Night time aproach to Hayling Island Yacht Co

[PlankWalker]

If you'r early for Mill Rithe, there are vacant moorings at the moment right outside, as soon as you can get into Mill Rithe you'r good to creep up on the flood all the way to HIYCo.

Follow the moorings which will mainly be buoys at the moment, and then the withies. The only confusing bit is probably at the fork which wants to take you north, ignore that and stick with the moorings and withies which go west.

The final approach is a sharp turn to starboard with saltings a few feet off your port side, if you touch the putty its very soft.

 

[Mark-1]

Indeed. But these bold types don't need anything but a plotter, they tell us, and it would be fun to see how that worked out in Real Life(TM).

The Romans and the Vikings found their way up there and they were both bold and without a compass.

HTH

 

[bedouin]

I am sure cars will be moved around a bit

I could drive to HYC in the morning and drop the micra off there

maybe you could pick me up there

still looking for info on the entrance close to low tide though

If you are driving there anyway why not try to arrange to be there sometime when the lide is low (less than half tide). Then you will be able to see easily where the channel is for the last 100 yds

 

[JumbleDuck]

The Romans and the Vikings found their way up there and they were both bold and without a compass.

At midnight?

 

[Fantasie 19]

Harmony launches in Littlehampton on Monday

on Tuesday Bill and I am leaving there an hour before mid-dayish high water

arriving at chich harbour entrance at low tide and we will then head up towards Hayling Island co and get as close as we can before the light goes

we will then pick up a mooring until the tide lets us into Hayling Island Co pontoons some time before midnight

I have never been in there - not sure Bill has either

I understand withies are involved

I will be using the supertorch

any local knowledge gratefully considered

D

Why not leave it to the next lunchtime and do it in daylight??

 

[VicS]

Why not leave it to the next lunchtime and do it in daylight??

Why not do it Tuesady night.

It's only a couple of days past a full moon.

The weather forecast is for only "partly cloudy"

Stick crucial waypoints in the GPS and go for it

If it does go tits up then anchor and wait until Midday Wed.

 

[onesea]

At midnight?

Well they crossed the North Sea like that and where probably non to certain which bit of land they where approaching.

And they probably had a bigger pea stick

 

[bedouin]

Stick crucial waypoints in the GPS and go for it

I guess you've not done the approach yourself

GPS is simply not accurate enough

 

[Seajet]

The outer approach to the channel ( off the much larger Emsworth Channel ) is indeed quite tricky to spot, well I always think it is and I had a mooring there in 1987 !

I would only suggest going in the first time at night as it's soft mud...

Once you've found the outer approach into the channel it's straightforward, and I'd agree you should have 2 ( and a bit ) hours either side of HW, I kept a boat with 5' draught there, of course the keel did dig in at LW.

A daytime recce of your actual berth would be jolly useful

As mentioned there alway empty moorings at HISC to the W of Emsworth Channel, BUT you might get charged if unlucky !

So if waiting I'd just go down Emsworth Channel a bit and anchor on the W side, just E of the small withies in about 4 metres; that gets you off the deeper bee-line for yots & nocturnal fishing boats - which are often there.

 

[dylanwinter]

bum

windguru now calling for a force seven tuesday

few more days luxuriating in the delights of Littlehampton

still - it gives me a chance to paint the bog

I am currently in the yard - I have parked the car down the road and taped black plastic over the windows on the road side so that the light will not show

I feel like a troglodyte

D

 

[Seajet]

Very wise - especially with a new ' unkown ' boat; Chi Bar is a place to avoid with the ebb against a big Southerly wind.

If it does come true and you wait a few days, I'm sure you'll have a long ' to do ' list anyway.

 

[Blueboatman]

Is there any particular reason for going west?

The winds are lovely for East.
Chichester is a lovely sailing area in itself but there are other alongside moorings with 'leccy hook up heading EAST from Littlehampton.
Plenty of inexpensive mud at Newhaven, Rye, Sandwich....same daysail options but leg one would be 'done' innit...

Why sweat it in particular against the prevailing winds.. And quite possibly an Easterly component to the winds in April and May.
Wot am I missing here?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Is there any particular reason for going west? The winds are lovely for east, Chichester is a lovely sailing area in itself but there are other , inexpensive moorings with leccy east from Littlehampton, plenty of mud at Newhaven, Rye, Sandwich....same daysail options but leg one 'done' innit...

Wot am I missing? Why sweat it against the prevailing winds.. And possibly easterlies in April
may too?

That's what I was wondering. Speshully as it involves turning right, not left.

 

[Blueboatman]

Ha, my edited version reads better but you is too quick for me..
Maybe Harmony has a lovely spinnaker too, weeee!

 

[Fantasie 19]

Ha, my edited version reads better but you is too quick for me..
Maybe Harmony has a lovely spinnaker too, weeee!

My understanding is that Dylan is planning to do some filming and duck punting in Chi Harbour...

 

[lustyd]

A compass is no more use than a plotter if the channel has moved.

Not quite true, a plotter could be taken on a local boat when exiting and a track created to follow on the way in. A compass would be no use for this at all. Given the meter accuracy of a plotter with WaaS enabled, this track could be used fairly reliably to stay in the channel.

 

[Ammonite]

Plenty of people run aground there during the day so I'd not choose to do it after dark unless you had to and it's a moon lit night. The markers aren't lit and the channel twists and turns a fair bit. With 1.5m draft I can enter three hours before HW but could only get as far as the last of the deep water moorings. I'd need to wait until an hour before to reach one of the pontoon berths. The channel has silted up a fair amount recently at the entrance with sand coming from near the main harbour entrance and the channel is quite defined running directly from the Mill Rithe port buoy (yes they spelt it wrong on the buoy) directly to a point 10metres due south of the east cardinal and then broadly in line with the mooring buoys - although their won't be any boats on them until late March / April so again not easy to see at night and the first buoy is about 200 metres away from the cardinal if I remember rightly. If coming in on a chart plotter you'll note that some of the channel markers don't match up and in the case of a couple of freebie / cheap android chart downloads I've made the channel wasn't even in the right place!

Far better to head up to pontoon at Emsworth and head back down in the morning

 

[lustyd]

Far better to head up to pontoon at Emsworth and head back down in the morning

I don't think I'd bother going all the way up to Emsworth it's quite a trek when there are plenty of moorings empty at this time of year just next to his destination. The waiting pontoon offers no advantage over a mooring anyway and the marina has similar issues in the dark as it's not well lit at all in the approach.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Given the meter accuracy of a plotter with WaaS enabled, this track could be used fairly reliably to stay in the channel.

Since WAAS is only available in North America, it might be of limited utility on the approach to Hayling Island.

 

[Fantasie 19]

I don't think I'd bother going all the way up to Emsworth it's quite a trek when there are plenty of moorings empty at this time of year just next to his destination. The waiting pontoon offers no advantage over a mooring anyway and the marina has similar issues in the dark as it's not well lit at all in the approach.

Exactly.... if you're picking up a mooring to wait for the next tide, you may as well wait until the next day instead of groping around in the murk.... plenty of moorings just off HISC to be had... get a good rest, cup of tea, bacon butty and do it in daylight...