Looe Channel (off Selsey Bill)

Aeolus

Aeolus

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Hi,
I'm planning a possible night passage thru the Looe Channel in the next few days. Does anyone know whether there are likely to be any / many lobster pots at this time of year?

Thanks.......Jonathan
 
I don't think I have ever gone through there and not seen some. Bloody nuisance if you ask me, and right in the middle of a very narrow channel, often pulled just under the surface by the current. Think it might be a gamble at night. Do you feel lucky?
 
rotrax said:
Go round - you know it makes sense...........................
Click to expand...
Coming from Eastbourne to Gosport I measured that taking the Looe Channel would have saved us only something like half a mile over going round the outside (which we did).

Is the distance saved more significant on the Brighton - Solent route, or was the distance I measured simply a function of where my co-navigator had put us?
 
Navionics:

Horse Sand Fort, south of the The Looe to Beachy Head 52.5 miles.

Horse Sand Fort, through the channel to Beachy Head 50.7 miles.

Agree with KK as I just stabbed the screen randomly south of the channel ... didn't bother finding the exact cardinals.
 
I have been through maybe a couple of dozen times. Strangely my experience is slightly different - if you stay in the middle of the channel leading to the two marker bouys and I cant recall ever having encountered a pot, maybe just lucky. On the basis that you plan to go with the tide, if you are concerned you should be able to run through with the engine in neutral most of the way, especially if you carry a little sail, and if you are west to east the wind will most likely be abeamish. In terms of distance a lot depends where you are coming from. If it is Chichester or Portsmouth it will seem more of a slog out and around than through so I would always personally go through in anything less than a F6. If it were wind against tide and depending on the size of the your boat you may wish to be a little more cautious.
 
Of course, the pot buoy with your name on it might be S of the Owers as well...heading East, if you can get to the channel at the end of the ebb or start of the flood, (best for the tide ), you will stand the best chance of seeing any buoys, if it will be daylight.
I always feel a lot more comfortable if I can both sail and motor going through there, just in case, but a large scale chart will show that most of it isn't as narrow as the buoy spacing suggests.
 
Years ago, while sailing down the Channel to the West Country, I caught a lobster pot in the Looe Channel at night and it held us like an anchor while the tide raced past us. We manage to get hold of the rope and cut it and we were away but the prop was still fouled and we had to sail into Cowes early morning and find a diver who cut the rest of the rope away.
A very common occurrence I suspect so take care. Going through in daylight there seem to be lobster pots everywhere and it ought to be illegal not to mark them properly with lights at night.
 
Been through twice recently, once around the outside.

The locals have started to use flags on the pot buoys, but even these, often made from bin liners, dont help much. White buoys seem tp predominate, bit of whitecap action, hard to spot.

Our new permanrnant berth is in Littlehampton.

From what I have seen it is possible nets have been set between pairs of buoys and anchors, perhaps for Sea Trout.
 
rotrax said:
Been through twice recently, once around the outside.

The locals have started to use flags on the pot buoys, but even these, often made from bin liners, dont help much. White buoys seem tp predominate, bit of whitecap action, hard to spot.

Our new permanrnant berth is in Littlehampton.

From what I have seen it is possible nets have been set between pairs of buoys and anchors, perhaps for Sea Trout.
Click to expand...
Bin liners, great...
There are a couple of fishermen in Littlehampton who work the Mixon, they know every rock and eddy, and are happy to give out the secrets of the area. (as long as you are not a competitor:))
It's a fascinating part of the world, I told there is a village buried down there.
 
Gary Fox said:
Bin liners, great...
There are a couple of fishermen in Littlehampton who work the Mixon, they know every rock and eddy, and are happy to give out the secrets of the area. (as long as you are not a competitor:))
It's a fascinating part of the world, I told there is a village buried down there.
Click to expand...


Yes, it is.

My maternal Grandmother had property in the area, Selsey Bill, Hayling and Arundel. Mum, Brother and I would often stay at Selsey from Easter till September in the early 1950's.

There is a legend that tells of the bell of the submerged church being heard in bad weather.

The date the church is supposed to be means it would have been a wooden Saxon structure and would not have survived - even supposing the villagers left an expensive bit of metal behind!

I hope to do a bit of fishing there this year, I'll try to glean some info from the locals.
 
Gary Fox said:
Bin liners, great...
There are a couple of fishermen in Littlehampton who work the Mixon, they know every rock and eddy, and are happy to give out the secrets of the area. (as long as you are not a competitor:))
It's a fascinating part of the world, I told there is a village buried down there.
Click to expand...
Yes it’s a coast that has suffered coastal erosion,having lived near Littlehampton it has been noticeable in my lifetime,there is indeed a village off clymping
 
I went through in August, delivering Mirage back from Poole to Chatham, I was on high alert and disappointingly only saw a well marked pot market here:

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I would still go well off shore in the dark (and I'd remember that's no guarantee there would be no pot buoys out there :D) . My radar didn't pick them up at night, and Mk1 eyeball with a full moon missed a pot buoy in 50m of water somewhere between Dungeness and Dover and the pot buoy was only seen as it slid past the boat not five meters to port...
 
Your advice please. I'm planning a West to East passage through the Looe Channel in a 27' sailing boat next week. While I've read advice to transit at the start of the flood, at HW Dover +0445, the east bound tide is very early in the morning on Wednesday 29th June, so I'd enter the channel around 5am, so departure from Chichester would be way too early. Taking the afternoon flood would leave me rather late at my destination.

As the forecast is for light winds, but with a spring-ish tide coefficient of 69%, would I be OK to pass through two to three hours after the tide turns east, around 7am? Allowing four hours to get to Littlehampton, I'd reach there around 11am or noon, which is HW -1h30 or -30m, both of which are good for Littlehampton entry. If not OK, I will go out and around the Looe Channel.
 
Came thru yesterday about 2.30 PM after the tide turned east. The 3 usual pot markers near Boulder and Street buoys, 1 yellow 2 pink were there, none directly in line of the channel. Heading to Littlehampton suprisingly few pot markers around Bognor which can be worse then the Looe. Any tide with you is a good time to pass thru the channel as long as you don't have strong wind against tide. Watch out for tidal push approaching the buoys they sometimes seem like magnets, in light airs doesn't hurt to keep the engine running in neutral, save a last minute panic start.
 
Sounds fine to me. I came through late Saturday last week, west bound, just after the tide turned against me. Blowing 7s from the north water was flat enough then. You'll be fine with no wind over tide, on the flood.
 
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