How long takes to Sail from Cork (IRE) to London (UK)?

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MBS_SH

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Hi guys,

I'm writing a screenplay were the main character finds himself in a situation where he needs to SAIL from Cork City (Ireland) to London (England/UK), the problem is that I'm not a seaman, I've piloted small speedboats a couple of time only. So I have a couple of questions:

Specs:
Boat: must be a RECREATIONAL SAILBOAT
The character CANNOT use any motorized/engine propelled boat.

a) How long it would take? Sailing as fast as possible in real world.

b) My guess for the question (a) is 2 or 3 days? but if it would take more than 3 or 4 days it becomes unpractical to the story then if there is any boat capable of doing so I would thanks for its specs please? The character is wealthy so, any recreational sailboat is considered. Otherwise I have to find another sub-plot.

c) What is the fastest way?

d) Would you suggest some adversities he could find in the journey? (apart from a storm in the middle of the ocean, that's a cliche)

For those who take the time to properly reply I would gladly consider putting their names in the ending credits in the "Thanks section" if they would like so.
Taking in account that the film is produced.

Thank you all of reading.

MBS.
 
MBS_SH said:
Hi guys,

I'm writing a screenplay were the main character finds himself in a situation where he needs to SAIL from Cork City (Ireland) to London (England/UK), the problem is that I'm not a seaman, I've piloted small speedboats a couple of time only. So I have a couple of questions:

Specs:
Boat: must be a RECREATIONAL SAILBOAT
The character CANNOT use any motorized/engine propelled boat.

a) How long it would take? Sailing as fast as possible in real world.

b) My guess for the question (a) is 2 or 3 days? but if it would take more than 3 or 4 days it becomes unpractical to the story then if there is any boat capable of doing so I would thanks for its specs please? The character is wealthy so, any recreational sailboat is considered. Otherwise I have to find another sub-plot.

c) What is the fastest way?

d) Would you suggest some adversities he could find in the journey? (apart from a storm in the middle of the ocean, that's a cliche)

For those who take the time to properly reply I would gladly consider putting their names in the ending credits in the "Thanks section" if they would like so.
Taking in account that the film is produced.

Thank you all of reading.

MBS.
Click to expand...

3 days sounds reasonable if pushing it (it's 500 miles) in an appropriate sized boat (say 35' minimum) if the weather's right (stiff westerly until Dover then southerly) but difficult to do single handed because of tiredness. How desperate is the protagonist to get there? An autopilot would be essential single handed but these are commonly found on most boats. It could be more realistic perhaps in a multihull that can do more miles in a day. Stick the protagonist in a 12m catamaran. That will get there quicker with suitable wind.

Pretty much all sailing boats have engines, but they may not work in a story of course, or run out of fuel. Maybe your protagonist mistakenly flattens his engine start battery & can't start his engine or has contamination in his fuel from water or dirt stirred up by bad weather. That would be much more believable than a boat not having an engine.

Adversities: fatigue if single handed after 18 hours, cold in winter, lots of dark also in winter, running out of battery power & not being able to start the engine, fuel contamination problems, constant dampness (especially in winter), strong adverse tides, wind being from where he wants to go, a traffic separation zone preventing him from taking a direct route (he doesn't want to raise suspicion by a minor marine traffic incursion), a sail splitting, a miriad of other possible breakages including injury to him. Running out of food & water wouldn't help either. Autopilot failure would seriously mess up the trip if on his own, & is entirely believable.

When you ask what is the fastest way there isn't really much choice of route. It's across the Celtic sea to Lands End then along the channel close to the UK coast to avoid all the shipping in the middle. What would make it quick is suitable weather & good luck with the tides along the channel.

If any of those are any good choose some & come back here for more details to make the story sound realistic.

As you will probably get lots of replies to this if you do take up the idea & the film is made a credit would probably be better to the sailors of the YBW forum rather than any individual.
 
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MBS_SH said:
Hi guys,

I'm writing a screenplay were the main character finds himself in a situation where he needs to SAIL from Cork City (Ireland) to London (England/UK), the problem is that I'm not a seaman, I've piloted small speedboats a couple of time only. So I have a couple of questions:

Specs:
Boat: must be a RECREATIONAL SAILBOAT
The character CANNOT use any motorized/engine propelled boat.

a) How long it would take? Sailing as fast as possible in real world.

b) My guess for the question (a) is 2 or 3 days? but if it would take more than 3 or 4 days it becomes unpractical to the story then if there is any boat capable of doing so I would thanks for its specs please? The character is wealthy so, any recreational sailboat is considered. Otherwise I have to find another sub-plot.

c) What is the fastest way?

d) Would you suggest some adversities he could find in the journey? (apart from a storm in the middle of the ocean, that's a cliche)

For those who take the time to properly reply I would gladly consider putting their names in the ending credits in the "Thanks section" if they would like so.
Taking in account that the film is produced.

Thank you all of reading.

MBS.
Click to expand...

Cork to London will be around 500 nautical miles (I'd need to check). Many yachts will average 4-6kts sailing without engine and take 3.5-5 days. You'd need to average about 7kts to get there in 3 days. Possible but a lot depends on the weather. At least you can simply conjure up perfect winds to get the result you want. Conditions obviously vary a lot at different times of the year. A lot depends on the type of sailing boat. Easier with a racing boat with a full crew and difficult with a typical small cruising boat with 1-2 people on board.

So choice of boat is critical to success, even with good weather.

Pretty dodgy though the channel if single handed and no sleep for many hours. Again, cat napping with auto-pilot makes it possible (but dangerous, which is probably good from your viewpoint).

Plenty of things to go wrong e.g. picking up rope from unmarked fishing buoys, gear breakages etc.
Unfortunately, most will result in loss of speed and delay.
 
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Mistroma said:
Cork to London will be around 500 nautical miles (I'd need to check). Many yachts will average 4-6kts sailing without engine and take 3.5-5 days. You'd need to average about 7kts to get there in 3 days. Possible but a lot depends on the weather. At least you can simply conjure up perfect winds to get the result you want. Conditions obviously vary a lot at different times of the year. A lot depends on the type of sailing boat. Easier with a racing boat with a full crew and difficult with a typical small cruising boat with 1-2 people on board.

So choice of boat is critical to success, even with good weather.

Pretty dodgy though the channel if single handed and no sleep for many hours. Again, cat napping with auto-pilot makes it possible (but dangerous, which is probably good from your viewpoint).

Plenty of things to go wrong e.g. picking up rope from unmarked fishing buoys, gear breakages etc.
Unfortunately, most will result in loss of speed and delay.
Click to expand...

Looking at the average speed needed of 7 knots I think it's going to have to be a fair sized boat, say 13m, or a multihull, & a stiff westerly until the Thames estuary. Cold, wet, dark & fatigue might be a good plot that allows the trip to be made but makes it seriously unpleasant.
 
I think doing it in the timescale you mention is pretty much impossible. As other have said it is doable if you have perfect conditions but the chance of that happening on a whim are just that. Nothing worse than films, dramas etc where they make impossible things look doable on a boat. Sail to somewhere along the south coast then hitch a ride by road would be more believable and think of the extra characters you could add in.
 
How long would it take; work out the distance and use 5 knots as the speed. That’ll give you the time taken for the trip. But be aware that there are significant factors that will change that time: for example, if you arrive at Land’s End (the western tip of England) at the wrong time, the tide will effectively stop you from moving forward. The winds would also have to be favourable throughout the journey: for the part of the trip from Cork to the Thames estuary westerly winds would be best (and that is the prevailing wind) but the wind should ideally be southerly for the trip up the Thames.
If your character is making his way from Cork to London using a sail boat then I’d suggest a more reasonable way of making the journey would be to sail from Cork to say Falmouth (a comfortable 2 - 3 day sail) and then hire a car or take the train to London. Sailing all the way up the English Channel is a long trip and going up the Thames to London is a difficult task. Given that your knowledge of sailing is limited sticking to a shorter trip will be easier to get right.
Adversities en route are many. It depends rather on the dramatic effect you’re after; time critical delays could be as simple as no wind but the engine broken or complex such as getting fishing gear wrapped round the rudder which would slow the boat down until removed. Is the movement meant to be secretive? If so, your protagonist will not wish to summon help and will need to deal with the situation himself. If not, then he can summon assistance via the vhf radio and get assisted into port.
Remember that there is only one route by sea from Cork to London: across the Irish Sea to Land’s End, up the English Channel, past Dover, round Kent and then up the Thames to London. The absolute fastest way from Cork to London is to land somewhere in west Wales/south west England and then travel to London overland. That would fit within the 2-3 day timeline using an average sailing boat. Looking to get to London entirely by sea in a wind powered vessel within 2-3 days is not feasible unless you were prepared to have your character using a fairly esoteric vessel, such as a multi hulled racing craft: not a believable scenario. A fast modern catermeran would be faster but would still take somewhere in the region of 5-6 days.
Hope that helps.
 
As others have said, single handed the main problem is fatigue in waters with a high density of shipping.

You start hallucinating after a while and in the dark you find it difficult to identify boats by their lights. (Not so much big ships but fishing boats with bright deck lights on can be confusing. Fishing boats often seem to manoeuvre unpredictability. )

To undertake such a voyage your character needs to be a reasonably confident and experienced and organised sailor. A good sized (40 or 50 ft boat) well set up can be sailed single handed by a competent leisure sailor. He/she can set a timer to wake them every few minutes to check for shipping.

I suggest ideal winds and forecast (which would encourage the character to choose to take the sailing option). Start off really fast but there’s a Traffic Separation Scheme round Lands End that means lots of shipping. You could have him dozing (he’d be 12-18 hours into the passaage) and have a frighteningly close encounter with a ship. (Some yacht radars can have alarms set to go off if a vessel gets close, or check out AIS alarms. Very commonly available.)

Heading up channel your character might be ahead of their time, but you ideally need the tide with you as you round Foreland. You could heighten tension by having a dying wind and getting slower and slower and realising they might end up being swept backwards. Naturally they just get round and the wind fills in from the SE and they manage to sail all the way up the Thames.

If you want to make it credible to real sailors you’ll struggle in the timescale you’ve allowed.

Where are they going to stop in London? St Catherine’s Dock is the furthest in a yacht without opening Tower Bridge and if you go past Tower Bridge there’s no where much to stop....

I’ll pm you with some contact details if you want to talk it over.
 
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duncan99210 said:
Looking to get to London entirely by sea in a wind powered vessel within 2-3 days is not feasible unless you were prepared to have your character using a fairly esoteric vessel, such as a multi hulled racing craft: not a believable scenario. A fast modern catermeran would be faster but would still take somewhere in the region of 5-6 days.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Bog standard cruising trimarans can do 250 mile days without too much drama, given suitable wind. A SW F6 would do it for the proposed trip, but it would need to be constant, more likely in winter. I believe some people have them, so could be a believable boat.

Fatigue is still the biggest impediment to believability though, I think. I'm going with the boat to Falmouth then train idea.
 
Well with Cork being a very popular area for yacht racing it’s entirely plausible our wealthy hero has a popular cruising/ racing yacht such as a Beneteau First 40 or something similar.

If he was worth his salt he could keep that ticking over at 7 knots and make the deadline, even with a bit of adversity.

I favour the main halyard snapping (the piece of string that holds the main sail up) which would involve a daring climb to the top of the mast to drop a new one down with the boat on auto pilot. Which of course, as soon as he has successfully completed this initial task would be discovered to be heading straight for something perilous which would require him to make the tricky descent just in time.

Did I mention his one weakness being his fear of heights?

If you need any help on segment where he finally seduces the lady of his dreams and makes wild, passionate love to her I’m yer man for that too...

_____________________________
 
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Spyro said:
I think doing it in the timescale you mention is pretty much impossible. As other have said it is doable if you have perfect conditions but the chance of that happening on a whim are just that. Nothing worse than films, dramas etc where they make impossible things look doable on a boat. Sail to somewhere along the south coast then hitch a ride by road would be more believable and think of the extra characters you could add in.
Click to expand...

Impossible things on boats in the media are annoying, but I commend the OP in this case for coming here to ask the people who regularly make trips like this on ordinary boats, in order to make his production realistic.
 
shaunksb said:
If you need any help on segment where he finally seduces the lady of his dreams and makes wild, passionate love to her I’m yer man for that too..
Click to expand...

Nah, completely unbelievable, that bit :-) Just imagine the state of his pits after sailing 500 miles on his own non-stop!

I can advise on how to cook a Fray Bentos tinned pie badly so that the pastry is still soggy. Now that would get the sea dogs in the audience nodding in agreement.
 
I don't imagine that anyone on the forum would set out on such a trip in a normal cruising boat with a deadline of 3 days for arrival. However, it isn't impossible with good choice of boat and weather (great to be able to design a perfect weather system).

I did think of one problem which wouldn't slow the boat but could be disastrous if ignored. This should be believable (well it has happened to me once in 40 years, so not common). I suddenly noticed that one shroud (wire holding up mast) was dangling in the air and not connected to anything. Luckily it was on the opposite side from the wind direction and normally slightly slack. I had to scramble around to fix it very quickly as I was really needed to tack before hitting rocks not far ahead. Just changing tack would have caused the mast to fall over. I was luck because the connecting fitting (bottle screw) was still connected. Plenty of scope for more danger if fitting had dropped off before I reached it.

You will need to look into tides to some extent but some will cancel out as trip is quite long. Still worth checking to see where worst places would be and working from there (Someone will complain that you can't have fair tide at one spot and again at another well known area :D:D).
 
No mention so far of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Lands End.

Sailing from Cork to London the boat would encounter first a South-going lane 3 Miles wide and later a North-going lane also 3 miles wide.
Those lanes must be crossed with the boat's heading exactly east, not its track but its heading.

Thus, when approaching Lands End, the skipper must know where his boat is, either by using GPS, or a log, or by dead reckoning.
 
guernseyman said:
No mention so far of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Lands End.

Sailing from Cork to London the boat would encounter first a South-going lane 3 Miles wide and later a North-going lane also 3 miles wide.
Those lanes must be crossed with the boat's heading exactly east, not its track but its heading.
Click to expand...

Give me a break. The issue of sailing veracity has been raised, fair enough. There are other veracities, too. Anyone absolutely having to get from Cork to London by boat in three days, for a reason weighty enough to merit a film, isn't going to give a stuff about the TSS. Next you'll expect car chases to be conducted at legal speeds...
 
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Hi everybody, Thanks so much for all replies and ideas.
I see that my question generated debate so let’s try to get more specific without giving up the main plot of the story.

a) Its Summer, date would be 19/20/21/22 of June 2017/2018 no matters.

b) He is not alone, there are 2 (1 woman 40’s/ 1 man 50’s) experienced sailors, two other adults who like me, without any experience sailing, would they be able to quick learn and sail in turns? And a 12-years-old girl (daughter of the two experienced sailors).

c) I liked very much the idea of make the use of a Catamaran, but in my story there’s an “Easter Egg”(Hidden reference) to a classic one hull boat, however if there no way one hull boat to make the journey in 3 days tops, then I would change the boat to a Catamaran. Would a 2012 Leopard 46 make it?

d) I’ll mislead you but the result will be all the same: Let’s say they passed thru an interdimensional portal and in this process every single ELECTRONIC equipment is FRIED DEAD! No mobile phones, no GPS and No boat’s electric/electronic systems, they have only the sails and the good old magnetic compass. Would be possible to make the boat’s engines run without any electronic equipment support?

e) Previously I’ve thought to them sailing a straight line to Wales and then, like some of you suggested, they would hit the road to London, but for the story line sake that would not work. So, they would be sailing to London, but again, after my writings last night they will leave the boat in Margate(UK) and from there hit the road to London.

Again, thanks for your help, I’m overwhelmed with your interest.

I will take time later tonight to reply each one of your post (and I see I have a PM too) individually.

Talk later,
Mark.
 
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