Sailing the Irish Sea - bottom to top - how long would it take?

[chriscoreline]

as a rough guide given a small boat 26 - 30 ft and average weather, how long would it take to get from Cork to Belfast in a relitivally comfortable manner and what obsticals / concerns / gotchas are there.

im hoping to take my (as yet unbought, purley hypothetical, actual results may very) boat up to Belfast Lough - mooring at Holywood to impress my friends, meet my family and generally cruise on the water i grew up on.

 

[savageseadog]

If you stop over somewhere every night, about 5 days.

 

[sarabande]

keeping just offshore, it's about 280 nm. If you run with the tides, and sit ashore and watch the ebb go in the opposite direction, it should take you, err, 5 days.


Mark you, being waylaid by too many stops ashore could double that, but leave you with a good hangover.

 

[Skylark]

How far is it? I'm guessing that it's around a couple of hundred miles?

Simplistically, go with the flood each day, average 6 kts / ground for 6 hours and take the next / nearest convenient harbour.

The east coast should enable you to avoid much of any nasty prevailing swl'y.

Avoid the fishermans friend scattered close to shore, especially prevalent in the SE.

I'd estimate at least a week.

 

[SAMYL]

im hoping to take my (as yet unbought, purley hypothetical, actual results may very) boat up to Belfast Lough - mooring at Holywood to impress my friends, meet my family and generally cruise on the water i grew up on.[/QUOTE]

You will not impress your friends if you do not moor well out from Holywood - it is very shallow there now when the tide is out!

 

[chriscoreline]

im hoping to take my (as yet unbought, purley hypothetical, actual results may very) boat up to Belfast Lough - mooring at Holywood to impress my friends, meet my family and generally cruise on the water i grew up on.

You will not impress your friends if you do not moor well out from Holywood - it is very shallow there now when the tide is out! [/QUOTE]

im hoping for a bilge keeler.
yeah the whole fleet of cruisers in holywood is lifting keel or bilge, a great home for neglected pupateer micros in its day.
ive seen spring tides go out almost to the channel

 

[Finbar]

The fairly standard route from Cork is Youghal to Dunmore East to Kilmore Quay to Arklow to Dublin (Dun Laoghaire or Howth) to Carlingford (or Ardglass ) to Belfast Lough, with Strangford lough as an additional option. You could take longer and stop in Malahide, Skerries, or Clogher Head. As others have said you need to sail with the tide with strong flows in the North and South of the East coast with slackish water in the middle where the tides meet around St John's Point. Nice day sailing in 30ft boat, could be done quicker by skipping some if you are in a hurry. Buy or borrow the Irish Cruising Club Sailing Directions for excellent information. Enjoy,

 

[saltylegs]

You will not impress your friends if you do not moor well out from Holywood - it is very shallow there now when the tide is out!

im hoping for a bilge keeler.
yeah the whole fleet of cruisers in holywood is lifting keel or bilge, a great home for neglected pupateer micros in its day.
ive seen spring tides go out almost to the channel[/QUOTE]

if you want to impress you could also moor in the basin beside the odyssey belfast harbour now being advertised for £8.00 per day with long stay available the only limit is max draft about 4 metres (contact belfast harbour)
ps no connections etc etc

 

[Pleiades]

Sailing the Irish Sea

The main challenge for the passage plan is to round Carnsore Point in good vis and favourable conditions so get well slept in Kilmore or Dunmore perhaps and take as long as it takes to arrive at the Tuskar Rock with one's wits about one as it is rocky inshore and the SWly TSS delivers the shipping on your nose there. Strongly recommend the Admiralty Tidal Streams Atlas for the Irish Sea. Arrive abeam the Tuskar at about 5 hrs after HW Dover and you can leap on a tidal elevator to scoot you up to Wicklow in no time at all. Beware ships in/out of Rosslare and well busy Dublin. If you want a stop I recommend Howth - excellent marina or you can drop the hook in Carigeen Bay. Hope you like windmills - the Arklow Bank windmills go on for ever - stationary if no wind and stationary if half a gale or more - no wonder the Irish Govt are skint! Tide goes slack north of Dublin so motor if necessary to get up past Carlingford and Dundrum in time for the next tidal stream challenge - rounding the Ards Penninsula. Arrive off Ballyquintin Point about an hour before HWD. Favourable tide thereafter for Ards to the Copelands Sound keep well offshore until you see Donaghadee - Sound is straightforward in fair conditions but study the marks beforehand as they are not intuitively obvious if you manage to get the buoys inside out. I agree with the post to effect that you will impress no-one by taking the ground at Hollywood. Not a great bit of foreshore. Far better to bask in Bangor Marina (excellent) and day trip guests out to the delights of Ballyholme Bay, The Copeland Islands or Carrick for tea and stickies in the Windrose.

Fair winds and tides,

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5

 

[Finbar]

The excellent local advice is to leave Kilmore Quay 3 hours before local high water, which is about the same as high water Cobh. This way you will have favourable tides all the way to at least Arklow. If you can clear Wicklow Head before losing the tide, go all the way to Dublin as the flows are much weaker from there on and it is feasible to sail or motor against the tide. If you get caught S of Wicklow Head you can end up looking at it for a long time as the tide flows are strong here.

There is no need to go outside Tuskar Rock unless the weather is unfavourable. In anything from W to S up to force 5 you can come out of Kilmore on the transit, cross St Patricks Bridge through the buoys, and make more or less straight for Carnsore Point. Stay a little N of the direct course to make sure you miss Black Rock. You can pass a couple of cables from the point, round the Fundale Buoy, then make for the Splaugh Buoy and sail on up inside the Lucifer and Blackwater Banks following the buoys. Do not attempt this inside course to Carnsore Point at night as there are a lot of pots set with sometimes poor markers.

Its nice sailing in the usual SW wind, and Dublin can be made on a tide if you can average about 6kn boat speed.