Navigation Notes for Chichester Harbour Wanted

Whereabouts is this yard? and where are you coming from? (Not all the way from Oxford?)

A large scale chart together with the pilotage notes in Reeds should be sufficient.

The Chichester harbour website will tell you about the harbour entrance if that bothers you.

Does the yard have a website with any useful imfo?
 
Without knowing which yard ..... ?? Some are full 24hr access ... most are drying tidal ... with some interesting channels to get along ....

So which yard ? Depth and keel type of boat ... etc. ?
 
So you need near enough full tide to make the yard ...

Take care to stay in the channel once you make the turn from the main harbour channel ... you turn west.... at the red can buoy. The channel is marked by posts and top-marks ...

Once you get to the line of moorings - keep close to the boats as they sit in best water.
When you get to near yard ... you will see channel makes a tightish U turn to starboard ... DON'T cut that corner ... make a good sweeping curve out of that turn and then stay a good 20m or so to stbd of boats on end berths.
Bottom is soft mud and heaped in a lot of places around the berths.
My boat draws 1.1m on Bilge in HYCO ... and on real low neaps - can drag keels in the mud at HW ...

Even after all the years of being there - cut a bit close on falling tide to end boats ... here is picture of that sweeping U bend ...

SBCaug12-132006030.jpg


Picture looking at end boats - showing not to get as close as I did !! ...

SBCaug12-132006034.jpg


Here is trickle of channel when tide out showing I'm too close in !!

SBCaug12-132006032.jpg


and here showing the soft mud and the deep furrows made by my keels ....

SBCaug12-132006028.jpg


Good luck.
 
Arr c\'mon ....

That's a bit unfair ..... I've been there a few years now and I'm reasonably content.
OK - my boats being trucked out very soon to go to Baltic - but that's cause I live out here ..
 
Re: Arr c\'mon ....

Ok then ... but I would've thought 1.6m is gonna require a good hightide ...

http://www.haylingyacht.co.uk/home.html

just as an amusement - I called Thornham marina with a view to being hauled out there this winter - 1.8m draft - the answer - yup - no problem, but you won't get back out for another few years!!
Ah well - worth a phone call!
 
Re: Arr c\'mon ....

It is a good tide next w/end - well it is by my Palm Tide ....

Thornham .... I had my Alacrity BK job there years ago .... if there was a High Pressure going through - even that couldn't get to its berth ... TM is shallow !!!
 
Re: Arr c\'mon ....

had my cat at Thornham a few years ago, she draws less than 1m, but took 3 weeks before she could be launched due to tide.

The local PC brigade wont even allow them to dredge, so its slowly filling in.
 
Re: Arr c\'mon ....

Thornham marina. [ QUOTE ]
so its slowly filling in.

[/ QUOTE ] Totally silted up now see here /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: HAYLING YOT CO - URGENT

Don't believe everything you read in these pages!

The sad thing about those pics is not simply that they discredit the author but that they aren't much help - apart from showing you where you don't want to be!

To start at the beginning:

Assuming you're happy with crossing Chichester Bar (a thread which was flogged to death only recently) then note the depth readings on the Bar Beacon, Eastoke Beacon or the South Cardinal beacon opposite Hayling Island S.C pontoon (which will be heavily disguised with RIBs at the weekend.) They should read nearly the same of course, that's NOT actual depth but depth above Datum.

Proceed North up the Emsworth Channel from the Club between 3 lines of trots to port and 2 green buoys to stb'd. About 200m beyond the last of the club moorings (if they haven't started to lift them for the winter) at Mill Rythe red can turn West allowing for tide which will continue to sweep you North; the CMG is actually 310T but the distant Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower is often a suitable target to offset the flood tide, which this w/e is a big Spring of course.

Keep away from the Ely cardinal marker to your right at the entrance to the Rythe; here is a small Bar which dries 0.9 metres. Press on towards the first (small) pink mooring buoy: a wooden Folkboat was still there last week.

By now you will have entered the first pair of red/green perches and depths increase. Follow the bows of the boats although the moorings are NOT always in the deepest part - but I ain't goin' to teech ya!

Smaller boats will confirm decreasing depths, and by the time you pass another Ely cardinal where the creek divides and a small arm goes off to Yachthaven on your right, you'll be amongst Swift 18's and, particularly dangerous, a Mac 26 and a sports cruiser who swerve at you with no sense of direction!

Ahead of you are the buildings and pontoons of Hayling Yot Co with some surprisingly large craft: converted liveaboard MTB's and a world-girdling 70ft ketch. DON'T be distracted and head for them, not yet!

50m beyond the last of the moorings stands a pair of red/green poles close to the far bank but NOT marked on the chart and therefore not on your chartplotter. Turn sharp to starboard through them and head towards the nearest boats leaving a solitary green marker a few yards to stbd. You will have to swing out round the bows of a big river cruiser on A Pontoon, and here you look for an old white fender (yes!) some 50m out to your Right which actually marks a disused mooring. Steer midway between it and the end of B Pontoon and when on that line turn hard to port and close in to the boats - that will keep you clear of what we now know as the Baltic Bump (after Nigel.). Follow them close to port as the last pontoon gives way to slipways and head for the narrow slip at the far end, tying up alongside an open wooden staging to port leaving a brick wall and shed to stbd.

The slipway is quite steep and dries approx 3 metres above Datum - I'll check tomorrow if that's where HYC expect you, so please advise name and class of boat.

I've sent a PM to amplify the above, will despatch Chart 3418 if you need it, and can rendezvous to lead you in IF you're worried. But it isn't difficult, honestly.

Oh, if you haven't guessed, it's my backyard: I go in and out several times a week and the above will you get you in without any probs.

The lesson for Talbot and other self-styled navigators is to ascertain the drying height of your destination. Sadly, just as shipwrights usually know little about boating, yard owners rarely think in these terms, which leaves you paddling around with a leadline for that one essential fact, in this case the depth on the slip at HYC. I know precisely when I can get there with Ebb Tide and will update for your 1.6m draft. Oh, do allow for barometric pressure if predicting what might happen - but none of that applies on the day because your simply read a gauge and do your sums.

Will be in touch,

CJH

Summary (assuming you'll want to arrive in daylight):

HW Chi Bar = 1000 Sat, 1100 Sun. Add 15 mins for HYC.
Suggest crossing the Bar at about 90 mins before local HW.
Allow 45 mins from there up Mill Rythe to the HYC slip.
Your access will be approx 0900 - 1110 Sat, 0930 - 1200 Sun.
 
Re: HAYLING YOT CO - URGENT

And after all that, walk out of the yard, along the approach lane and over the main road to the town and get a well earned pint in The Mayflower:-)

Mill Rythe is like many main roads, superbly aligned with the rising or setting sun for those morning and evening departures and arrivals.
 
Re: HAYLING YOT CO - WRONG!

DON'T spend time looking for the 'town' on Hayling - i haven't found it in thirty years! What facilities do exist are in Mengeham village which is a couple of miles away towards the seafront.

Oh, the pub across the road is actually The Maypole: nice atmosphere and serving tolerable bar snacks - recommended. While 500 metres along the escape route to the mainland is The Yew Tree, even better.
 
No pleasing some ....

Typical .....

The sad thing about those pics is not simply that they discredit the author but that they aren't much help - apart from showing you where you don't want to be!

Actually point was to show the line of channel ..... not that I ran aground one time in all the years I've been in / out of the place ...... Baltic Bump my ar*e .....

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: Arr c\'mon ....

[ QUOTE ]


just as an amusement - I called Thornham marina with a view to being hauled out there this winter - 1.8m draft - the answer - yup - no problem, but you won't get back out for another few years!!


[/ QUOTE ]

We came out at Thornham a few winters ago...1.65m draft...got out ok but getting back in on a 5m (predicted) tide with high pressure and Northerly winds got us stuck on the concrete sill...with much bobbing, jumping and redistributing of crew we got her off and then ploughed through the mud to find deep water. I'm sure it looked hysterical and worthy of a Peyton cartoon but it wasn't much fun...and the prospect of all the boats in the pond falling over when the tide drained out cos they couldn't raise the sill with us in place was giving 'im indoors palpatations in the wallet.

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gifSharon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

T
Notices to Mariners - Week 01 of 2026(!)
Replies
9
Views
1K
tillergirl
T

Share this page

Top