Reed's Nautical Almanac.

[Binman]

Just a quick question, this years copy boasts 45.000 changes, now at £45 pounds I think is well worth it, with its pilotage sections, now being new to sailing would I be wrong in buying say a five year old copy. Would it still be safe to use, say for a cruise along the east coast from Medway, or into the channel around to Portsmouth. This year I hope to go longer distances.

 

[EdWingfield]

Your cruising area is subject to many changes: wind farms plus channel buoyage.

Reeds + chart of Thames Estuary (delay purchase of chart until you need it)

 

[laika]

now being new to sailing would I be wrong in buying say a five year old copy. Would it still be safe to use, say for a cruise along the east coast from Medway, or into the channel around to Portsmouth.

The charts in Reeds are helpful but I buy pilot books for pilotage and Reed's for the tidal info. A 5 year old copy (or even last year's) wouldn't be much cop for that (unless I've misunderstood the question: always possible after midnight...)

 

[[70521]]

Just a quick question, this years copy boasts 45.000 changes, now at £45 pounds I think is well worth it, with its pilotage sections, now being new to sailing would I be wrong in buying say a five year old copy. Would it still be safe to use, say for a cruise along the east coast from Medway, or into the channel around to Portsmouth. This year I hope to go longer distances.

I replace my Reeds about every 5 to 10 years.

99.999% of the stuff does not change and all the tidal stuff can be found from other sources. The Mark 1 eyeball should be able to see a windfarm from some distance.

 

[Babylon]

Not a lot changes in five years, but very occasionally something relevant or critical to one's particular plan has. I've spent the last couple of years sailing with a 2010 Reeds Channel Almanac and a 2012 CA Almanac with little fuss.

Tidal information can be accessed online from virtually anywhere, and - as a Jester challenger once observed - the sea sloshes up and then down the Channel roughly twice a day.

Having said that, I'm going to buy a new almanac and tide-tables this year.

 

[[3889]]

5 yearly renewal here, too. Bought Reeds 2015 and I found numerous outdated entries between the Loire and Clyde, some 5 years+ out of date.
Well worth having a copy but I wouldn't worry about age too much.

 

[laika]

Tidal information can be accessed online from virtually anywhere, and - as a Jester challenger once observed - the sea sloshes up and then down the Channel roughly twice a day.

When it does the sloshing is a pretty important part of navigation and how much it sloshes on a given day is pretty important for me choosing where to anchor.

People who day sail from a single port can get and print out tide tables easily enough but the OP mentions going to Portsmouth or further afield (presumably from Chatham). Availability from the Internet?

In practice you're probably right. If you stop somewhere where there's no Internet connectivity it's easy enough to guesstimate from the previous day. And Navionics on my phone will tell me tidal information if I ask it nicely.

Almanac data is such a fundamental navigational tool that I really want a paper copy of it on board, although I concede that my affinity with the medium is possibly more philosophically based than practically. Surprised I'm in the minority on this.

 

[ShinyShoe]

Well...

If you are just table top dreaming at the moment an out of date Reeds and even an out of date chart is fair do-s. But if you are planning the mission for this year why not shell out on the up-to-date. You may decide to buy a 5 year old one, but next year its 6 year old the following 7 year old. If you buy new its 1 and 2 year old...

I'm a proper IT geek. I'd have no hesitation grabbing some online data. But I'd never set off without having that and probably not without it in hard copy. Relying on mobile signals to get it is fraught with difficulty. Even if you know somewhere is good for tinternet afloat all it takes is the mast to drop out of the cell network due to some fault and you are back to guess work. My number 1 aim is to not be the guy on the tellying who gets rescued sailing across the atlantic with the AA road atlas for a chart...

 

[Cantata]

Just a quick question, this years copy boasts 45.000 changes, now at £45 pounds I think is well worth it, with its pilotage sections, now being new to sailing would I be wrong in buying say a five year old copy. Would it still be safe to use, say for a cruise along the east coast from Medway, or into the channel around to Portsmouth. This year I hope to go longer distances.

On the East Coast I can tell you that there have been literally hundreds of detail changes in the last five years, having researched and compiled a new edition of ours in that timespan. You might well say "he would say that wouldn't he" but it's a fact.

 

[Gelfie]

I think that a better option is to buy the PBO, Reeds almanac for 1/3 of the price and the latest sailing guide to your intended cruising area. This will give you all the sailing information you need and all up to date. There is so much in the large almanac that you will never use.

 

[Binman]

I'm more interested in tidal streams, Can get pilotage charts from visit my harbour I think, do tidal streams change that much.

 

[FWB]

I'm more interested in tidal streams, Can get pilotage charts from visit my harbour I think, do tidal streams change that much.

Tidal streams available from Absolute Tides and Tides Planner.

 

[DipperToo]

Tidal streams available from Absolute Tides and Tides Planner.

Reeve Fowkes tidal atlases are good if you want more detail - and they never date! You do need a Cherbourg tide table as the reference (I believe that is more accurate than Dover?). I also use Absolute Tides for a general overview of a large sea area.

 

[lpdsn]

Just a quick question, this years copy boasts 45.000 changes, now at £45 pounds I think is well worth it, with its pilotage sections, now being new to sailing would I be wrong in buying say a five year old copy. Would it still be safe to use, say for a cruise along the east coast from Medway, or into the channel around to Portsmouth. This year I hope to go longer distances.

I have to admit that I've lost faith in Reed's over the years. Just too many out of date or inaccurate entries, or simply gaps in coverage, for the waters I sail in nowadays. However, I'm sure it is much better for the Thames Estuary and I don't think I've ever found an erroneous entry within the Solent.

Get an older copy of Reed's (it doesn't have to be 5 years old, I'm sure somebody nearby would give you one from 2015 or 2014.) for outline planning. You can get tides from easytide or POL and write them down for the duration of your planned trip, so you don't need internet everyday. You can also get a good idea of the pilotage of the harbours you want to visit from the internet, but if in doubt spend your money on a new pilot book. Don't skimp on charts though.

 

[Halo]

The kids never used to know what to buy me for Xmas so now its easy - an annual copy of Reeds and a 12 month subscription to Whitby Kippers.
I do a lot of "new" areas most years so think the comination of Reeds and Navionics electronic charts (updated weekly) plus a selection of old IMRAY charts as back up is a good combination.

 

[sarabande]

which of the postal kipper companies in Whitby do you recommend please ? There seem to be several
.

 

[Halo]

Current ones are The Whitby Catch. (No connection) very good so far. 2 pairs nicely filleted.

 

[Binman]

Other than Visit my harbour, which will give free pilotage, approaches,marina's and what's there, what is another source of pilotage available, had a look at the absolute tides app and it looks very good, got a four star rating. I brought a good standard horizon chat plotter last year that I still need to connect and have various Imray and admiralty charts. Looking to make sure I have the information I need, before proceeding, just read sailing around Britain by Kim C Sturgess, which gave me a lot, apart from being an injoyable read.

 

[prv]

Do tidal streams change that much.

No, they don't. Obviously you need a current tide table (or electronic equivalent) to relate the "+1hr" etc to the time of day, but the streams at that time are essentially fixed.

I use the Admiralty tidal stream atlases:

, several of which I inherited along with the boat and are 15 or 20 years old.

I do buy a Reeds Channel almanac each year, but being honest this is probably more ritual than essential. I mostly use it for the tide tables (I use pilot books for area information rather than the condensed version in Reeds) and there are other sources for this.

Pete

 

[[70521]]

My number 1 aim is to not be the guy on the tellying who gets rescued sailing across the atlantic with the AA road atlas for a chart...

I am planning to do a circumnavigation with just a world map and a globe. I am just hoping that Plymouth does not change too much in the time I am away.