Dinghy Round the Isle Of Wight

[sladonians]

I too know of it being done in Mirror.

Accepted I will need to gain experience of coastal sailing, I know the Solent well having grown up there and my first sailing experience was out of Lymington over to Hurst Point with a group.

Capsize drill in open water is high on my agenda and is my primary concern. I have heard tell of Wayfarers being notoriously hard to right after a capsize however I do plan to have plenty of on board buoyancy including on the mast head.

My initial thoughts of route are to launch from Calshot, early morning. Stopping at Newtown Creek or Yarmouth, then on to Bembridge which I've heard is excellent for an overnight. From there back to recover her at Calshot. I had considered setting off from the Hamble (Warsash perhaps) but feel it adds unnecessary complications at the start / end of the voyage.

Definitely anti clockwise for me., Thanks for the comments.

 

[lw395]

I too know of it being done in Mirror.

Accepted I will need to gain experience of coastal sailing, I know the Solent well having grown up there and my first sailing experience was out of Lymington over to Hurst Point with a group.

Capsize drill in open water is high on my agenda and is my primary concern. I have heard tell of Wayfarers being notoriously hard to right after a capsize however I do plan to have plenty of on board buoyancy including on the mast head.

My initial thoughts of route are to launch from Calshot, early morning. Stopping at Newtown Creek or Yarmouth, then on to Bembridge which I've heard is excellent for an overnight. From there back to recover her at Calshot. I had considered setting off from the Hamble (Warsash perhaps) but feel it adds unnecessary complications at the start / end of the voyage.

Definitely anti clockwise for me., Thanks for the comments.

If capsize recovery is something you've only heard about, you're a long way from ready for this. A Wayfarer is not the easiest thing to right, the conditions you need to be prepared for around Hurst/Needles/St Cats/Bembridge Ledge are not where you want to be without being pretty slick at recovery. And being moderately good at not capsizing in the first place. It's a whole different game, righting a boat in the conditions you'll find, compared to inland flat water. The first ten or so times you capsize for real, you will probably find like the rest of us, it's good to be in a club environment with a RIB keeping an eye on you.
I'd suggest joining a Solent club and racing the Wayfarer for a season.

Masthead floats are contentious, they are useful when teaching because they prevent the boat turtling in flat or flattish water. In real waves they may not prevent the boat inverting.
But they have a huge downside, if you capsize and both end up in the water, the boat on its side will blow away from you about 5x as fast as you can swim. Then you are in very deep trouble. It's fine in a training environment, with a safety boat on hand in sensible water, but in the proper sea when it's just you, you want the boat to invert when you fall out, so you can swim to it.

I'd also suggest going around the island in a yacht first, to understand what it's about.

To revert to armchair cruising mode, I'd suggest setting off from Lymington, Keyhaven or Yarmouth, so you have the most certain forecast for the difficult leg around the back.

 

[sladonians]

If capsize recovery is something you've only heard about, you're a long way from ready for this. A Wayfarer is not the easiest thing to right, the conditions you need to be prepared for around Hurst/Needles/St Cats/Bembridge Ledge are not where you want to be without being pretty slick at recovery. And being moderately good at not capsizing in the first place. It's a whole different game, righting a boat in the conditions you'll find, compared to inland flat water. The first ten or so times you capsize for real, you will probably find like the rest of us, it's good to be in a club environment with a RIB keeping an eye on you.
I'd suggest joining a Solent club and racing the Wayfarer for a season.

Masthead floats are contentious, they are useful when teaching because they prevent the boat turtling in flat or flattish water. In real waves they may not prevent the boat inverting.
But they have a huge downside, if you capsize and both end up in the water, the boat on its side will blow away from you about 5x as fast as you can swim. Then you are in very deep trouble. It's fine in a training environment, with a safety boat on hand in sensible water, but in the proper sea when it's just you, you want the boat to invert when you fall out, so you can swim to it.

I'd also suggest going around the island in a yacht first, to understand what it's about.

To revert to armchair cruising mode, I'd suggest setting off from Lymington, Keyhaven or Yarmouth, so you have the most certain forecast for the difficult leg around the back.

Ah sorry I may have underplayed my experience. I have indeed been involved in open water sailing and capsize recovery in smaller boats (my initiation to sailing was off Hurst Point in a Laser). I have been out in the Solent and Southampton Water many times as crew, but never as skipper on anything larger than a laser.

I have never capsized my Wayfarer in open water, have done so many times on a lake admittedly in very controlled conditions, and understand the increased difficulty and problems associated with doing this in potentially rough seas in open water on the south west side of the Island. I do plan to take the boat to locations such as Chichester Harbour and the like as part of preparation.

I agree Lymington would be a good launch / recovery point.

 

[FairweatherDave]

If capsize recovery is something you've only heard about, you're a long way from ready for this. A Wayfarer is not the easiest thing to right, the conditions you need to be prepared for around Hurst/Needles/St Cats/Bembridge Ledge are not where you want to be without being pretty slick at recovery. And being moderately good at not capsizing in the first place. It's a whole different game, righting a boat in the conditions you'll find, compared to inland flat water. The first ten or so times you capsize for real, you will probably find like the rest of us, it's good to be in a club environment with a RIB keeping an eye on you.
I'd suggest joining a Solent club and racing the Wayfarer for a season.

Masthead floats are contentious, they are useful when teaching because they prevent the boat turtling in flat or flattish water. In real waves they may not prevent the boat inverting.
But they have a huge downside, if you capsize and both end up in the water, the boat on its side will blow away from you about 5x as fast as you can swim. Then you are in very deep trouble. It's fine in a training environment, with a safety boat on hand in sensible water, but in the proper sea when it's just you, you want the boat to invert when you fall out, so you can swim to it.

I'd also suggest going around the island in a yacht first, to understand what it's about.

To revert to armchair cruising mode, I'd suggest setting off from Lymington, Keyhaven or Yarmouth, so you have the most certain forecast for the difficult leg around the back.

Therein lies the minefield for the OP.
People talk about capsize drill. I have. How many do it? I haven't. The Wayfarer is a very stable dinghy and if you reef early and sail in sensible conditions I'm not sure you would ever capsize. I haven't. If you join a club and race, never reef and push the limits safe in the company of others and a rib I guess you might capsize. And have learnt and practiced the drill.

 

[Neil_Y]

When we used wayfarers for training (many years ago) we found many had leaky rear hatches and this was their bouyancy, so some sank quite quickly. As others have said capsize recovery for real in choppy conditions can take some time, righting lines on elastic are useful so you don't keep falling of the cantreboard.

Personally I'd go for a cat for long distance, it's rare to hole a hull so they float whichever way up they are. I've done some long trips on an F18, a wayfarer would seem a bit slow to me.

 

[lw395]

Therein lies the minefield for the OP.
People talk about capsize drill. I have. How many do it? I haven't. The Wayfarer is a very stable dinghy and if you reef early and sail in sensible conditions I'm not sure you would ever capsize. I haven't. If you join a club and race, never reef and push the limits safe in the company of others and a rib I guess you might capsize. And have learnt and practiced the drill.

The problem being that 'sensible conditions' would not IMHO include the OP being in any one of Hurst, Needles, St Cats, Bembridge Ledge, Gurnard? etc., in breeze which is really only the top end of a very nice summer's day, judging from the level of experience he shows.

You also want a very well prepared boat. I'd have reasonable confidence in either of my dinghies, because I know they regularly see hard use in strong winds without anything breaking very often. But even brand new boats break sometimes, and some vintage cruising Wayfarer has to be regarded as suspect until you've given it some sea trials and shake down.
A lot of the things that can possibly break will tip you in.
When you're in wind over tide at Hurst, a Wayfarer is not actually a particularly stable boat. I have seen enough of them racing out of Lymington to know that. Downwind without the kite up particularly.
You can certainly tell which are the good sailors.

Round the Island in a dinghy is completely do-able, but it's not a trivial thing that we should be encouraging anyone to do before they've got a sound level of experience in tidal sailing.
I'm trying to suggest a sound 'roadmap' towards the goal.

 

[FairweatherDave]

The problem being that 'sensible conditions' would not IMHO include the OP being in any one of Hurst, Needles, St Cats, Bembridge Ledge, Gurnard? etc., in breeze which is really only the top end of a very nice summer's day, judging from the level of experience he shows.

You also want a very well prepared boat. I'd have reasonable confidence in either of my dinghies, because I know they regularly see hard use in strong winds without anything breaking very often. But even brand new boats break sometimes, and some vintage cruising Wayfarer has to be regarded as suspect until you've given it some sea trials and shake down.
A lot of the things that can possibly break will tip you in.
When you're in wind over tide at Hurst, a Wayfarer is not actually a particularly stable boat. I have seen enough of them racing out of Lymington to know that. Downwind without the kite up particularly.
You can certainly tell which are the good sailors.

Round the Island in a dinghy is completely do-able, but it's not a trivial thing that we should be encouraging anyone to do before they've got a sound level of experience in tidal sailing.
I'm trying to suggest a sound 'roadmap' towards the goal.

We're in agreement, see post 6.
The road map is the challenge, where to get that experience? Joining a club may suit the OP. Alternatively the UKWA used to run and perhaps still run some weekends I would like to have done. I have no experience of racing Wayfarers. But I have capsized my boat to test the rear hatch on a warm mill pond. And I would agree breakages are a serious concern, not to be underestimated if sailing unaccompanied.

 

[dom]

Therein lies the minefield for the OP.
People talk about capsize drill. I have. How many do it? I haven't. The Wayfarer is a very stable dinghy and if you reef early and sail in sensible conditions I'm not sure you would ever capsize. I haven't.

I dunno, I'd say one could capsize any dinghy; esp around the Bridge and the overfalls off St Cats Pt. One doesn't want to over dramatise the risks, but I'd certainly want to know that the boat in question could be righted and successfully bailed with the max envisaged sea.

And without stress, for the back of the Island can feel surprisingly exposed.

 

[FairweatherDave]

Again, I agree with you Dom. I did say sensible conditions......

 

[dom]

Again, I agree with you Dom. I did say sensible conditions......

You certainly did!

Golly, seems like we all agree: be sensible, stay safe, and have fun

 

[Balbas]

I'm trying to suggest a sound 'roadmap' towards the goal.

Just to be clear about my experience. I've a wayfarer, which I've taken to sea. I've done tons of capsize drills (including full inversions) in the sea in dinghies and I've really pushed the limits of what's sensible in terms of wind speed (as part of a military run course, with a RIB in close attendance).

From my point of view, if the OP has *any* doubts at all about his ability to round the island safely, then I would suggest that he joins the UKWA and also the DCA and joins both for some rallies, noting that whilst I am sure both groups would render assistance if required, the DCA are much more about self reliance, so it may be best to start off with a UKWA rally.

 

[Ralph Ballhatchet]

I'm keen to know how your mini adventure went - if sailed round the Island three times - always starting from the Lifeboat slip at Forelanf, Bembridge - one trip was in a WW Potter! - anpother was in a Mirror - four days including an (near) air sea rescue...

 

[Ralph Ballhatchet]

I prefer clockwise - the ebb tide through the Hurst narrows is only three hours but the floof can be up to eight hours hours - this means that as long as you make the western aproaches about an hour and a half after low tide you can wizz round to Seaview at an average of 6 or 7 knots with a half descent westerly or south westerly. Did you make the trip ? I'd love to hear all about it