Menai straights

lustyd

lustyd

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Hi all, can anyone offer any advice for the Menai straights southbound? Looking like we might be trying this route in August in a 40 footer with around 3m draft (if memory serves, might be less).
I would detail the whole trip but with current lack of sailing conditions I may be unpopular mentioning the itinery :)
 
There is plenty of water in the channels, except for the Caernarfon Bar (SW exit for you) but with the big tides in the area, yo'll be fine there after 1/2 flood or before 1/2 ebb.

Tides are critical with a number of "hot spots". The key one being the Swellies where slack water is 2 hrs before HW Liverpool (which is pretty close to HW Dover). Ideally you will carry the flood thro Trwyn Ddu (Puffin Island sound) at the NE entrance.

If early at the Swellies, pick up a mooring at Menai Bridge, or tie up to St Georges pier (possibly alongside the Prince Madoc survey vessel) & wait. First passage of the Swellies in a displacement boat needs to be as close as possible to slack water.

Once thro the Swellies, just keep going - remember the direction of Bouyage changes at Caernarfon. The Caernarfon Harbour Trust site always has the latest chartlet of the bar channel & it is moving quite a bit this year so check it out again as close as you can to your travel date.

Hope that helps. However, it seems a shame to just bash thro such a lovely spot without at least a little time spent exploring & there are visitor moorings at the Gazelle (opposite Bangor pier) and at Port Dinorwic (S of the Swellies) if you want to stop a while.
 
It's Menai Strait by the way.

I understand from my son that the new Beaumaris Pier is now operational as well. St George's Pier at Menai Bridge is a good but do check when the Prince Madoc is back if empty and you intend leave the boat for any time. Do remember that the Strait can get rough in NE and SW winds and there is plenty of current to make anchoring/mooring/docking "interesting"
 
Thanks guys, the plan is to stop overnight at Beaumaris then again at Caernarfon so hopefully we'll have a little exploration time before we head off for Dublin the following day.
Thanks for the link Searush, very useful info on there.
Dave
 
In summer, slack water at the Swellies is easy to spot by the line of raggies pottering thro in both directions! :D

If at stopping at Caernarfon, you will have to be in the Victoria dock which has a cill. The Slate Quay dries & most of the wall berths are permanently taken by bilge keelers.
 
Searush said:
In summer, slack water at the Swellies is easy to spot by the line of raggies pottering thro in both directions! :D

If at stopping at Caernarfon, you will have to be in the Victoria dock which has a cill. The Slate Quay dries & most of the wall berths are permanently taken by bilge keelers.
Click to expand...

If you intend to go to Victoria Dock then I would contact Mark the dock master at Victoria well before the event.

I think your 3m draft is likely to limit where in the dock he can put you. In addition he will recommend you time your arrival for high tide in any case!

"A flap gate which maintains a minimum depth of 2 metres in the dock."
But in places there is at least a metre of soft mud!
Dock Telephone/Fax Number: 01286 672346
 
Searush said:
In summer, slack water at the Swellies is easy to spot by the line of raggies pottering thro in both directions! :D
Click to expand...

For the first time in a very long time we were the only boat overnight alongside Prince Madog a couple of weeks ago. Unless the dreadful weather improves, you'll have the Menai to yourself! Our plan was to take two weeks and head for The Clyde. We had two lousy days around Anglesey and a great week at Sunsail Vounaki, Greece, instead :D
 
TSB240 said:
If you intend to go to Victoria Dock then I would contact Mark the dock master at Victoria well before the event.

I think your 3m draft is likely to limit where in the dock he can put you. In addition he will recommend you time your arrival for high tide in any case!

"A flap gate which maintains a minimum depth of 2 metres in the dock."
But in places there is at least a metre of soft mud!
Dock Telephone/Fax Number: 01286 672346
Click to expand...

They will only allow up to 2m. They might let a 3m boat in for a couple of hours to do some shopping at Morrisons.

There is a good anchorage in a pool at Abermenai on the West side but the tide is quite strong and reverses with the tide, it's a great spot though.
 
the plan is to stop overnight at Beaumaris then again at Caernarfon
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If stopping at Beaumaris then anchor in the pool opposite the pier. The pier has been upgraded with a landing pontoon but is only for use by commercial boats .Also when rounding the port channel buoy opposite the pier give it a good offing as the sand spit is very close to the buoy.

There are no visitors moorings but you could try http://www.nwvyc.org.uk/ many of whose members have deep water moorings there and there may be one spare. Much better to go further up the Straits and look for a mooring around the Gazelle.

Drawing 3m very much restricts your options at Caernarfon as has been said. I would suggest that you make contact with Richard Jones the harbour master ,at the link given by Searush,who has responsibility for all of the moorings in the Straits below the Swellies as well as being the pilot,who will I am sure give you suitable advice.
 
Thanks guys, it looks like the stop at Caernarfon won't be going ahead now - we'll probably be going straight on to Dublin. The skipper changed his mind since we did the planning and worked out that it would only be a couple of hours sail that day.
The main issue was air draft which we've hopefully resolved now to the skippers satisfaction after a bit of planning - he wasn't happy with 4m clearance under the bridge :rolleyes: Planning has resolved that one though and looks like we should have 7m on the day which I reminded him is bigger than my boat!
Cheers
Dave
 
Crikey, the bridges were originally designed to let Square riggers underneath, although the Britannia bridge is slightly lower than originally designed.

There are moorings in Rowan bay, just past Porth Dinorwic on the Mainland side that may have adequate depth if you need them.
 
lustyd said:
Thanks guys, it looks like the stop at Caernarfon won't be going ahead now - we'll probably be going straight on to Dublin. The skipper changed his mind since we did the planning and worked out that it would only be a couple of hours sail that day.
The main issue was air draft which we've hopefully resolved now to the skippers satisfaction after a bit of planning - he wasn't happy with 4m clearance under the bridge :rolleyes: Planning has resolved that one though and looks like we should have 7m on the day which I reminded him is bigger than my boat!
Cheers
Dave
Click to expand...

You could overnight at Port Dinorwic
 
lustyd said:
The main issue was air draft which we've hopefully resolved now to the skippers satisfaction after a bit of planning - he wasn't happy with 4m clearance under the bridge :rolleyes: Planning has resolved that one though and looks like we should have 7m on the day which I reminded him is bigger than my boat!
Cheers
Dave
Click to expand...

I'm sure your skipper has noted from the charts that the air draft under the bridge is not the limiting factor but rather the air draft under the electricity pylons immediately south of the bridge that he needs to worry about. ;)


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shaunksb said:
I'm sure your skipper has noted from the charts that the air draft under the bridge is not the limiting factor but rather the air draft under the electricity pylons
Click to expand...

Just to reiterate if you have got 7m under the bridge and you have a typical VHF ariel on top of the mast you should have a good 18 inches or so under the pylons bringing power from the nuclear power station :eek:

Of course if there has been any recent weather from the North you will frazzle and die.

If you pass through during a low pressure system you will frazzle and die.

If you are a few minutes out with your tidal timings you will frazzle and die.


Apart from that everything should be fairly straightforward.


The most important thing is to enjoy the trip...



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