Pilot Books for Solent and South Coast

[Cloona]

This is our first year on the south coast after learning to sail and cruise on the east coast using the incomparable pilot book East Coast Rivers by Jack Coote.

What is the best yachtsmans pilot book for the Solent and/or
South coast ?

Is there a single definative title - or several.

Would appreciate any views -

Thanx.

 

[Talbot]

Shell guide

 

[EdWingfield]

Supplement the Shell Guide with 'The Tightwad Sailor' website - free of charge! As are most of his bolt holes and anchorages. http://www.troppo.co.uk/tightwad/tightwad.htm

 

[Judders]

I love the Shell Channel Pilot by Tom Cunliffe, but it is a little unweildy and perhaps lacks enough helm-height photographs, but its the sort of book that has enough iunfo to plan a route but enough narrative to read in bed.


*nb if I am the only forumite who sees pilot books as bedtime reading, I would rather not know.

 

[Cantata]

[ QUOTE ]

This is our first year on the south coast after learning to sail and cruise on the east coast using the incomparable pilot book East Coast Rivers by Jack Coote.

[/ QUOTE ]
Can't let this go by, without saying that if/when you return to the East Coast, take a look at 'East Coast Pilot'. IMHO, and lots of folk that I know agree with me, this book knocks dear old Jack's book for six. Sadly East Coast Rivers is now very out of date and I think it seems to have lost the plot as well, it's now more of a tourist guide.
Enjoy the south coast! I recommend Cunliffe as well.

 

[l'escargot]

For Solent and Isle of Wight, "Solent Hazards" and "Wight Hazards" by Peter Bruce are essential. On this page with some others.

 

[Malish]

And in the corner for East Coast Rivers:

'Out of date' and 'lost the plot' - I think not - I find it invaluable and very topical, do you have the most recent edition?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Unfortunately Creeks and Harbours of the Solent by Adlard Coles is long out of print (and out of date) but it's still fascinating if you can find one in a dusty corner of a 2nd hand book shop.

 

[jstr]

I have found The Yachting Monthly "The Solent Cruising Companion" by Derek Aslett to be very very good, and I prefer it to the Shell Pilot.

ISBN 1-904358-11-X

 

[doug748]

For the South West I admire Mark Fishwicks - West Country Cruising. A pilot book you can sit down and read for fun.

 

[Cantata]

[ QUOTE ]
And in the corner for East Coast Rivers:

'Out of date' and 'lost the plot' - I think not - I find it invaluable and very topical, do you have the most recent edition?

[/ QUOTE ]
Bounding out to defend -
I have a 2001 copy which I grew more and more irritated with. This year I looked at the most recent edition, which is dated 2004, saw it looked like the one I had, so I bought the other book instead on the strength of good comments on ybw. Another good thing about it is that it's kept up to date via a website which I don't believe East Coast Rivers is.
One of the authors of East Coast Pilot is Colin Jarman for whom I have a lot of respect as a writer, and he and the other two authors are East Coast locals. Dunno who Janet Harber gets to update the other one, can't all be done by her surely.

 

[ColinHuggins]

Strudders is right:YM "Companion to the Solent" is best, while great fun but sadly out of print is Bowskill's "Solent".

If you want Foreland to Scillies in one volume then YM's "Channel Cruising Companion" is preferable to Imray's similar publication - but I had to pluck an AWB off the putty who was following the (erroneous) directions literally. An eye on the echosounder would have been more useful!

Adlard Coles' pilots are collectors' items. My first is dated 1948, filled with crude b/w photos of deserted creeks. I got to know him in his latter years, a delightful man, who kindly acknowledged my input to several editions (Mr Nunn please note.)

But why rush out and spend money on books when you can learn it all here?

Could some techno whizzkid please run a Poll on how many readers actually have pilot book(s) on board? Just to confirm my worst fears . . .

CJH

 

[Captain Haddock]

I have pilot books on board (Shell, East Coast Rivers/Pilot and the Sailing Today south coast one that's more like a holiday guide as opposed to a pilot) and tend to read them at night and use the REEDS Almanac for all my info on passage.

I find chart and Alamanac an easier combo to work with when underway.

I've found pilots to be good for the crew though as they get all the info they want quickly especially if they want the VHF channel for the harbour we are going to or other such info on our way there.

 

[jamesjermain]

For the Solent you must have Derek Aslett's Solent Cruising Companion.

For the Dorset coast Peter Bruce's Inshore Along the Coast of Dorset is equally essential.

Other books to recommend are Peter Bruce's Wight Hazards - fascinating and terrifying at the same time; West Country Cruising by Mark Fishwick if you're venturing west of Portland and Channel Havens by Ken Endean if you want to explore off the beaten track.

I prefer to have individual area cruising guides rather than whole regions but Tom Cunliffe's ChannelPilot is good, as is The Channel Cruising Companion by Aslett and Featherstone, if you want just one book to cover everything - the detail is less but you get more in one place as it were.

A word in defence of East Coast Rivers, the latest edition is 2005 if not 2006 (I don't have it to hand). It is personally revised by Janet Harber who is, of course, Jack Coote's daughter

 

[Cornishman]

I wonder why nobody suggests the Admiralty Pilot Books? Value for money they cannot be beaten, and since they became much more small craft friendly their information is superb, especially when used in conjunction with Admiralty charts.

 

[Cantata]

[ QUOTE ]
A word in defence of East Coast Rivers, the latest edition is 2005 if not 2006 (I don't have it to hand). It is personally revised by Janet Harber who is, of course, Jack Coote's daughter

[/ QUOTE ]
I think that may not be right about a new edition, James. Our local chandler (in whose shop I spend far too much time and money) was given to understand that there was a new edition available a few months ago, ordered some, and was sent the same 2004 edition mentioned above, with 'New Edition' or somesuch printed on the front cover.
He was not pleased! And he had still got them all, last time I visited.
Spurred by your comment, I looked on Nautical data's website, the last updates for the book there were dated April 2005, and a lot of them were only chart corrections anyway. The 'East Coast Pilot' website seems to get updates on it virtually every month, all sorts of stuff that's useful to know.