Sailing North of Rampion Offshore Wind Farm

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HamiltonSpreader

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Will be sailing from the Solent, across Sussex Bay to Brighton Marina. We intend to go North of Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. My chart has "under construction" marked on what is presumably the under-water cables. Would be good to confirm there is full unhindered transit for leisure yachts North of the farm. I know this has been asked before, but that post was a while back, and doesn't hurt to get the latest. Any hazards on route would be good to know, although I will be checking Reeds.

Many thanks in advance.
 
Sailed that way about 5 weeks ago no hindrances inshore of the windfarm from Littlehampton to Eastbourne. There was plenty of wind farm related activity in Newhaven with survey boats in and out but nothing on your passage route.
 
HamiltonSpreader said:
Will be sailing from the Solent, across Sussex Bay to Brighton Marina. We intend to go North of Rampion Offshore Wind Farm. My chart has "under construction" marked on what is presumably the under-water cables. Would be good to confirm there is full unhindered transit for leisure yachts North of the farm. I know this has been asked before, but that post was a while back, and doesn't hurt to get the latest. Any hazards on route would be good to know, although I will be checking Reeds.

Many thanks in advance.
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There should be guard vessels who will contact you should you get to close to any activity.
 
It's no problem at all. Went that way on Friday leaving from Priory Bay to Brighton and currently there.
If you go through the Looe Channel then an almost direct line* to the marina isn't an issue and another boat went considerably closer to the windfarm, as indeed we did on our way down channel earlier in the year. There is a large ship at anchor at the Shoreham end of the bay but you will leave that a long distance on your starboard side. There is some inshore ships traffic that we saw but that is over nearer the windfarm and not on the line I expect you would take.

* we kept going East for a little bit to ensure we didn't go too close to Selsey Bill before heading towards Brighton Marina.

Keep a good eye out for pots.

At Brighton, in the entrance there are currently (and it has been the position for a while) no starboard hand markers and you have to keep close to the reds, which are initially right by the inside of the wall. There are very low depths at low water but expect you will arrive closer to high water if from the Solent. Very helpful staff on CH80 and they often keep in touch whilst you are moving around inside.
 
My stomping ground, as others have said so issues and plenty of room inside the wind farm.
If you haven’t already gone, I’ll be around the weekend so feel free to give me a shout if you need anything.
 
Gixer said:
My stomping ground, as others have said so issues and plenty of room inside the wind farm.
If you haven’t already gone, I’ll be around the weekend so feel free to give me a shout if you need anything.
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Very kind. Actually the plan is for the next weekend. But thanks.
 
Gixer said:
My stomping ground, as others have said so issues and plenty of room inside the wind farm.
If you haven’t already gone, I’ll be around the weekend so feel free to give me a shout if you need anything.
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Are they still dredging?

Bit worrying if entrance depths are a bit ‘thin’ as they started a couple of months back
 
Lucky Duck said:
Are they still dredging?

Bit worrying if entrance depths are a bit ‘thin’ as they started a couple of months back
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Yes, dredging inside with Split 3 (the large barge), digger and tug all in the area where part of the visitors and the floating homes were. Basically a large area cleared for dredging. Not sure they are doing the entrance atm but the stbd bouyage still absent.
Depths are really low at low tide. We moved within the marina at lowish water to (I think) pontoon 12 fairly near the entrance and came to a halt mid manoeuvre as we ended up with about 1.2m when we need quite a lot more. Fortunately, I can bring the keel up :)
 
HOT seemed very positive for my planned dates so up to the visitor pontoon seemed fine.

Actually due to other circumstances we have put this on hold for another time, but many thanks all for the info. It has been added to the passage plan which will be saved for another day!
 
Poecheng said:
Yes, dredging inside with Split 3 (the large barge), digger and tug all in the area where part of the visitors and the floating homes were. Basically a large area cleared for dredging. Not sure they are doing the entrance atm but the stbd bouyage still absent.
Depths are really low at low tide. We moved within the marina at lowish water to (I think) pontoon 12 fairly near the entrance and came to a halt mid manoeuvre as we ended up with about 1.2m when we need quite a lot more. Fortunately, I can bring the keel up :)
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Just had a look on foot, the pontoons are back in-situ around the area by the lifeboat house. Couldn't see any sign of dreding activity.
 
They worked over the bank holiday and were working their way up to the wall, could well be finished by now.
 
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