin keelers were on the bottom in the moorings. No sign of any dredgers. Sunday was horrible with force 7 gusts westerly and unable to get onto the initial mooring due to xwind, had to raft on the other side of the pontoon and as mentioned little protection from the swell. Mind you it was pretty rough even at low tide waves crashing over the harbour wall.

 

[MountainGoat]

This thread seems to have been resurrected with many useful comments since I started it a year ago. Thanks all.

We did spend a month there, and at the advice of the marina staff, went in the inner harbour on the Master Mariner pontoon. They had power but lack of water was a pain.

Looking to move to the south coast permanently this November ish. Given experiences at Brighton (shelter not great, shallowness, limited locking hours), we've opted for Sovereign Harbour instead. The mullet that provide the free antifouling service there are a nice bonus!

 

[thalassa]

Left Brighton at low tide yesterday and it was a big Spring. No problems on my 1m draught but several fin keelers were on the bottom in the moorings. No sign of any dredgers. Sunday was horrible with force 7 gusts westerly and unable to get onto the initial mooring due to xwind, had to raft on the other side of the pontoon and as mentioned little protection from the swell. Mind you it was pretty rough even at low tide waves crashing over the harbour wall.

Left Brighton on the same day; can confirm this description is 100% accurate...