Portland race

[jimi]

Was climbing at Portland on Sat and noticed several boats just going straight through the race. I've always gone outside or used the inshore route, am I being overcautious in moderate conditions? Mind you when I've come through on the inside I would not have liked being in the race? So own up who's just plowed on through the middle od it?

 

[tome]

Never ploughed through the middle yet, might in settled weather. If local would experiment

 

[BrendanS]

It can be flat calm, in fact eerily still. If any sort of sea state running, would far rather be inside or outside. One of the advantages of a speed boat, is you can experiment

 

[tome]

Spent a week being trained on jet rescue boats in Stonehaven, including reversing through the surf line into a cave to pick up 'cashaltees' and lots of ruffntumble seas

Fun!

 

[Greenwichman]

In a Nich 36 have ploughed through the middle by accident, set into it by the tidal stream in low visibility before the days of GPS. In not more than F4 it was horrible. Anything more could be positively scary.

In a destroyer in a gale I have sailed through on purpose (on the way to rescue a yacht in Lyme Bay!) and it was quite hairy, with several violent broaches. Bad enough from the bridge, but even more unnerving in the galley.

 

[hlb]

I've been plowing through the middle for years. maybe twenty times. Then I learned about the inside passage. Mind I still tend to plow through the middle.Just feels safer knowing I've got an option.

To be honest, I've never seen Portland rough, even though I never check the tides. Well not proper rough like Start point can be. But even thenI tend to just bounce about a bit.

Maybe it's just having a good Mobo...... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[BrendanS]

Great fun! Would love to try that sort of thing

Funny thing about Portland is you never can totally predict what conditions are going to be like. Helped a new forumite deliver his new boat from West Bay to Gosport a couple of weeks back. Winds were Easterly F3/4 and we'd missed the tidal window round Portland due to complications.

Came around the Bill, and flat calm as far as the eye could see! and there was me planning on showing them the inside passage.

 

[StellaGirl]

"At one and a half hours before high water Weymouth the flood tide travels from west to east. Travelling eastwards through Lyme Bay it eventually hits Portland and is turned southwards gathering speed as it does so because of all the water from the west piling up against Portland and being deflected southwards.

As the tide rushes past Portland Bill it is heading due south but immediately hits the east going tide that has not been influenced by Portland. It therefore very soon starts to bend slightly eastwards running south, south by east, south east by east then south east.

Within a quarter of mile of Portland, with the sea often flat calm because of the power of the flood tide, the water hits the Portland Ledge (you must imagine Portland continues under water for another half mile and the seabed rises from 90' to 30'). Like in a river when it shallows rapidly, the speed of the water speeds up even more. It hits the underwater 'wall' and is deflected upwards to the surface as there is too much water to stay calm over this vast submerged barrier. The first three waves of The Race in full flood can be very dangerous and is, 90 percent of the time, very impressive. The first three waves break the power and slow the water so that it tumbles and becomes confused. It will be traveling at anything up to 5 knots now. This gradually eases and the sea becomes calmer as it travels towards the west Shambles Buoy where, at high water on a spring tide, it will still be at 4 knots. A back eddy builds up (which is why The Shambles is formed) and bends in an anti clockwise direction to travel back along parallel to Portland's east side. This back eddy meets the south going stream at Bill Point, causes further confusion and then also gets deflected southwards to add yet more speed and quantity of water. If there is a cross swell or a south west, south or east wind then further friction is caused making the seas more confused and more unpredictable. With all this going on, you must be very careful about when you decide to fish the Race. It changes all the time; it can be too dangerous for a time (usually high water to one hour after) and then it can suddenly change and become fishable. There are no rules!!

The EBB Race is potentially VERY dangerous but a spring tide (running westwards) 6 to 7 hours after HW Weymouth (at max speed of 7 to even 9 knots) creates a large flat area to the east of the ebb Race which is perfectly fishable. Often the more calm this patch is the worse the actual ebb Race becomes. You cannot miss it. A standing wall of water can be created which will turn you over if you hit it wrong. It's better to stay well to the east of the white water!!"

 

[Rustyknight]

It can certainly be an awe inspiring place. During the winter, if theres a S'westerly severe gale or storm forecast, and a spring ebb during daylight, I'm off down there with the camera......

This piccie was taken last winter (apologies to those that have seen it before) looking east from the lighthouse.

Years ago, I think it was when the Severn Class lifeboat was being trialled, I shot some video of one in similar conditions....... ploughing through the middle, and more often than not hidden by great breaking peaks of water. Them guy's have balls!

 

[Colin_S]

Doing the round the island race for the first time this year - is this another one worth a go?

 

[Sans Bateau]

Would I be right in assuming that this is one occasion when the inside passage is a no go? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jimi]

Suspect you're correct, as it might be difficult to spot the pots with all that white water.

 

[Sans Bateau]

Never thought of that, but if they use old black oil cans like they do, the black will stand out against the white, so maybe its not such a bad time to go around.

 

[Rustyknight]

Driving down the hill towards the Bill, it looked so bad that I nearly turned round and drove back, especially with one of the highest tides of the year.

I've found some video I took some years ago in similar weather (though the part with the lifeboat in I mentioned above seems to have been taped over /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif). If I can get it to a reasonable file size and then onto Google Video I'll post the link, though at the moment I have 3 minutes of video at 30 MB. I think I need to play with some settings somewhere......

 

[aod]

What an amazing photograph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!