Foulger's Gat

[Athene V30]

A while ago I raised concerns over the buoyage and lighting at Foulger's Gat.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...details-now-available&highlight=foulger's+gat

Roger (Tillergirl) kindly added his influence too amongst Trinity House and the PLA.

I had a response from a contact within RYA Eastern today.....

took more interest in Foulgers Gatt on my return last week. The main thing that struck me was the massive size of the turbines and pylons. We seemed to be at them when we were still 2 miles away!! It is very clear that the new bouyage is insignificant in relation to the size of the pylons. Whilst one can cope with this in daylight I can appreciate the problem that this will cause at night especially with all the ancillary lighting on the pylons.

Also - as this seems to be a pilot for a cross sand passage through a windfarm I consider that some port and starboard marking on the pylons would have been beneficial.

The matter has now been raised with Trinity House and I will get back to you when we have received their reply.

If you are passing that way by day or night please pass on your comments.

 

[sailorman]

A while ago I raised concerns over the buoyage and lighting at Foulger's Gat.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...details-now-available&highlight=foulger's+gat

Roger (Tillergirl) kindly added his influence too amongst Trinity House and the PLA.

I had a response from a contact within RYA Eastern today.....

took more interest in Foulgers Gatt on my return last week. The main thing that struck me was the massive size of the turbines and pylons. We seemed to be at them when we were still 2 miles away!! It is very clear that the new bouyage is insignificant in relation to the size of the pylons. Whilst one can cope with this in daylight I can appreciate the problem that this will cause at night especially with all the ancillary lighting on the pylons.

Also - as this seems to be a pilot for a cross sand passage through a windfarm I consider that some port and starboard marking on the pylons would have been beneficial.

The matter has now been raised with Trinity House and I will get back to you when we have received their reply.

If you are passing that way by day or night please pass on your comments.

FMYC had a visit ti Harwich depot last Thursday, we raised it as well with Paul Howe, TH Comms Director, he stated he would pass the message on

 

[jimi]

FMYC had a visit ti Harwich depot last Thursday, we raised it as well with Paul Howe, TH Comms Director, he stated he would pass the message on

I went through Foulger's Gat on Friday daylight (North to South) and found it OK, at night I'd ensure I had a route to follow between the buoys.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Went through yesterday on the way back from a club rally to Ramsgate, the middle and Norther SWMs were easy enough to find but the Southernmost one was quite hard to tell apart from pylon bases and the like. The picture below was taken a mile or so away from the first waypoint, visibility was excellent at the time as both the Kent and Essex shores were visible

 

[benw]

We were on passage home from Dover on Thursday, the squalls were very punchy. We were intending to pass on the outside and up to LSH but decided to go for either Fisherman's or Foulgers and changed course to suit. Just as we had made the decision to use Foulgers a mighty squall came through and we experienced 34kn and lumpy seas as we struggled, almost head to wind to get into the wind farm. We had to enter 2 pylons above the LSH SWM Kentish Knock end and headed straight for the mid SWM. All very lively for about 40 minutes or so but eventually able to partly sail to the Black Deep SWM. The tide was setting us hard against the eastern side of the fairway and making progress into wind was pretty tough.With only 1 reef in the main and no 2 we were over canvassed and it all got a bit tense for a while with the guard ship taking an interest in our movements.
Once we cleared the wind farm it all calmed down again but it is sod's law that we had the squall just at the wrong time! We were sailing with a couple of other yachts that left Dover. Dennyjc of this forum was ahead and reported the stronger winds which prompted a reef, the other behind saw what we were experiencing and opted for Fishermans and took the time hit that came with this. We came in to the Harwich approach about 1.5hrs before LW on a big spring and saw never less than a metre under the keel in places where this was charted to be 2m which correlated with the height of tide expected. This saved a fair amount of time from diverting up to the Cork Sand YB.
Mind you arrived back at our berth an hour or so earlier than expected and had to drag ourselves into the berth given LW!

 

[dennyjc]

the squalls were very punchy. . . .
. . Mind you arrived back at our berth an hour or so earlier than expected and had to drag ourselves into the berth given LW!

Hi Ben

We got hit by the worst of the squall with just the last two turbines to clear
by this time we had just our small foresail up.
The wind veere that came with the squall made it hard (exiting) to squeeze past.


With so much more wind than forecast we arrived home much earlier than planned and
ended up waiting on Shotley marina's waiting pontoon for two hours
before there was enough water to get in !


PS did you set a new speed record
on that trip from Eastbourne to Dover

 

[benw]

Thanks Colin,
It certainly was pretty tough going in that squall. Once in the turbines we couldn't lose any sail for fear of being taken onto a pylon. So we just stuck with it.
We had a great sail overall. The sail from Eastbourne to Dover was a scorcher! I have some great footage entering Dover with the swell and tide under us!
Thanks for the radio conversation re foulgers, it would have been good if your wind speed had been working at that time!

 

[johnalison]

I've lost track of who was sailing on which day but we did Eastbourne-Dover last Wednesday with plenty of wind and I was permitted to pole out the jib, giving an easy trip until we got into the rough stuff off Dover Western. There was an odd-looking Swedish yacht with no sail up and two unstated masts motoring the other way at an amazing speed, he must have shot in at 12 knots or more.

Back in May we came through Foulger's gat, motoring quietly minding our own business until one of their boats started having a go at us on the VHF, warning us not to damage one of their toys. The dogleg was going to take off our route so I followed a fishing boat south between a couple of vanes. Returning yesterday I had saved up a mile of westing against the wind and decided that it was easier to go through Fisherman's gat instead.

 

[philiphurst]

... and decided that it was easier to go through Fisherman's gat instead.

... which is what I will be doing in the future. My post of late May/early June refers.

As I said at the time, there is something 'wrong' about sailing through a wind farm. Dis-orientation was bad enough in decent, if breezy, conditions. I would not wish to have the experience that the recent posters had whilst single-handed as I frequentlyam. Bad enough with a crew but it's still a lot to deal with. Good on them for coping with it.

Open seas, anybody?

 

[dennyjc]

... we did Eastbourne-Dover last Wednesday with plenty of wind and I was permitted to pole out the jib, giving an easy trip until we got into the rough stuff off Dover Western....

Then you must have been skippering Shifta - the HR 34. We were Running Free, the boat you tied to in Eastbourne lock.
We watched you disappear ahead goose-winged all the way from Eastbourne to Dover.

 

[benw]

Indeed we locked out after you guys from Eastbourne. We had 12kn on the water log speed and arrived at the West entrance with Running Free. I have not been able to see our GPS ground speed for that day but it seems we may have had maybe 4knots of tide.

 

[johnalison]

Then you must have been skippering Shifta - the HR 34. We were Running Free, the boat you tied to in Eastbourne lock.
We watched you disappear ahead goose-winged all the way from Eastbourne to Dover.

Yes, it was us. I saw you heading more to the south, presumably to get a bit more wind befor it had got up, then I lost rack of you, mistaking you for another yacht that followed us later. It was an enjoyable trip for us and kept up our record of hardly using the motor for the last three months.