Portland Bill Rounding Tips

MontyMariner said:
To anchor off Pottery Pier (Brown sea Island) would be an experience.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's food for thought.

Thanks for all the advice folks.

The plan is now to head for Poole tomorrow and try to salvage the rest of the holiday with some anchorages instead of money pits before heading east to Dover.
 
dolabriform said:
Thanks, that's food for thought.

Thanks for all the advice folks.

The plan is now to head for Poole tomorrow and try to salvage the rest of the holiday with some anchorages instead of money pits before heading east to Dover.
Click to expand...
Did ypu make it? We came for a look. Picked up a mooring near Pottery pier for lunch, then headed home. Blistering run down, in 15-18kn making it from the Yar bridge to picking up the mooring in 2 hrs 40, having taken a tour round Brownsea. Then the wind went round to 270, and down to 1-2kn. Back to 12kn ENE once we got to Christchurch ledge thankfully.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
Did ypu make it? We came for a look. Picked up a mooring near Pottery pier for lunch, then headed home. Blistering run down, in 15-18kn making it from the Yar bridge to picking up the mooring in 2 hrs 40, having taken a tour round Brownsea. Then the wind went round to 270, and down to 1-2kn. Back to 12kn ENE once we got to Christchurch ledge thankfully.
Click to expand...
We’ve decided to go to Poole Quay this evening. It was a bumpy, slamming trip across Lyme bay.
We couldn’t get a wind angle that worked so ended up motoring all the way, but we’re here, the kids are somewhere they know and are looking h longingly at the motorbikes!

Glad you had a good sail :)

Hopefully will anchor tomorrow, and then see where the rest of the holiday takes us.
 
dolabriform said:
We’ve decided to go to Poole Quay this evening. It was a bumpy, slamming trip across Lyme bay.
We couldn’t get a wind angle that worked so ended up motoring all the way, but we’re here, the kids are somewhere they know and are looking h longingly at the motorbikes!

Glad you had a good sail :)

Hopefully will anchor tomorrow, and then see where the rest of the holiday takes us.
Click to expand...
Good to know you’ve got somewhere safe, and pleasant. We found a big wind bend from inshore to offshore across Christchurch, meaning whichever tack you were on you got progressively headed.. but we had some positive tide, and once the wind got over 7 knots or so progress was good. We all need practice tacking, don’t we🤣
 
Our home berth was in Poole for a few years when we had a sail boat and often we could follow the main channel round on the same tack.
Chiara’s slave said:
Good to know you’ve got somewhere safe, and pleasant. We found a big wind bend from inshore to offshore across Christchurch, meaning whichever tack you were on you got progressively headed.. but we had some positive tide, and once the wind got over 7 knots or so progress was good. We all need practice tacking, don’t we🤣
Click to expand...
 
colhel said:
Our home berth was in Poole for a few years when we had a sail boat and often we could follow the main channel round on the same tack.
Click to expand...
Well then, a question. Is the harbour entrance always a challenge, or are we unlucky? This time we had a mere 18kn of NE wind at the entrance, and surfed in with about half the jib, plus full main, 15kn of STW. Less over the ground, the ebb in full spate. Leaving, all the chop was still there, but with just 1.5kn of wind, even a Dragonfly can’t punch the tide and chop. Every time we’ve been in, the entrance has been at best exciting, like yesterday. But mostly spiteful, with a big, steep chop and strong onshore wind. Often we’ve been the only small craft there, and found out why as we’ve approached. Safe enough on a surf ready multi, but requires an alert helm.
 
There's a lot of water flowing the entrance, I(Poole is the second biggest natural harbour in the World) so tide times will effect it greatly. I've never really found it a challenge but then again the 2 sail boats were nothing like the nippy things I suspect you're used to. It was nearly 40 years ago when I launched my micro plus from Baiter Carpark and I was a lot more care free then, maybe I'm just used to it or a bit foolish
 
See: Poole Tides 2025 : Monty Mariner
Poole-tide-difference.png
 
One of the gaggle of boats, presumably heading for the Dartmouth regatta, at Portland Marina yesterday headed out around 6am when according to my charts the tide was running East at a fair clip.

Indeed the only reason I was on passage at the ungodly hour was to take the flood tide back into the Solent
 
Here's how not to do it. The video is an ample demonstration of wind against tide at Portland! On the same day we entered Chichester Harbour in 20kts, just on high tide. Conversation on board was "I wouldn't be coming in here any later than now, with wind against tide".

We'd gone round the Portland the day before (W-E), arrived about 20 minutes later than ideal, with the tide turning just against us - but was in 15kts.
 
jlavery said:
Here's how not to do it. The video is an ample demonstration of wind against tide at Portland! On the same day we entered Chichester Harbour in 20kts, just on high tide. Conversation on board was "I wouldn't be coming in here any later than now, with wind against tide".

We'd gone round the Portland the day before (W-E), arrived about 20 minutes later than ideal, with the tide turning just against us - but was in 15kts.
Click to expand...
what flag is the yacht wearing?
 
RivalRedwing said:
what flag is the yacht wearing?
Click to expand...
Norwegian. So they've travelled some way to get there. Really surprised to see what looks like a well travelled boat rounding at such a bad time. It looks like they bail and head West towards the end of the video.

Another observation is that they're on port gybe. This tends to draw them into the shore - hard to keep deep enough downwind and one would be wary of gybing in those conditions, in order to head offshore.
 
They appear to be experienced types yet opted to go thru the race in those conditions with minimum control and max lee shore rockage. Goodness.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

T
Notices to Mariners - Week 50
Replies
2
Views
640
tillergirl
T

Share this page

Top