Solent Sailing Yachts Admonished

Yotties pretending they are Admiral Nelson in the Solent!!!! I never heard anything so outrageous. Anyway, they only make small dents on the ships as they go 'splat'.

I find that on the rare occasions I sail in the Solent the ships chase me...or at least it sometimes feels like that. Yotties who insist on playing in the ship turning area (handbrake on, wheel hard a starboard) as they enter Southampton, deserve all the criticism they get. I think thats whats got ABP a bit wound up, and rightly so.

Tim
 
I very much doubt that many skippers deliberately try to stand on across a big commercial vessel. I suspect there are many cases of boats pushing the tide and misjudging their speed. I have had to start my engine and scuttle off before now, normally in plenty of time, and then wondered if I could have carried on sailing. If a yacht is racing (which I don't) I can imagine it could be a very difficult call at times. As the letter says, it can be very difficult to judge the speed of a massive container ship when it is turning north of Cowes.
 
What I cannot understand is the statement that the Master and Pilot may be "blind" for up to 1000 metres ahead, and that it seems acceptable to HM .

What on earth is wrong with putting a man and a handheld vhf on the bows of a VLCC from the Nab inwards and through the congestion zone ?

Saily boats do the similar when at close quarters; perhaps there ought to be another definition in Colregs - a vessel constrained by its lack of vision.

I am also intrigued by the definition of a sailing vessel; even if you are a gert big fishing boat with a steadying sail.....
 
Well he is going to respond like that isnt he - he's a big ship master by training and he works for ABP who have no interest whatsoever in leisure sailing. Indeed, is ABP could close Southampton water to leisure boats I'm sure they would.

The level of risk is illustrated by the level of accidents . And there have been how many?

Arguably a commercial vessel that cant see less than 1000m ahead is unable to keep a watch as required by the colregs
 
Not really much point in having a lookout on the bow, as these types of boats couldn't stop in that distance, and hence the area of concern where you are required not to impede
 
OK, so linking in with another current thread about the cost of rescuers vs the rescued; what is the cost / value of an oil tanker and 15 crew and an oil spill in the Solent Spithead area, against that of Macgregor and 3 persons.

(Oh it's troll evening, so I won't mention about the preceding harbour launch with its blue lights...)

At what stage would a Master weigh up the financial and environmental consequences and say, "Sod it, Pilot, Full Ahead, but chuck over a lifebelt." ?
 
Having come into Southampton water on a big container ship I've see the problem at first hand...you really wouldn't believe that some yotties don't notice a chuffing great big container ship approaching them at 20 knots.....but they don't.
 
I don't think Jason is quite right. ABP have developed excellent Marinas at Ipswich and Lowestoft and I believe they have one at Fleetwood too. I thought the letter was very well put together and not over officious.
 
Once a large single-screw commercial vessel has commenced an approach to Southampton, she's essentially committed. All turns have to be planned hundreds of metres in advance, and actually are worked out a couple of weeks early.

There's no handbrake. There's no turning round and trying again later. We yotties do need to show 'em a bit more consideration. It cost us nuttin'.....

Let's have a culture of conspicuously 'keeping clear'.


;)
 
He's absolutely right.
If you know where the main channels are, you keep a lookout, and you think ahead, it really isn't a problem avoiding big ships in the Solent and Southampton Water. The trouble is there are lots of yotties out there who don't know where the channels and/or don't keep a good lookout and/or don't think far enough ahead. And these are precisely the people he won't reach with his letter. He's got to keep trying though I suppose.
 
Kurrawong_Kid said:
ABP have developed excellent Marinas at Ipswich and Lowestoft and I believe they have one at Fleetwood too.
Click to expand...

It's funny, though. The traffic into the Haven Ports (Harwich, Felixstowe, Ipswich, Mistley and Manningtree) is just as concentrated as that at Southampton, and the Landguard turn is as sharp as that of the Thorn Channel. But we very rarely see complaints from Harwich Harbour Authority. Where does the difference lie?
 
Well worded letter really.

Did you notice the date on it?

First I've seen of it so maybe it wasn't very well pubicised, and therefore a bit pointless.

Or maybe my head is in the sand.....
 
Elessar said:
Well worded letter really.

Did you notice the date on it?

First I've seen of it so maybe it wasn't very well pubicised, and therefore a bit pointless.

Or maybe my head is in the sand.....
Click to expand...

It's been on these forums before, the first time very shortly after it was first published.
 
bilbobaggins said:
Once a large single-screw commercial vessel has commenced an approach to Southampton, she's essentially committed. All turns have to be planned hundreds of metres in advance, and actually are worked out a couple of weeks early.

There's no handbrake. There's no turning round and trying again later. We yotties do need to show 'em a bit more consideration. It cost us nuttin'.....

Let's have a culture of conspicuously 'keeping clear'.


;)
Click to expand...

Indeed, for every alteration of course they need to plot the advance, which is the distance from the point where the old and new courses meet where the turn needs to start, and the transfer which is the point on the new course where the ship will actually come onto the new course having actually sailed an arc cutting the corner. And yes the advance and transfer (which varies according to speed and rudder angle) can be considerable distances.
 
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