Shell Channel Pilot

tome

tome

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Having just returned from a 3 week channel cruise I found the Tom Cunliffe pilot very disappointing, a far cry from when John Coote was compiling it. It didn't help at all with our approach to Lezardrieux in poor visibility and is full of drivel and pointless asides. Anyone else used it in anger?

I couldn't believe I was reading that he no longer encounters 'Johnny Breton' with his bicycle and onions but that his wife has found a good source in Wolverhampton or wherever.

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My only criticism is that the Channel is a large area to be covered in a single volume, so it cannot be as detailed as the more local pilots, nor be compiled with such a wealth of local knowledge as Mark Fishwick and others show.



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The current one I have has changed, it is signed by Tom.Best Pilot book by the best cruising yachtsman. (P.S you have to hold it up the right way)

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Nothing better than been there done it and taken your own notes!

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>
 
Re: As it\'s trying to be all things

My boat's the same size it was last year. But I shall measure my books next time I'm aboard

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Robson is as good as that for me... at least he did the rock scraping bit for me, but I dont know how easy they are to come by now. Mine are dog eared and tattered, but as my Father used to point out, the rocks dont often move.

The only exception, is that I sometimes sketch transits for a satisfactory place to drop the hook (a good example is where to find max water in the upper pool in Chausey)

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First edition.

I still retain the first edition aboard as it includes directions for some places not mentioned subsequently, such as the Erme and Avon in south Devon.

At one time this book was a godsend. Does anyone recall when Wilson & Wilson or the Admiralty Pilot books were all that was available? Great descriptions of the coast, but no plans and few pictures of the harbours! And costing an arm and a leg, too. These days though the almanacs provide very much the same information as the pilots, usually (though not always) of quite adequate detail for practical purposes.

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Gems from Tom

But they don't contain gems from Tom such as "Excellent seafood and good beer at the New Inn Shalfleet but organise your run ashore so that if your dinghy is going to dry out you have another pint or two as it re-floats".

You won't find information like that in the Armagnac !

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Re: Gems from Tom

Tom's first bash did us the great favour of slagging off Gravelines, which I very much doubt he'd bothered to visit. As a result this peaceful little gem of a town was mercifully free of British yachts for years, even though it is the second-nearest port after Calais.

Wish he'd do the same with a few other places ....

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Sounds Lovely

Entrance dries, massive nuclear power station, entrance dangerous in strong winds from west to east through north,No Fuel...... sounds lovely.

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