Online Pilot / Harbour Guide

[Tradewinds]

Used a link from a post on Scuttlebutt about Fecamp.

Seemed a nice website at first glance.

Out of curiousity I looked at what it had to say about Southwold.

http://www.yachtpilot.net/southwold.html

Uumm. It seems to gloss over its navigational complexities somewhat .

Don't think I'll be relying on it for passage planning.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

also inaccurate... just looked up Harwich, and it says nowhere to lay.... well halfpenny pier seems to work OK for quite a few boats....

I'm working on a site that does something broadly similar, but in a totally different way... will post more details as it develops

 

[Tradewinds]

I think the About page sums it up.

http://www.yachtpilot.net/about.html

Quite handy for links to marinas, yacht clubs though.

But why bother with inaccurate navigational stuff (eg Southwold) - to the unwary it's just plain dangerous.

 

[tillergirl]

Well at least the author hasn't lifted material from books or other sites. That's to his credit. But I agree that to say there are no tide issues for Southwold is at best wrong and at worst a tad dangerous.

The navigational difficulties are actully quite difficult to tackle. I am not sure websites such as this can ever provide that kind of detail while they remain (like my website) a niche product. I am sure Dick (Cantata) would agree that the kind of thing the trio of authors produce in East Coast Pilot is enormously time consuming - and then when you finish you are very conscious about how much more you could have done if you had more time and how things have changed becauise someone's just hit the beacon!

I have just spent a day finishing off a set of soundings for Bradwell creek - very illuminating too - and this was the third set I did to get a complete picture. The reality is that on amateur equipment it takes a long time. You have to get the tide and weather right - no good if you are bouncing about too much as you get inaccurate readings plus it does deter you from risking your pride and joy. Then to reduce all that to something accurate and sensible is quite time consuming. At a quick guess I have something like 5000 individual soundings in Bradwell Creek now. Cross checking, understanding the data and selecting the 50 or so you will use takes a little time. When you start to go and do swatchways like the half tide crossing of the Sunk Sand where there are no visual marks it is easy as I did this year to come back with incomplete data despite having trundled back and forth over the sands for a couple of hours. So getting and keeping everything up to date for that range of ports is always going to be a non starter. If you think back to Irving and Jack Coote, what they did with their diagrams without modern equipment was frankly wonderful. Yes with modern top line software it can be eased but the software I would like for the charting process is $700. The royalities from books are risible and yet I feel for publishers such as Imray.

Websites such as these are lovely but I doubt it is practical for them to achieve the level of detail you are talking about. If they did would it not drive publishers away from the business of publishing pilots - which we would regret.

It's going to be interesting seeing how it all develops.

 

[Cantata]

........... I am sure Dick (Cantata) would agree that the kind of thing the trio of authors produce in East Coast Pilot is enormously time consuming..........

Too right he would.
The only way to get this stuff right is to go there'. And to keep going there, to keep up to date. There is no substitute, not even sites (or other media) where content is 'contributed' first-hand, 'cos there's no way that stuff gets properly checked.