Ships leaving the Solent

[Never Grumble]

I wonder how different the needles chanel was 30 years ago when the QE2 used it?

one difference it was only shown on a paper chart!

 

[capnsensible]

Drifting slightly back to Pompey, I can vaguely remember starboard hand markers being black and a wreck buoy in Stokes Bay being green. ?

 

[Rappey]

one difference it was only shown on a paper chart

I notice it was surveyed in 2005 then at 2012. That's a long time with no update.

 

[geoffatstanpit]

Ships (including QE2) flew flag W (for west) if they were going to turn right at Calshot. Curiously that also meant "I require medical assistance" which seemed unlikely when QE2 is addressing a Seal 22.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

Most large ships leave The Solent via the forts and the Nab Tower but occasionally you see one leaving via Hurst and The Needles as one did yesterday afternoon. I've often wondered why this is as it would be a considerably shorter passage for those ships westbound. Is it something due to depth, width of Hurst (but why do some seem to make the passage)? Any seafarer know the answer?

If it's cruise-liners then I would suspect it's simply to give the passengers a better view?

 

[Tranona]

If it's cruise-liners then I would suspect it's simply to give the passengers a better view?

See post #12

 

[alancollins]

I won't swear this is true but I heard years ago that QE2 once went out through the west Solent at high water springs and put her bow wave over the wall at Yarmouth, causing lots of damage to boats moored in the harbour and costing P&O lots of money. She was ordered to go round the Nab after that. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[grumpy_o_g]

See post #12

I consider myself suitably educated. I would have thought it was only the stupid-sized block of flats ones that wouldn't fit through there though? Not having gone through there in anything over 43 foot and less than 6 foot draft I've never really noticed the width of the channel too much. At what point does something become so big that it's considered to take up too much of the channel? It's not a place I'd want to have to take avoiding action in if conditions weren't benign.

 

[Tranona]

Worth looking at the chart to get a feel for the shape of the bottom and width of the channel. Suspect that the reluctance of larger vessels to go through there is as much to do with the need for the turn to go through Hurst narrows with the well know disturbed water and then again at Bridge. Not sure draft is an issue even with large cruise ships, more the small margin for error.

My observation about why QE2 went that way came from speaking to somebody in their marketing department. The ship was well known for going to scenic places others avoided. Part of the appeal.

 

[Frogmogman]

Always looking for variations I devised one that required a road bridge built out of A4 sheets of paper and clips to go from Hurst castle to Fort Albert to scale 1:1000. The distance between the 2 is just about 1km and the bridge had to allow an air draft of 150m at MHW over the centre part where the water was 50m deep so that the QE2 could pass (it was a long time ago!) . So 1m long, 15cm high.

Could your bridge be made to work at Hammersmith ?

 

[Daedelus]

I wonder if this could have anything to do with it?

Many years back I was happily pottering around in W Solent when the following messages came along:
Foreign accent, very worried "All ships, all ships, all ships, this is motor vessel X coming up the West channel in the Solent" - repeated twice.
Solent CG, "motor vessel X, do you have a problem sir"
Foreign accent, worried but hopeful of help "CG we are coming up the West channel and there are thousands of yachts"
Solent CG, reassuringly "Don't you worry sir, you just keep to the deep water channel and they'll get out of your way"

Nothing further heard from anyone. So presumably everybody did.

 

[Stemar]

So presumably everybody did.

Except for that one bloke who said, "Steam gives way to sail". That's right, he's the same one that expected you to get out his way because he's racing

 

[penfold]

If it's the most famous recent one hopefully he got cashiered as SNLR.

 

[Tranona]

Could your bridge be made to work at Hammersmith ?

Probably stronger than the existing one! Interesting that most teams tried to replicate a real bridge making trough shaped spans. Successful ones used the properties of the paper and the spans were either triangular or tubular. Not much good for cars - but then the specification did not call for that!

 

[DJE]

I also remember a tanker (small one not huge crude oil carrier) going aground outside Lymington some time in the early noughties.

 

[girlofwight]

Within the last few years we’ve been on Cunard Queen Victoria and/or Queen Elizabeth when they’ve used Needles channel to enter or leave Solent. ISTR it was due to dredging on the Eastern approaches for new aircraft carriers.

So it still happens from time to time.

 

[Adios]

Many years ago I was a regular visitor to IOW using the Lymington/Yarmouth ferry as I ran management development courses at the hotel in Freshwater Bay. If you have been on such courses you might have done team building exercises making structures out of Lego or paper and paper clips.

Thread drift sorry but can't resist. Finally someone who might appreciate mine and number 1 sons 6 sheets of paper and some tape bridge that beat all comers at the 3 days Big Bang engineering careers fare at the NEC!

Proudest point of my paper engineering career. Lots of people knew how bits of bridges should look but the fanciest bridges were usually very weak, poor choices were made considering the material on offer. Its a shame management courses spoil the pure fun of this sort of thing by making it all about working as a team against the clock. Architecting isn't a rushed team sport. But its a nice break from the powerpoints

 

[Tranona]

Very impressive. My teams were not allowed Sellotape, just paperclips! The interesting thing about this kind of exercise is exploring the team dynamics. My MBA groups had the usual mix from engineers to social workers and everything in between plus a typical male/female 50%. Lego towers were actually better because not only could you get more variety , but the task was scored with a trade off or height against number of bricks - shown on a graph to confuse the non numerates. Typical behaviours had males excluding females in the design process and engineers designing complex structures with lots of buttresses for example. Often females built the highest scoring towers that were inelegant and unstable but stood up long enough to be measured! Apologies for the stereotyping but that was one of the issues the task was designed to explore. Nothing better than experiencing it rather than being told it exists in a lecture.

The actual exercise was part of a string of 4 or 5 consecutive activities designed to raise issues of individual and collective decision making for discussion rather than trying to "prove" that either teams were good or one method of working was better than another.

 

[PilotWolf]

I believe that it was/is due to charging by the ‘council’.

W

 

[burgundyben]

Leaving through Hurst a few mins ago.