Small sailboats visiting Portsmouth Harbour

dancrane said:
My knowledge of Portsmouth Harbour is picking up car & foot ferries to the I o W. So, I was looking at Google maps to see if there's a landing place near the railway station, to come alongside in the type of boat Mr Claus may send me sometime before next summer...

...and in terms of convenience, the large ramp just north of the station looked ideal. Why is it only for worst enemies? :confused: I mentioned Gosport as the obvious alternative, if the 'rail-terminal hard' is rendered unsuitable by the necessity to ignore QHM rules.

All I'm wanting to know, is where (close to the station) is the best safe, reasonably secure place to stop while I meet people getting off the train. No desire to obstruct busy areas or break anyone's rules. Aren't visitors required to give advance notice before tying up and leaving a boat in the Camber Dock or Gunwharf?
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Which is nothing to do with DanCranes' original question, - and he's a clued up, decent sailor unlikely to cause a ferry to steam flat out onto the rocks -

but you and I got distracted; let's please leave it, I'm sure Dan got the message by about the time VHF channel 11 was mentioned ! :)
 
I'm delighted to see the interest taken in my little problem, which mayn't even be a problem, according to my eventual choice of boat. It's certainly true that after many decades of occasionally using the ferries from Gunwharf, I feel a familiarity with the entrance which I've dared to think of as working knowledge...but I don't even know the typical rates of flow at the entrance.

My supposition was that I might come whooshing in, late in the flood, crossing from the small boat channel to any place convenient for the railway station, or indeed onward and up to the interesting northern channels, later relying on the ebb when I want to leave.

I'll feel inclined to get away with oars rather than engine if possible, because I've always believed that a really efficient hull and rig, especially in a very small boat, needn't rely on the weight, noise, cost and complexity of an engine...but I can see that where Portsmouth Harbour is concerned, that attitude is like being determined to take a bicycle on a motorway...:rolleyes:

My sincere gratitude for all opinions/suggestions/warnings and the varied reports of Portsmouth as a welcoming/challenging/threatening port of call! :D I'll be sure to record my thrills and spills and offer them here for the entertainment & benefit of future would-be unengined visitors. :)
 
dancrane said:
I'm delighted to see the interest taken in my little problem, which mayn't even be a problem, according to my eventual choice of boat. It's certainly true that after many decades of occasionally using the ferries from Gunwharf, I feel a familiarity with the entrance which I've dared to think of as working knowledge...but I don't even know the typical rates of flow at the entrance.

My supposition was that I might come whooshing in, late in the flood, crossing from the small boat channel to any place convenient for the railway station, or indeed onward and up to the interesting northern channels, later relying on the ebb when I want to leave.

I'll feel inclined to get away with oars rather than engine if possible, because I've always believed that a really efficient hull and rig, especially in a very small boat, needn't rely on the weight, noise, cost and complexity of an engine...but I can see that where Portsmouth Harbour is concerned, that attitude is like being determined to take a bicycle on a motorway...:rolleyes:

My sincere gratitude for all opinions/suggestions/warnings and the varied reports of Portsmouth as a welcoming/challenging/threatening port of call! :D I'll be sure to record my thrills and spills and offer them here for the entertainment & benefit of future would-be unengined visitors. :)[/QUOTE

as you mention that you would assume to use the flood and ebb I think you would be fine engineless.

A wind on the nose in the entrance would require only a short period of tacking before you were swept in or out -

if it was blowing you might get dodgy wind against tide and nastiness around the entrance but assume if it was blowing and you are in a small boat you would not go anywhere apart from the pub.

If there was no wind or variable bits you will have zero in the lee of the blockhouse - if it was very still you might want oars or paddle or sweep rigged to keep steerage -

I have seen Victory class keel boats tack into the harbour on a busy sunny Saturday using the full width of the channel - which can be done without in anyway impeding commercial or other craft if done with due attention ....and skill.
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So it's just a joke that the Gosport ferry shouldn't be used late in the evening? I guess I too must have missed the humour in using serious sounding warnings to dissuade someone from using a perfectly safe and practical mode of transport which might facilitate them in achieving their objective. :rolleyes:
 
Seajet said:
Which is nothing to do with DanCranes' original question, - and he's a clued up, decent sailor unlikely to cause a ferry to steam flat out onto the rocks -
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Blagged my way onto the bridge of the Bilbao ferry as it came into Portsmouth through the narrow bit. What was in front of us but a blue ensigned yacht determinably tacking across the narrows and into harbour - until he got 5 blasts on the horn and scuttles into the shallows outside the channel. Good job he did because the ferry skipper had nowhere to go and said afterwards he would have had no option but to run the yacht down.
 
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