alant
Active member
What do you line it up with?
Fawley PS Chimney.
- Thread starter scotty123
- Start date
What do you line it up with?
Iain C
Active member
I'm with you. I will say that it's comforting coming through Hurst at night after a long eastbound passage and seeing the red lights telling you you're nearly home, but otherwise it's a gopping industrial eyesore and I'm really glad it's days are numbered.
dom
Well-known member
Sandy
Well-known member
It's a bit like a sectored light...
Tzu
Member
Wonder why the journo refers to a "luxury" marina and if the developer called it that.
Resolution
Well-known member
As all newspapers refer to yachts as "luxury yachts", it is only fair to expect them to be berthed in "luxury" marinas.
Actually Fawley would make a super location for a decent new marina and some (repeat some) associated housing. Reasonable deep water access, very quick to be in proper sailing water, good shelter from prevailing wind, not bad road access if they brushed up a couple of the roundabouts. Conversion of parts of the power station buildings into something for under cover yacht servicing is a tantalising prospect. It has long been top of my bucket list for new marina sites in the Solent, always assuming that we do have a need for more marina space.
Fair winds to Mr Drummond.
Peter
Bathdave
Well-known member
I made my first ever approach into the Hamble last week, arriving 5am ish around the east end of IOW
Being completely unfamiliar with the area (I know it's the backyard to many on here) we were ultra cautious. It does make a good landmark but was relying mostly on the chart plotter
As we headed up the channel to the NE of the bramble bank, we were about half way along when I spotted on AIS a commercial vessel coming down towards us. It was a sodding big ship which me and the whole crew had failed to pick out against the backlights, ...the fact it was so big meant his nav lights were way higher than our normal vision line
We were slightly on the port side of the channel, he seemed to be coming down the middle, so we had a moment of concern as I decided whether to cross the channel in front of him and pass port to port, or hang as far left as I could.
I did the former and he passed 30 seconds later, frankly rather scary. If I had not spotted him on AIS I'm not sure when we would have recognised it as a large ship.
Being completely unfamiliar with the area (I know it's the backyard to many on here) we were ultra cautious. It does make a good landmark but was relying mostly on the chart plotter
As we headed up the channel to the NE of the bramble bank, we were about half way along when I spotted on AIS a commercial vessel coming down towards us. It was a sodding big ship which me and the whole crew had failed to pick out against the backlights, ...the fact it was so big meant his nav lights were way higher than our normal vision line
We were slightly on the port side of the channel, he seemed to be coming down the middle, so we had a moment of concern as I decided whether to cross the channel in front of him and pass port to port, or hang as far left as I could.
I did the former and he passed 30 seconds later, frankly rather scary. If I had not spotted him on AIS I'm not sure when we would have recognised it as a large ship.
alant
Active member
If it was such "a sodding big ship", its the sudden absence of "backlights" that should be looked out for, its nav lights are insignificant in comparison.
prv
Well-known member
Indeed - though it can't have been all that big since if he was NE of the Brambles then he was in the North Channel and the real bigguns go round the Thorn instead
Pete
DJE
Well-known member
Agree - blow it up. We'll still have the TV masts on the Island.
alant
Active member
Difficult to see from Hurst.
jac
Well-known member
alant
Active member
Can see the Needles though
Better to use Hurst light & stay in correct sector.
Applespider
New member
+1. That's precisely what I remind my crew of when we're heading out at night around in the Solent. That and reminding them to take bearings for whichever channel markers they're looking for on the way back from Gilkicker - it's all too easy to lose them in the background noise of Calshot and Fawley.
It's easy to get used to the bigger vessels heading around the lamb-chop - so much so that I've seen a few do a double take when they've heard a smaller tanker sound twice to come along the North Channel.
I do hope they give us good warning of the chimney coming down; might be a fun to anchor off Bramble Bank and get a great view of it going 'down in smoke'
Seajet
...
I don't really care about Fawley - apart from the probably urban myth that if it went up it would take out most of Southampton - as the Solent is full of good visual and indeed depth contour marks even without GPS.
Apart from the Bramble Bank which I find difficult to spot ( so just be careful around ) but plenty of others do pile up on the Brambles - don't blow up the Fawley chimney, use it as a new mark on the Brambles, win / win !
I did find the loss of the power station chimneys off Shorehams' bleak coast genuinely robbed us of a good daymark, but then if sailing near Shoreham one gets what one deserves anyway
Apart from the Bramble Bank which I find difficult to spot ( so just be careful around ) but plenty of others do pile up on the Brambles - don't blow up the Fawley chimney, use it as a new mark on the Brambles, win / win !
I did find the loss of the power station chimneys off Shorehams' bleak coast genuinely robbed us of a good daymark, but then if sailing near Shoreham one gets what one deserves anyway
prv
Well-known member
As well as general situational awareness and the depth sounder, there are a couple of fair-sized chimneys in East Cowes which line up more or less over the drying part of the bank. If the two chimneys are well open of each other then you should be ok, if they're in line or getting that way then start considering your north/south position.
Pete
Seajet
...
Pete
thank you so much for that lesson, I don't know how I've managed to to make it around either side of the Brambles from 1974, I'm very well aware of Situational Awareness and nav by sounder ta very much and did 24 Channel Crossings with nothing more than the comical RDF.
I just thought it would be a fun idea to plant the Fawley chimney on the Brambles as a mark, could even have an eternal flame on top, but I was forgetting YBW is increasingly humourless these days.
thank you so much for that lesson, I don't know how I've managed to to make it around either side of the Brambles from 1974, I'm very well aware of Situational Awareness and nav by sounder ta very much and did 24 Channel Crossings with nothing more than the comical RDF.
I just thought it would be a fun idea to plant the Fawley chimney on the Brambles as a mark, could even have an eternal flame on top, but I was forgetting YBW is increasingly humourless these days.
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DJE
Well-known member
What - in the middle of the cricket pitch? Outrageous, whatever next...... retires mumbling to himself.I just thought it would be a fun idea to plant the Fawley chimney on the Brambles as a mark, could even have an eternal flame on top, but I was forgetting YBW is increasingly humourless these days.
prv
Well-known member
:shrug: - you're the one who said you find the most notorious shoal in the Solent "hard to spot".
Pete
alan_d
Well-known member
According to the RYA members' magazine which arrived today "The developer recognises the importance of the chimney to boaters and intends to include a 100m tower structure in its designs, which would be visible from the eastern and western Solent approaches."