Chichester Marina hazard to navigation warning

[Whitelighter]

No worries. I probably wouldn't have gone past them like that but would have given them a mouthful. Sailing like that in that location is not the done thing regardless of rules or regs. As I said before, never seen it happen in the 14 years I've been there. I've seen large boats sailing down the channel, but not tacking across it like that

No I agree if his engine was operational then tacking a large boat up that channel is unwise.
It's possible it wasn't but I think we all suspect it was choice rather than necessity.

However, regardless there were things Daka could have done to avoid having to take the high speed get out, in fact avoiding any incident at all.

I find just taking a breath and smiling at other people shortcomings makes for a more stress free and pleasant day on the water all round

 

[Questor]

The conservancy says somewhere that ALL boats with engines should use them in narrow channels. Boat with the flappy things was a tw@t.

In the 14 years of being there I've never seen someone in a big boat like that tacking across the the channel.

You do surprise me, I've seen it many times. And top marks to Pete, he managed to find two in a row!

I would have handled the situation differently, but whatever, in the eyes of the Conservancy, the raggies are always in the right.

 

[Dick Atcherley]

I'm based in Chichester harbour and motor up and down Itchenor reach each time I come and go from the mooring. You do get to see the full range of behaviour from Mobo and yacht drivers, that ranges from the considerate to the full-fat eff-you. Whilst I really think that tacking a large sailing boat up Itchenor reach (when they clearly have an engine) is a piece of pretty silly behaviour, I do also think that what he was going to do was quite predictable and shouldn't have necessitated a banzai open-throttle manouvre in a congested part of Chichester harbour.

FWIW last Sunday afternoon, we were driven into whilst moored by two 'euro-crustie' characters (think swampy, the bypass protestor) attempting (and failing) to sail a scrofulous 20' sailing boat down the reach; they must have bumped off every boat in the line of moored boats as they essentially drifted out of the harbour on the tide. The Itchenor ferry man saw them run aground two or three times and was going to call the harbourmaster, so I never heard the punchline to the story. However, it was quite clear that they knew the square-root of sod-all about boats, sailing or the sea. The boat had so much seaweed growing on it, it looked as if it had an Hawaiian skirt below the waterline. Candidates for the Darwin awards.

It's a busy stretch of water with lots of folk of varying abilities, and i've given up getting upset; expect the worst, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[CLB]

Welcome back DAKA, you seem t have reeled a few in quite easily with this one

 

[Colin K]

Happy Summer all,
Ok here we go I will open myself up to be savaged ha ha!

Personally I would have approached the sailing boats from the starboard side of the channel. Taking it that it takes them a minute to do each tack and another couple of seconds to do their turn and shout yo ho ho if you overtook there then that gives you the best part of two minutes to get past them and towards the end of the manouver you would be in their line of sight and so id expect them to spill their sails to slow if necessary. Overtaking them in the centre of the channel means that they pass you every minute.

The sailing boat with the dinghy is a wee bit unsociable to the extent that perhaps he should be showing a towing day mark ha ha.

All the best, Col.

 

[Sailorsam101]

This is just like going Cowes on a busy Saturday PM.

Heading in at a slow pace..keeping in line with everybody else...the boat in front just stops in the main channel to allow their crew to get fenders etc done...so this causes everybody behind suddenly stop with much panic arising.

Or how about lining myself up to go into a Cowes marina when a large racing yacht Cowes powering past me and straight into the space I was on approach for...when I challenge I get told to EFF off...trust me I've seen this many times over the years.

When I used to teach sailing the primary thing I tried to get into skippers minds was to look behind and judge the impact of their next action upon others around them.

How many times have we seen a boat dropping sails in a busy channel and the skipper never ever looks behind because they are busy looking after their own crew.

For what it's worth on the video..both skippers of the yachts are stupid for sailing in such a narrow channel. The driver of the mobo could have predicted the path of the yachts better....but sailing in such a narrow channel with lots of traffic about amounts to a level of arrogance that is often seen in the South coast.

So what have I learnt...rude, stupid, arrogant and plain horrible people can be found on roads, trains and boats.

 

[AllanG]

Nice acceleration. Not too much fouling yet this year then?

The date on the video is 13/09/14, not this year!

 

[ProDave]

1) It was pretty damn stupid of either raggie to be sailing upwind in such a narrow channel (and needing to tack because they were going upwind)

2) the stinkie should have been able to anticipate that the raggies were going to tack, wait behind until they have just tacked then power passed quickly in the short interval before their next tack.

3) Could the stinkie have moved ober to the "next" channel, i.e in between the next row of mooring trots? there didn't seem to be any raggies in your way there?

 

[[2068]]

Could the stinkie have moved ober to the "next" channel, i.e in between the next row of mooring trots? there didn't seem to be any raggies in your way there?

I'm fairly certain the harbourmaster will shout at you if you do that. The one at Cowes used to get very upset, even when the only other available option was "Death by a dozen ferries".

 

[BruceK]

Stupid poll imo. Raggies are like WaGs, always, and I mean always in the right. Can't tell them nothing either, they are superior by belief and never more so than when under sail. Ergo it's all the Mobo'ers fault despite the fact ma'am in full bloomers was being predictable in much the same way a drunk is predictable jaywalking the high street. Then again full marks for hooting. I'd have been far more vigorous and vociferous even though giving way purely in self preservation. Going to ramming speed is seldom a good tactic.

 

[KevB]

3) Could the stinkie have moved ober to the "next" channel, i.e in between the next row of mooring trots? there didn't seem to be any raggies in your way there?

Not really...

 

[Sandyman]

. Raggies are like WaGs, always, and I mean always in the right. Can't tell them nothing either, they are superior by belief and never more so than when under sail.

Of course they are. That's because in general they are far better seamen. ( how do I include one of those smiley things lol)

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

These incidents remind me of a similar situation many years ago when I was receiving tuition on my boat for my Yachtmaster exam by Robert Avis (RIP). For anyone who didn't know Robert, he was a Yachtmaster examiner and Royal Navy Reserve Commander. We were proceeding out of the Hamble river entrance keeping well to the starboard side when we encountered a yacht tacking up the channel. I was just about to back off the engines to allow the yacht to tack in front of me but Robert instructed me in no uncertain terms to keep going. We crossed in front of the yacht quite safely but the helmsman gave us a right earful in very industrial language. Robert hailed them on the radio, asked to speak to the skipper, told him who he was and proceeded to give him a lecture in no uncertain terms about his obligations in narrow channels, the gist of which was if you've got an engine, use it and keep to the starboard side of the channel

So on that basis, Daka was in the right at least as far as the letter of the ColRegs was concerned although although arguably he contravened Rules 7 and 8 by not recognising the risk of collision which would be caused by the 2 yachts tacking in front of him and not taking off way to avoid those potential collisions. I must say though that IMHO life is to short to engineer situations like this. Yes the yotties were twats for sailing down a narrow channel when I bet my bottom dollar they had functioning engines but if it was me I just would have backed off and gone behind them on the starboard side after they'd tacked and not put myself in a situation which could cause a row

 

[rafiki_]

So on that basis, Daka was in the right at least as far as the letter of the ColRegs was concerned although although arguably he contravened Rules 7 and 8 by not recognising the risk of collision which would be caused by the 2 yachts tacking in front of him and not taking off way to avoid those potential collisions. I must say though that IMHO life is to short to engineer situations like this. Yes the yotties were twats for sailing down a narrow channel when I bet my bottom dollar they had functioning engines but if it was me I just would have backed off and gone behind them on the starboard side after they'd tacked and not put myself in a situation which could cause a row

+1

 

[doug748]

Bon-accord. This is jolly we all seem to agree; all three were buggering around.

Part of the problem is the stoopid idea that some ragpots have, that it is clever to operate under sail in these circumstances. And that it confers some seal of excellence to their sailing or their unremarkable family cruisers.

As ProDave has said in the excellent post 28, if they really wanted to show how clever they were they should have been using the full width of the channel and poising their tack to anticipate traffic in the fairway.

 

[ProDave]

Bon-accord. This is jolly we all seem to agree; all three were buggering around.

Part of the problem is the stoopid idea that some ragpots have, that it is clever to operate under sail in these circumstances. And that it confers some seal of excellence to their sailing or their unremarkable family cruisers.

Yes and seeing how long the channel and the moorings are (post #31) I would not in a million years try sailing upwind there. May I appologise for the behaviour of those raggies, we are not all inconsiderate like that.

 

[aslabend]

Yes and seeing how long the channel and the moorings are (post #31) I would not in a million years try sailing upwind there. May I appologise for the behaviour of those raggies, we are not all inconsiderate like that.

Try it before you poo-poo it, it's fun.

 

[Fantasie 19]

Try it before you poo-poo it, it's fun.

Indeed... why on earth could/would you not?? The tack up to Emsworth through a similar channel is always good fun (it's technically challenging, and when you get there very satisfying to think you've managed to do it)...

 

[MapisM]

why on earth could/would you not??

Ahem. Because it's inconsiderate, that's why.
ProDave didn't say it isn't fun, he said it's inconsiderate, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Mind, if you re-read my post #6, you'll see that I was the first to say that I would have overtaken the sailboats on the stbd side of the channel, right after they came about to their stbd tack.

But suggesting that they were right in doing what they were doing because it's fun is as inconsiderate as actually doing that, imho. :ambivalence:

 

[volvopaul]

All this aggro just to save 50 pence worth of diesel.