richardbrennan
Well-Known Member
At first glance, the Imray block correction looks good. So does the QHM Notice obviously, but there are significant changes further out.
Portsmouth Approaches
- Thread starter richardbrennan
- Start date
wizard
Well-Known Member
We came back from a trip last Sunday morning and it was a weird feeling in the new boat channel being so much further to the west as you entered. All the approach angles were different. Also knowing you were travelling over what used to be shallow and you would not normally be there.
Still, we will all get used to it in time
Still, we will all get used to it in time
richardbrennan
Well-Known Member
Having looked a little closer, the Imray block correction does not appear to have the sets of three yellow piles marked.
alahol2
Well-Known Member
It looks like each set of three is shown as a single entity and described as Fl.Y.5s (3Lts). Seems a bit slapdash...
richardbrennan
Well-Known Member
The Admiralty chart is, of course, to a much bigger scale and can show the piles individually. Given the smaller scale of the Imray chart, I can only assume that showing them individually would not be possible.
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
As I discovered yesterday, the Western edge of the new channel is extremely steep too, consequently its a lot hard to 'feel' you way Westwards as the depth under the keel vanishes very quickly!
davidmh
Well-Known Member
Has anyone used the channel which runs nearly North towards the to second pile out from the Coastguard building. Has anyone been out using the same channel which goes hard to port by the coastguard building. Has the depth or position changed.
David MH
David MH
Topcat47
Well-Known Member
I regularly use the inner swashway but it is really shallow in parts so you have to keep an eye on the depth gauge. Depending on what you draw and the state of the tide most smaller yachts (<34') should be able to negotiate it from Half Tide in both directions. I've even done it on a Bowman '57, but you have to work the tide heights quite carefully. There's a really shallow part out by Gilkicker, (~ 1/2 mile East of the radar mast) that's best avoided and you have to keep clear of the lumpy part of Hamilton Bank by the pile.
davidmh
Well-Known Member
Thanks Topcat I was thinking more about whether the recent dredging in the main small channel has had any effect on the inner swashway where it joins the the main boat channel at the harbour entrance.
Topcat47
Well-Known Member
The lump on Hamilton Bank just beyond the piles, which is still there, is hard, and I speak from personal experience. I used the inner swashway last season, during and just after the deep dredging and found it virtually unchanged. I'm unsure about what you mean by the "main small channel". The small boat channel through the harbour has been deepened at the eastern side as the new carriers need a broader and deeper main channel to enter and leave the harbour. I think the western edge by the piles is not hugely effected. Once the carriers start coming in and out, I guess the entrance area to the swashway will feather a bit deeper, but not until.
Giblets
Well-Known Member
Angele
Well-Known Member
Thanks for pointing it out, Giblets.
A sensible response by QHM to the narrowing of the available space to the west of the port hand markers. It is, however, going to take people who don't read QHM's NtoMs a while to get used to this...
I always struggle with visualising an imaginary line between a buoy behind you and something in front and then working out which side of it you are on. I can see that this is something I am going to have to get rather more proficient at....
Giblets
Well-Known Member
This update could give hours of entertainment for us in our little erie.
Angele
Well-Known Member
Lol, yes. You'll get a bird's eye view.
jakeroyd
Well-Known Member
I'd forgotten how beautifully clear Imray Charts are................
TeamSpirit
Well-Known Member
I would hold fire on updating any charts just yet. They are still ploughing the harbour and dredging daily and their are survey vessels checking approaches and inside Portsmouth harbour so any chart purchased would undoubtedly require further updating in the not to distant future.
I have noticed significant increase of tidal flow and pattern in the entrance over the last few months very noticeable in the recent springs. I watched a chap 30ft or so struggling though the small boat channel, took him 30 mins to get past ballast on the ebb. Also in a southerly (gusting F8) I noticed the incoming swell appears to be more significant on the flood now the depths have increased.
I have noticed significant increase of tidal flow and pattern in the entrance over the last few months very noticeable in the recent springs. I watched a chap 30ft or so struggling though the small boat channel, took him 30 mins to get past ballast on the ebb. Also in a southerly (gusting F8) I noticed the incoming swell appears to be more significant on the flood now the depths have increased.
greggron
Well-Known Member
I think there was a sunsail grounded on Hamilton bank yesterday afternoon that may well have fallen foul of the reduced depth to the east of the port side channel markers.
sailor211
Well-Known Member
Was that the Mayday with 8 persons on board 15 mins from low water?
greggron
Well-Known Member
The timing sounds about right
Giblets
Well-Known Member
Judging by Gosport Lifeboat's track from Marinetraffic (who pulled 'em off the putty) it would appear they had "missed" the western entrance to the Swashway so nowhere near the main channel.
Yep, but hardly a Mayday though. Just wait a while to float off.