Rye / Newhaven

There are no visitor moorings at the Admiralty Jetty - just a holding berth for reporting to the HM and getting details of the pilotage and the loos and showers.

Do report there and get advice on timing your passage up channel to the harbour in the centre of town.

Our first arrival we timed take the rising tide and passed the HM office doing over 6 knots without much engine. We waved in a friendly manner to the HM as we passed. He came on the radio pretty damn quick to tell us to stop since there would not be any water further up the channel!

Stemming the tide and picking up a mooring took a lot of luck and some skill - and the engine flat out.

Anyway, we enjoy Rye for all its quirks and the Ypres Castle which is a gentle walk from our moorings.
 
Thanks for all the comments so far... don't worry, Clacton is *definitely* too far away, so I won't be going there!

However, as has been pointed out to me today, Chichester is doable albeit an extra trek. Should I add that into the mix as well? Worth the extra journey time? I should add, I'm not from round 'ere and only really know Plymouth, sailing-wise, which is why I'm getting confused over what probably sounds like a very easy decision to someone else!

I'm mainly interested in which would give me interesting places to sail, back-up plans/provision in case weather becomes rubbish (e.g. what do I do if it all blows up and I can't go home because of the tide- nearby boltholes?), what the tidal restrictions are, and cost (Premier Marinas etc are outside my budget). I'm less interested in the niceness of the actual town itself (I'm originally from Redditch. Everywhere is nice). That seems less important because I'll just be going straight to the boat. I'm not swayed by posh facilities either, although that said it would be nice to join a friendly club (even if they have dreadful showers).

I reckon Chichester would be about an hour and a half away. Rye is much nearer, about half an hour. Newhaven... never been but I guess somewhere in between those two estimates.

Thanks again!
 
Newhaven is a surprisingly nice overnight stop on passage with friendly staff and a very good pub handy but I'm not sure I'd want to be permanently berthed there

Rye is delightful and picturesque but the visitor berths at the town quay are not, as we found to our chagrin, bilge keel friendly (there's a bank of shingle against the quayside below the mud which results in bilge keelers leaning over dramatically and sliding away from the wall too. Not much fun). A home berth there would be a different matter of course
 
Newhaven:
Was more expensive than Brighton the last time I looked.
Full tide access to shelter even if your mooring dries.
You can day sail to the very pretty port of Rye or the metropolis that is Brighton.
Has pretty bad swell for some distance off in any sort of a blow.
Has a good chandlery.
Has several yards.
Has good TV reception, unlike Brighton which is under the cliffs.
Has good train service and pretty good road access from A27.
Has a really '70s/80s' feel.
No offlying dangers - yet...
At least one of the yards above the swing bridge is in the process of being closed down so all of their bertholders are on the move.
 
Erbas said:
Newhaven is a surprisingly nice overnight stop on passage with friendly staff and a very good pub handy but I'm not sure I'd want to be permanently berthed there

Rye is delightful and picturesque but the visitor berths at the town quay are not, as we found to our chagrin, bilge keel friendly (there's a bank of shingle against the quayside below the mud which results in bilge keelers leaning over dramatically and sliding away from the wall too. Not much fun). A home berth there would be a different matter of course
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2013 - Centaur - We were forewarned about the slope of the river here so rigged masthead lines etc. to the well placed iron rings/bollards whatever they were. We sat nearly vertically & tight alongside. I really would not have wanted to fall off the river side of the boat at low water though!
 
A small number of the berths at the far end of pontoon E at Newhaven don't dry or only at high springs. And if you get caught out, you can usually stop on the visitors pontoon until the tide suits. Having all tide and nearly all weather access is very convenient, as is being just a few hundred metres from open sea. And it is cheaper than Eastbourne and Brighton. It is a bit of a dump, but on the other hand it is a genuine working harbour and that has a certain charm/interest. There are a small number of large commercial ship movements but they cause minimal disruption. And contrary to Yngmar's fears, you won't be sharing the entrance with the ferry - you would be in serious breach of traffic controls for that to happen.
 
I have always found that there are two issues with Rye, my v. limited experience of Newhaven means that I don't feel able to comment about it.
Rye
1) Many moorings in Rye have silted up to the point where access is limited to HW -1 to +2. That what my mate is limited to in Rock Channel and he is using a fishing boat with a draft of about 1m.
2) The problem created by point 1 means that you have a choice of a three hour boating day or ten hour day and a lot can happen weather wise in ten hours.
Sorry if this sounds negative, but I like so so many have played the game of being stuck outside of Rye desperate to get back in because the weather had turned, and having to wait for the water. Socially however, I would say the Rye has Newhaven beaten hands down.
 
Not negative- that's the sort of information I need. If getting stuck out there is going to feature as a problem, then I'd like to know!

Thanks for helpful PMs so far. Is anyone else on a club mooring at Chichester?
 
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