Shell Channel Pilot 9th Edition

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Tomaret

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I see that the 9th edition of the Shell Channel Pilot is being released next month under the editorship of Rachael Sprot, rather than Uncle Tom.

Has anybody been given an advance copy to review and if so, it is so different from the 8th edition to warrant the £44 cost?
 
I hope the language is a bit less fruity and the information more accurate. We’re using the current edition and quite a bit of it is flat out incorrect.
TC seems to have handed over all of his regular titles. I saw Complete Yachtmaster was changing hands too, that was one of my favourites. He’s doing fiction now!
 
I don't know sail in the Channel so don't know how good is the latest edition.

In general, how important it is to us that a pilot book is up to date depends on how much we are relying on it for critical information. In familiar waters with up to date charts (electronic and/or paper) and possibly with this year's Reeds (inc updates) the pilot is a fun addition, but it wouldn't much matter if it's 10-20 years old. It still has useful stuff about tides, history and nice pics.

In a perfect world we all prefer the most up-to-date information of course, but I find I have harbour chartlets several times over in paper, book and electronic form so it doesn't bother me if one or two are out of date. Provided I and anyone using them knows they're out of date of course.

Also 'out of date' doesn't mean 'old', it means not showing some material change that could have happened last week, such as the change in a buoy's position or light characteristic. Likewise the state of tide that's best to round a headland hasn't changed for thousands of years.
 
We’ve not found Reeds remotely accurate either, unfortunately. None of them seem to bother with updates any more, even quick calls to harbours once a year to check accuracy.
 
lustyd said:
We’ve not found Reeds remotely accurate either, unfortunately. None of them seem to bother with updates any more, even quick calls to harbours once a year to check accuracy.
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I dont bother with any almanac but do like a good pilot book - and bought the Channel Pilot when we were (briefly) in these waters.
I find an almanac nowadays "a jack of all trades and master of none":
- tides are available from much more accessible sources - eg Absolute Tides
- general info - never referred to and if needed quicker and easier found via Google
- pilotage information - which covers too big an area and hence the pilot book much better.

So I would buy Absolute Tides and the new Channel Pilot (hopefully having lost some of TC's irritating random opinions - he even managed to get his pro B views randomly into a Day Skipper textbook).
 
In his book on gaff rig TC says that you don’t need to mouse the peak halyard hooks to the span shackles.

I was brought up to mouse them, and had always done so, but having read the book I thought I’d try it. After all, the man must know more than I did. He’d written a book!

This was in the late 90’s.

I chose a reasonably windy day in the Swale for the experiment. Now, Mirelle is a pretty well behaved boat.

Within a few minutes she had thrown one peak halyard block off and frapped it round the speaders. A complete embuggerance, in fact, with the main unable to go up or down or set properly until I had climbed the mast, unfrapped the block, secured it, and fought the sail down, which isn’t quite the easiest thing to do single handed in a narrow channel in a fresh breeze.

And that was the last time I paid any attention at all to anything that either TC or RC says about anything.

I didn’t know he was a B…..r but I’m not surprised.

P.S. The correct solution is to use Wichard hooks. I found that out and pass it on fwiw.
 
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We use a year 2000 version of the channel pilot. Very handy for harbour masters phone numbers. and little sketch of harbour plus lat and long.

They actually have built very few marinas since then and if so still in same harbours so its all still pretty useful. Some of the comments on navigation seem overly cautious and assume no chartplotter and no ready tide or current information, but thats not altogether a bad thing. Nav systems can fail and we both found it satisfying when I had to show The Navigator how to manage without - though the night passage from Scilly to Padstow is not the most onerous
 
The current edition does expect plotters. At Selsey he mentioned the buoys but said you can’t see them so set a waypoint.
 
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