Passage advice to Isle of Man

Leave portpatrick 2 hrs before lw, and stick near to the shore. As mentioned above there is a good inshore eddy. Go round the mull within spitting distance, there is a calm strip, then the flood will run you nicely up to isle whithorn, it will also try and carry you onto the scares so just keep an eye on them and steer clear.
I think it would take a great deal to kill your boat :) but I wouldn't be anywhere near the mull from choice in strong winds over spring tides; much better to head right out into the north channel and give it a wide berth, that will be rough but not chaos.
 
steve yates said:
Leave portpatrick 2 hrs before lw, and stick near to the shore. As mentioned above there is a good inshore eddy. Go round the mull within spitting distance, there is a calm strip, then the flood will run you nicely up to isle whithorn, it will also try and carry you onto the scares so just keep an eye on them and steer clear.
I think it would take a great deal to kill your boat :) but I wouldn't be anywhere near the mull from choice in strong winds over spring tides; much better to head right out into the north channel and give it a wide berth, that will be rough but not chaos.
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Thanks for the simple instructions, I don't even think I could get that wrong :)
 
seafox67 said:
If I got the timing wrong going around the Mull of Galloway, would it be just very bouncy, rock and rolling or possibly kill me and my boat!
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It would only be disastrous in any weather you're likely to be out in if you lost way or steering & got pushed ashore, but even without a disaster if you got the weather & timing wrong you'd certainly remember it & make sure you didn't make the same mistake twice. Been there, done that :)
 
seafox67 said:
I would be very grateful on advice doing the hop from the mainland to the Isle of Man
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Paul: good luck, but take care with your choice of words. On IoM, "the mainland" is the Isle of Man. Where you live is "Across" (or, more pedantically, "the adjacent island"). And on no account use the word "rat".

Lots of good advice above. Check out this IoM site, and links from it: https://www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/harbours/tides-and-flapgates/

Tidal streams around the Island are quite anomalous, and not well described in Admiralty streams charts. The newcomer can easily find himself punching when he could have sworn he'd be getting help.

JBJag27 said:
I've not made it to the IoM yet. What's the arrival protocol? Does it count as foreign for customs? Q flag etc?
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IoM is indeed not part of EU, but it is part of the EU customs area. But it's unambiguously part of the Common Travel Area with UK, Ireland, CI. No formalities, but equally no duty-free.

NickRobinson said:
Spend your Manx money before departure - not legal tender outside.
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IoM money can be changed without commission, £ for £, in any UK bank. Most IoM ATMs give only Manx notes, although those at the airport and Douglas Ferry terminal offer the choice of Sterling/Manx.
 
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Paul, I came S from Whithorn to Ramsey. Point of Ayre needs respect.

As for TT, I was advised by HM that he could find me a good place, drying, against a wall, above the bridge. There you are away from the fishing boat noise. HM said he cannot predict how many boats will turn up, so if I could arrive during Qualification, I'd probably be alright. The advantage of Ramsey is that the TT circuit comes through edge of town centre, so you can view from the pub where the riders will be braking heavily for a tight bend before roaring off up to 'Hairpin' and then the mountain.

ps. I am at Peel for the Classic.. The big event is Saturday. It will attract the top stars they say. Peel harbour and town is nice. An interesting feature is when you enter, the HM beckons you over to the port side of channel so that he can fling an info pack onto your deck.
 
Hello you don't mention crew in your posting.I arrived at night in horrendous wind over tide conditions at the Mull of Galloway in September 1992.Only crew on a Cobra 850.The captain insisted on not leaving the Gareloch until he had had his full English breakfast read his paper and been to the loo.He didn't seem to understand what a tidal gateway was but that didn't put me off sailing with him again because we got along well.Engine died just after the Mull.We had had such a bashing that sediment in the tank had blocked the injector.Engine started and arrived in Douglas and HM advises that the outer harbour will be untenable shortly and because we have a regular rectangular fin keel we dry out against the wall outside the pub (British?).Stuck there for three days till the gale went through and we returned to Menai. Worth checking the ground for rubbish if you can before you dry out on it.in March 2011 I was only crew on a Hanse 400 out of Fleetwood.The owner wanted to sail through the night to pick up a mooring buoy at Ramsay.We got there in the morning and there were no buoys because maybe it was too early in the season so we sailed straight back to Fleetwood. Gosh it was cold.I was at the TT in June 1991 on a previous trip.Lots of bad behaviour but a bit of a laugh.I sold my Oceanis 36CC share in Spain this year and am currently boat-less.If you need crew or more info for
your trip please PM me.I don't own a boat now so have plenty of money to pay my way on somebody elses!
 
We went from Troon to Douglas and back for the TT in 2015. 30' motorsailor point to point. You are always going to lose out on the tides somewhere, just avoid the worst in each direction.
It's a 20-22 hour trip depending on conditions. We went to Douglas because there was almost marina facilities and the paddocks/centre of biking were there.
TT circuit is limited walking distance - Peel may be better to berth in from a spectators point of view . we had a real problem fighting the tide coming out of the Solway in order to keep East and get to Douglas . When we were coming home after being held in port due to vehicular traffic on the bridge at rush hour, we got a real pasting at the Point of Ayr(sp North end of IOM)- the Solway current again. Onviously, there was some darkness involved - we spent a little on an AIS receiver which earned its corn at the Mull of Galloway.
 
Billjratt said:
TT circuit is limited walking distance - Peel may be better to berth in from a spectators point of view .
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Lots of peripheral TT events take place in Peel, although it's several miles from the nearest point on the TT course. (And a lovely wee town, but I'm biased.) The bus system's pretty good on the Island, but if planning on hiring a car, do it now: demand far exceeds supply in TT fortnight.

Hazzie, Peel's harbourkeeper, goes to a lot of trouble to shoe-horn boats in. For the centenary TT in 2007 you could almost walk across the harbour on visiting leisure boats, almost like the old days of the herring fleets.
 
NickRobinson said:
Spend your Manx money before departure - not legal tender outside.. I did Douglas and Peel last year, some pics on the blog below.
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RBS were happy to take IoM notes when we returned last two visits.

Done this trip twice - first time Kip, Portpatrick, Peel. All very long days. Return was pontoons Stranraer, Girvan, Kip.
Second trip was Kip, Bangor, Port St Mary, Conway. Return was Peel, Glenarm, Campbeltown, Kip.

Anyone ever tell you to have a pleasant night on the moorings at Port St Mary should be treated with a great deal of caution. The visitors moorings are truely the worst for rolling sideways... oh other than Craighouses. Forgot about Craighouses.....
Donald
 
Aja said:
RBS were happy to take IoM notes when we returned last two visits.

Done this trip twice - first time Kip, Portpatrick, Peel. All very long days. Return was pontoons Stranraer, Girvan, Kip.
Second trip was Kip, Bangor, Port St Mary, Conway. Return was Peel, Glenarm, Campbeltown, Kip.

Anyone ever tell you to have a pleasant night on the moorings at Port St Mary should be treated with a great deal of caution. The visitors moorings are truely the worst for rolling sideways... oh other than Craighouses. Forgot about Craighouses.....
Donald
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Out of the two routes you took from Kip, which do you think would be more suited for single handed daylight sailing?
 
The tidal streams in the Irish Sea to North Channel, make a massive difference (between averaging 8kts. instead of 4). I competed for years in the old RUYC N.I. Offshore series out of Belfast Lough, the race to Port St Mary started at around 19-00 and we were relieved to have enough daylight (4-5am)when turning round the S of the Island, for Campbeltown we reckoned on 5 hours to Sanda, plus 1-2 more to the usual turning points at the Otterard buoy or the Iron Ledges. Going as far north as Glenarm tends to waste a lot of the tidal assist so I would recommend Bangor as a staging point reachable from either end in not much over one tide. If you are not racing and can use an engine it should be even better. There is not much difference in the time from Bangor to Glenarm and to Sanda both are easily managed on less than one tide but the difference is that continuing up Kilbrennan Sound you have the flood pushing you.
I hate the Ailsa Craig, Portpatrick route, it always seems to be slow and tedious and you are rolling about looking at that bloody lump of granite for hours and hours but maybe that is just me, my prejudice for the Irish Coast is probably as much because of familiarity as about off shore winds and smoother seas.
 
seafox67 said:
Out of the two routes you took from Kip, which do you think would be more suited for single handed daylight sailing?
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Neither. Best trip was car to Liverpool then flight to IoM.
Seriously, it's a very long way and for day tripping you will need plenty of time. North channel is dead boring if you get it right. Down right nasty if you get it wrong.

Donald
 
earlybird said:
Just pay, sterling is fine, but don't expect anything but Manx change. Mobiles presumably OK now roaming is sorted.
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It's about 15 months since I was there, but with 3 data roaming was unspeakably expensive. I went into the Manx telecom shop in Douglas and bought a data SIM from them, which gave me all I needed for a visit for a tenner or so. The MT SIMs sold in newsagents will not work with data devices like dongle and tablets - you have to go to HQ for a data SIM.
 
seafox67 said:
I like the idea of jumping off from Isle of Whithorn, that would be like going for a run down to the Kyles of Bute for me :) I have a Westerly Tempest with bilge keel. With the thought of so many yachties coming to see the motorcycles, I'm wondering if Ramsey (with drying out) would be a bit less busy?
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If you are happy to dry out you have many more options, particularly if the swing bridge in Ramsey has finally been mended. Both Laxey (although a wee bit busy) and Castletown look fun, and next year I hope to load up the legs and give 'em a go. You could also dry out at Isle of Whithorn.
 
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