Although it's called Helford River, it's actually a ria (drowned river valley) formed about 10,000 years ago when sea levels rose after the last ice age. The only fresh water input is from small streams along the coastline of the ria.
It gets my vote for beauty, and it has some of the cleanest water in the country.
in now particular order Tamar, Torridge (especially where the Yeo flows into it had many happy kayak trips there), Blackwater, Fal, Dart and Medina if only to oogle at the yachts (Sonjana and Maxumus were there last week).
Just like they haven't mentioned the River Mersey!
And whats up with the Mersey !!!/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gifI know too much of a challenge with the strong tides /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
it's almost clean now.................well it's got fish in it and err quite a few wrecks
i would vote for the fal everytime, although i see the mersey everyday, they say it is cleaner than it was, went to st mawes during last bank holiday for a week, and must admit very envious of the sailors down that way, great area to sail...just love going to mylor, pandora inn and to st anthonys head, next year have decided to take a dinghy...
Hey, I was born in Latchford no more than 50 feet away from the Mersey in Warrington. As a child it was most polluted river in Britain. But your'e right. They have done a great job over the past 2 decades to get back again. But sadly the the mud is full of heavy metals and toxins that will probably never go away.
Still no place like home!
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It's a Hull of a plaice.
I have fond memories of going aground at the top of the tide in a boat drawing less than 3 feet in the middle of the Humber, just near the bridge.
The deep water channel moves about there so we were half expecting the depth sounder to suddenly drop to zero, but it caught us out.
Managed to fire up the outboard and back away from the sandbank. Meanwhile car-import ships and container ships are buzzing along a few hundred meters away in a channel yards from the bank.
It can be bleak,brown and shitty, and conversely with the sun out and a steady breeze, a big blue sky and bright blue water it can be wonderful.
Tide runs a bit quick though.
How tall is your rig, then? The lowest HT cable across the Tamar is at Weirquay and is 16m above MHWS. At Cargreen the cable is 19m above MHWS. As a multihull I guess your draft is not much so try us at half tide. On Springs you should have at least 2m height of tide and as long as you keep to the outside of the bends I don't see any troubles for you as far as Calstock a least. If you can get up the Lynher you should be able to manage the Tamar unless your mast is more than about 55 ft tall above the waterline.
After all, the Garlandstone made it to Morwhellam.
My air draft is 19m/62 ft. Probably just possible at low water creeping up the edge of the channel. The consequences of a small error are unappealing /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Yup Loch Striven!, Did you know that Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb may have been tested there bouncing bombs in Loch Striven? and that the scenes showing mosquitoes and wellingtons (original footage) may have taken place there.