Racing Dinghys - revisited

[Guest]

Hi,

After a restful night in Chichester Harbour I made my way down towards the harbour entrance. No fewer than 4 dingy fleets were racing in the main channel. Although there was oodles of water all over the harbour the marks were being laid in the main navigable channel.

Is there some kind of collective lunacy infecting commodores of dinghy fleets in the South? Does anyone think that a 20 or 30 meter wide channel is really the logical place to go out and play for an hour or two?

These lunatics then continues to race with a steadily rising wind and and an increasing number of capsizes and boats in difficulty. Maybe we need a new bye law in the harbours that gives automatic right of way of all passage making vessels over racing fleets and a bounty on every dingy run over in the main channels.

Rant over.

Regards


Fred

 

[Twister_Ken]

Does depend somewhat on the state of the tide. Chi gets v shallow outside of the main channel for much of its area within a couple of hours of LW, even for dinghies (which draw 3 feet or so with their plates down)

 

[jimi]

There actually is a rule of the road to cover this situation whereby vessels (including dinghies) should not impede vessels navigating in a narrow channel. However on the other hand a dinghies playground is the harbour whereas ours is outside with the harbour as a way of getting there. Live & let live. In most cases it's relatively easy to anticipate their movements (or lack of it!). If it is a particular problem perhaps a chat with the Harbour Master might be appropriate.