Solent to Brighton - When to go around Selsey Bill?

[vandy]

Hi, We are planning a trip to Brighton from Solent. I have done this passage in the past in Mobo and always used to plan it so I have slack water near Selsey Bill - but now we want to catch the tide from the Solent all the way to brighton (or close to it) - so I was wondering how bad rough Selsey bill gets (say in F4-F5) I have always kept between those green/red buoys... thanks for advice.

 

[Benny257]

Depending which end of the Solent you're in, and what your sailing, carrying the tide all the way may be optimistic. I sailed Chichester to Brighton this Sunday on neaps. We had slack water around West Pole and wind on the nose all the way to the Looe Channel (the green / red buoys ). Then it was one long close reach all the way to Brighton, most of it at 6-7knts OG and we just made it one one tide.

I've not been through the Looe in an F5, but better sailors than me have told me not to.

If it's rough, it might be best to stay South of the Looe Channel and go south of the Owers but it is longer. Hope this helps.

 

[Iliade]

The Owers bank can draw the teeth of a running sea so I normally go through the Looe if it is windy and only outside if I have messed up the tides.
The sea crashing on the bank can be spectacular to watch too!

The tide through the Looe can be very strong (>5kt?) but I have never known it to be overly rough in said strong-flowing section, presumably because it is deep.

There is something of an eddy inshore around Shoreham so though a fair tide is not guaranteed all the way, but by the time you get to the Shoreham 'bay' it is not that strong anyway.

http://www.visitmyharbour.com/articles/3173/hourly-tidal-streams-english-channel-east

 

[ip485]

I have been through the Looe many times, so have some knowledge.

Inevitably the size of boat will be a factor.

For me up to a F5 as a general rule of thumb is fine. Anymore and I would probaby plan to go round.

Obvioulsy the direction of the wind has a huge impact, with a northerly having little effect on the passage, and an easterly potentially the greatest.

I usually expect to carry that passage on a tide BUT you probably need to plan to average about 7 knots.

At LW the charts are accurate and there isnt a huge clearance between the buoys.

 

[DJE]

I did it a few times in the previous boat which made about 5.5 knots on average on passage. By getting to the Street and Boulder buoys at the west end of the Looe Channel about 4 hours after HW Portsmouth (when the tide turns east) I could carry one tide all the way to Beachy Head.

 

[laika]

I did it a few times in the previous boat which made about 5.5 knots on average on passage. By getting to the Street and Boulder buoys at the west end of the Looe Channel about 4 hours after HW Portsmouth (when the tide turns east) I could carry one tide all the way to Beachy Head.

The tide is more significant between the solent and selsey than it is at the Brighton end. I tend to think you usually minimize trip duration leaving the solent approaching slack, getting a decent push round selsey and dealing with any adverse tide at the other end as necessary. I wouldn't bet on making it in a single tide: with a couple of angles to sail you can guarantee the wind will either be on the nose or straight behind you at some point.

I tend to think the "dangers" of the Looe are exaggerated. It's a long way round the outside and there are more and bigger waves. Sure it can get a bit choppy with tide against a significant breeze but If it's too bad to go through the looe I probably woldn't have left Chichester or Brighton

 

[LadyInBed]

I've only been that way once and that was going West but according to the Tide Charts Slack Water is around HW Dover +5 (HW Portsmouth +4½) so that's when I wound aim to be there.

 

[ip485]

FWIW and despite my earlier comment my windiest is top end of a F6, gusting F7 - my boat is a fair size (55 feet and 23 odd tons, so takes most things in her stride. There was a quite confused sea and some steep waves especially approaching the bouys were the water cascades over the shallows, but it was fine. In something smaller I guess it would be pretty wet.

Some of us may recall that was were Morning Cloud met her fate in the depths of the night without Ted on board in pretty dreadful weather.

 

[johnalison]

I agree with laika that the Looe has acquired a worse reputation than it deserves. I'm not saying that it should be treated lightly but that part of the problem was related to the difficulty in finding one's way through it. With GPS this shouldn't concern anyone. I have been through a number of times and in normal wimp-sailor weather have seen nothing unusual, the choppiest perhaps being when motor-sailing west against a f5-6 with the tide.

 

[Iliade]

My 24' & 26' boats always lapped up the Looe's slop. I suspect that your 55' and 23t may actually be the problem. With a longer boat you need a longer wavelength or you could get wet and the mass will also affect her ability to ride waves.

I once crewed on an Australian built 65' steel charter boat. In something like a F6 off Brighton she behaved like a submarine and I had to keep scurrying up the forestay to avoid getting immersed!

I would never try to stem the tide at the Looe as I have anchored just outside the channel when becalmed and the rode was like an iron bar!

 

[ip485]

My 24' & 26' boats always lapped up the Looe's slop. I suspect that your 55' and 23t may actually be the problem. With a longer boat you need a longer wavelength or you could get wet and the mass will also affect her ability to ride waves.

I once crewed on an Australian built 65' steel charter boat. In something like a F6 off Brighton she behaved like a submarine and I had to keep scurrying up the forestay to avoid getting immersed!

I would never try to stem the tide at the Looe as I have anchored just outside the channel when becalmed and the rode was like an iron bar!

Yes, that may well be true of some. I am lucky to have a CC and the IP really just seems to take almsot anything in her stride. I am sure the Looe could cause her to hesitate in some conditions but I expect it would be the crew that would become stressed well before she would.

24 footer at times may be seriously interesting however light the boat may simply not be able to ride over such short steep waves adequately and you really would take a lot of water - but each to their own. I have sailed and owned a lot of yachts and loved my GK24 especially, but there would be conditions I would think twice about taking the GK through that I wouldnt give a moments thought in the IP.

 

[Seajet]

My 24' & 26' boats always lapped up the Looe's slop. I suspect that your 55' and 23t may actually be the problem. With a longer boat you need a longer wavelength or you could get wet and the mass will also affect her ability to ride waves.

I once crewed on an Australian built 65' steel charter boat. In something like a F6 off Brighton she behaved like a submarine and I had to keep scurrying up the forestay to avoid getting immersed!

I would never try to stem the tide at the Looe as I have anchored just outside the channel when becalmed and the rode was like an iron bar!

I don't know if you chose that phrase knowingly, but some editions of 'Heavy Weather Sailing ' mention the large yacht ' Bloodhound ( sometimes used by the Royal family ) which was nearly driven onto Selsey in the big gale of 1957; the pro' crew deployed the anchor as a last ditch effort, it held - when they came to recover her the next day the chain rode was stretched and set solid like a bar :ambivalence:

 

[johnalison]

1956, when the training ship Moyana was nearly lost but rescued. I don't remember the Bloodhound story but a number of lives were lost, with some accounts in Heavy Weather Sailing. We had a sailing match on Barton Broad that weekend. The Saturday was quiet and normal but Sunday was chaos. I think that we all capsized even though the racing was in the back channels and all racing rules suspended.

 

[Seajet]

We saw Bloodhound years later at Cobbs Quay, she had two big fisherman anchors - I think this is what saved her, being able to penetrate through weed and grab onto the Selsey rocks.

Not intending to start another anchor argument, just an example where a ' pointy kedge ' may be handy.