First trip out of Chichester Harbour. IOW any good for this?

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Jaguar 25

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Planning our first trip out of the Thornham Marina area of Chichester Harbour and the plan is to go out on the ebb and return in on the next flood tide. My intention was to go to Bembridge but this does not look to be feasible with access limited to plus or minus 2 hrs HW.

What is recommended for a relatively simple sail?
 
Unfortunately in my experience in order to get to Bembridge from any of the up harbour marinas you need to leave before HW and punch the the last of the flood tide, (unless you sail a fast tri or cat that is). Apart from the lack of tide assistance is there any particular reason why you wanted to do it this way? I've found that to get most places in the Solent from Chi in a similar sized boat to yours you invariably need to leave an hour or so before HW.

Bembridge is well worth the effort of passage planning though. Alternatively there's plenty of places to go in the harbour.
 
I'm in Chichester Marina and nearly always have to go out against the tide. You get used to it. And the dinghy racing! Bembridge is a nice trip but if you wanted to avoid lack of water problems, what about Portsmouth? Haslar or Gosport.
 
Maybe anchor in Priory Bay next to Bembridge entrance so you are free to make the return trip on your time scale. Alternatively just heading along towards Langstone entrance or Portsmouth before turning round. Find the sub marine barrier crossing point too :eek:
 
emsworthy said:
Unfortunately in my experience in order to get to Bembridge from any of the up harbour marinas you need to leave before HW and punch the the last of the flood tide, (unless you sail a fast tri or cat that is). Apart from the lack of tide assistance is there any particular reason why you wanted to do it this way? I've found that to get most places in the Solent from Chi in a similar sized boat to yours you invariably need to leave an hour or so before HW.
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We can't row out to our boat until HW-2, not enough water. If we were quick (unlikely) we would be away by HW-1.5. It is about 4NM from Thornham to the Chi outlet and so at an optimistic 4 knots we will now be at HW-0.5 and possibly right at HW. So definitely cannot get out an hour before HW unless we anchor near the outlet overnight, which is not appealing. In terms of sailing around Chi harbour, we draw less than a metre but it would appear that the area available is very restricted in terms of water depth and without much local knowledge I feel we could end up high and dry!
 
maxmonk said:
I'm in Chichester Marina and nearly always have to go out against the tide. You get used to it. And the dinghy racing! Bembridge is a nice trip but if you wanted to avoid lack of water problems, what about Portsmouth? Haslar or Gosport.
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As above, we can't row out to our boat until HW-2, not enough water. If we were quick (unlikely) we would be away by HW-1.5. It is about 4NM from Thornham to the Chi outlet and so at an optimistic 4 knots we will now be at HW-0.5 and possibly right at HW. So definitely cannot get out much before HW unless we anchor near the outlet overnight, which is not appealing. Might settle for the Portsmouth, Haslar, Gosport options but just fancied going to IOW.
 
FairweatherDave said:
Maybe anchor in Priory Bay next to Bembridge entrance so you are free to make the return trip on your time scale. Alternatively just heading along towards Langstone entrance or Portsmouth before turning round. Find the sub marine barrier crossing point too :eek:
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That seems a good possibility but we'd be stuck on the boat as I don't want to tow our inflatable.
 
If considering Portsmouth bear in mind the maximum ebb flow out through the entrance is around HW+3 to HW+4, spring rates up to 4 knots. Can make the old engine grunt a bit!
 
If you fancy a change of scene for an overnighter and also a bit of a play in the Solent, how about poking your nose out for a couple of hours and then go up the Emsworth Channel and spend a night in Northney. If you only draw a metre and you're thinking of this weekend you could get in and out of there at almost all states of the tide. A short walk to the Old House at Home at Langstone and there's beer and food sorted too!
 
Either tow, deflate or stow on deck the inflatable. Having it with you will give you lots more options.
You should manage Bembridge fine in a Jag 25 especially if you have the bilge keel option when I estimate you should have nearly 3h either side of HW to make an entrance.
 
Jaguar 25 said:
Planning our first trip out of the Thornham Marina area of Chichester Harbour and the plan is to go out on the ebb and return in on the next flood tide. My intention was to go to Bembridge but this does not look to be feasible with access limited to plus or minus 2 hrs HW.

What is recommended for a relatively simple sail?
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Bembridge is doable ... would have been doing it this weekend if things had gone to plan. ( SWOA rally this WE and all next week)

I have done it a number of times times leaving Paynes in the dinghy 2 hours before HW. No time to hang about though. Throw the gear on board, cast off and get going. Stow the gear while motoring down the harbour against the tide,

Get sails up before leaving the harbour entrance.

If wind not favourable motor or motor sail to Bembridge.


Better to start previous day, drop down to a mooring somewhere, or Pilsey or even East head anchorage overnight Get away to to leave the harbour just as the tide outside is turning westwards next day.


coming back from Bembridge has similar problems regarding timescale plus a foul tide. Better IMHO if possible to leave after HW, take your time and enter Chichester on the next rising tide. Stop for swim at E.head or Pilsey if warm and sunny. Return to mooring at a leisurely pace


Cowes and beyond also doable but if wind not favourable sit out the flood tide in Osborne bay ... or motor. ( Newtown was my first trip out of the harbour)


In the early days the world seems to end at Osborne bay because thats about how far you can get before the tide turns foul and you find yourself tacking back and forth across the Solent getting nowhere.


BTW remember you make better progress to windward if you don't try to sail too hard on the wind. Free off, bear away a touch and you'l make better progress but you will never beat both wind and tide together in the Solent.


Have fun. If I do get afloat this year I'll look out for you ... meantime mooring PY58 should be vacant if you need it for a few hours or even overnight


BTW you can save a bit of time on the way out by cutting across inside of the Winner from the near yellow buoy beyond E head to W pole beacon. Look at the chart and latest survey to pick the best route. Calm weather near HW only!
 
Bembridge is nice, but seriously tidal.
If you leave Chichester soon after HW, you should get West going tide for a few hours.
Cowes is not a bad option, or up the river to the Folly?
Alternatively, Gosport, either Haslar Marina or maybe one of the clubs might have visitor moorings?
In fine weather, Seaview YC is nice, anyone know if they still have Visitor moorings?

Langstone Harbour is nice if you like watching terns, but has little else for visitors.
You could phone ECA and ask about moorings and bar service, they are the club on the Portsmouth side of the entrance, where the moorings are.
Or the marina has a bar and did OK food last time I was there...
Not sure when you'll get to their waiting pontoon, suggest looking at their website/almanac/phone 'em?
The pub the other side is a bit ordinary IMHO.

An overnight in Cowes might actually be easier than needing to rush back for HW?
 
I'm not clear if you are trying to go out with the ebb and return with the flood (which is how I took your OP). That is a day trip. If you are overnighting somewhere you do have plenty of options and Bembridge is a good one. If sailing it can take longer to get there than you expect. If staying in the harbour there is plenty of water to enjoy yourself up to 3hrs after HW, (and the Emsworth channel is easy to follow/ well marked) but the dinghy racing can feel abit stressful to cross, particularly near the harbour entrance. But the anchorage at East Head or Pilsey is worth using ( though here not everyone loves East Head :).
 
if you want IOW Why not head for say Cowes. Maybe up to Folly. Not as nice as Bembridge but only a couple of hours more from Chi and all tide access. Also should have the tide with you the whole way if you leave at HW.

On the way back - aim to arrive at the bar about 1 hour before HW and you should have a fair tide the whole way back to your mooring
 
We bought a fin keeled 27 footer and so far,3 years ,have not got out of the harbour but have had many enjoyable days, except for the week ends, keep within the buoyed channels and get a good chart.
 
Jaguar 25 said:
In terms of sailing around Chi harbour, we draw less than a metre but it would appear that the area available is very restricted in terms of water depth and without much local knowledge I feel we could end up high and dry!
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Stay between the poles and you'll be mostly fine - best way to do it is to sail out on a neaps tide in the morning and aim to be back for the evening - or next day ... that way you get to sail around at low water and see where you can/can't get to ...
A nice one would be to sail around to Itchenor and either go alongside the pontoon and run up for an icecream, pick up a visitors buoy or anchor further west and go to the pub ...
You could get around to Emsworth, but at low water there's not much there.

We've had sightings of seals this year - so nice to bimble around under wind power and see if you can spot them :)

btw - the bottom up the channels isn't that hard - it's only sand in the main body of the harbour - so if you ground you could turn the engine on to reverse off ... or get off and push!
 
In our early sailing days we kept our boat in Emsworth marina, a boat with similar restrictions as yours, this restricted us much in the same way as you. If at all possible, and what we would do, was to leave the marina the evening before. Wife would arrive at the marina from work on the Friday afternoon, we'd load up and as soon as there was enough water over the sill, we'd be off, sometimes very late and in the dark. We would find a buoy for the night and have a very pleasant time sat peacefully for the night.

Even now on a Friday night we dont stay in the marina, we leave and anchor up at Mill Rythe. You dont say if you want to only day sail, or have a couple of nights on the boat, but if you want some sailing and a low cost overnight, go up the Emsworth channel and stay on the visitors pontoon, but there is no walk ashore there, but still a nice place to stay.

When you break out of the harbour you get a favourable west going tide from West Pole 2 hrs before HW Ports. For about an hour before that (HW -3) there is a degree of slack. Be at west Pole -3 HW Ports and you can get a fair tide all the way to Newtown creek or even Yarmouth.
 
FairweatherDave said:
I'm not clear if you are trying to go out with the ebb and return with the flood (which is how I took your OP). That is a day trip. If you are overnighting somewhere you do have plenty of options and Bembridge is a good one. If sailing it can take longer to get there than you expect. If staying in the harbour there is plenty of water to enjoy yourself up to 3hrs after HW, (and the Emsworth channel is easy to follow/ well marked) but the dinghy racing can feel abit stressful to cross, particularly near the harbour entrance. But the anchorage at East Head or Pilsey is worth using ( though here not everyone loves East Head :).
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Yes, that's the plan, the plan is to go out on the ebb and return in on the next flood tide. If we stay in the harbour I would have thought we need to keep to the channels which seems a bit limited in terms of sailing direction vs wind direction.
 
Yes. If you want to do plenty of sailing through low tide the easy way is to leave the harbour, but with the right wind direction and only drawing a metre you could get quite a way inside. But you would always be thinking about depth.
 
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