Southwold

Athene V30

Athene V30

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Joined
20 Sep 2001
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Location
Playa del Ingles, Gran Canaria in Winter, the boat
Visit site
Been reading up and found this site....visitmyharbour.com

The description for Southwold is like many pilots and rather scary. I know Roger has been there - does it really deserve this reputation?

Once into the River Blyth you will be moving between timber staging moorings on either side, with the bulk of them to starboard.

Visitors moorings are past the easily recognisable boatyard on your starboard side, past the harbour master's hut, and more or less opposite The Harbour Inn. They consist of timber stagings, and you'll have to turn your vessel into the tide once you identify them.

:eek: Be wary if you are being swept up the river by a strong side... the fixed footbridge will be looming and you do not want to be ignominiously pinned against it. Right opposite the visitors moorings is a patch of riverbank devoid of stagings. The creative skipper could push the nose of his vessel into the mud on his port side, and let the rapidly flooding tide swing the stern of the boat around. Now facing into the tide and under perfect control the boat could be allowed to move backwards, using forward nudges to maintain steerage.....hmm sounds good on paper. Tried it once elsewhere out of necessity and it worked for me...

Once the boat is safely tied up drag the skipper over to The Harbour Inn, and let him down a pint of Adnams to soothe his frayed nerves....:cool:
 
Karouise said:
Been reading up and found this site....visitmyharbour.com

The description for Southwold is like many pilots and rather scary. I know Roger has been there - does it really deserve this reputation?

Once into the River Blyth you will be moving between timber staging moorings on either side, with the bulk of them to starboard.

Visitors moorings are past the easily recognisable boatyard on your starboard side, past the harbour master's hut, and more or less opposite The Harbour Inn. They consist of timber stagings, and you'll have to turn your vessel into the tide once you identify them.

:eek: Be wary if you are being swept up the river by a strong side... the fixed footbridge will be looming and you do not want to be ignominiously pinned against it. Right opposite the visitors moorings is a patch of riverbank devoid of stagings. The creative skipper could push the nose of his vessel into the mud on his port side, and let the rapidly flooding tide swing the stern of the boat around. Now facing into the tide and under perfect control the boat could be allowed to move backwards, using forward nudges to maintain steerage.....hmm sounds good on paper. Tried it once elsewhere out of necessity and it worked for me...

Once the boat is safely tied up drag the skipper over to The Harbour Inn, and let him down a pint of Adnams to soothe his frayed nerves....:cool:
Click to expand...

One need`s to polish-up on hand brake turns
 
went up there a few years ago, and didn't have any difficulty turning Tasman (12m LOA) before getting too close to the bridge. It's like pretty much everywhere else; you need to get your timing right so that you don't make life difficult for yourself by having to manoevre in tight spaces with significant flow. I found Rye to be much more difficult, trying to turn into Rock channel with 5kts of tide up your shirt was "interesting" to say the least
 
I work at the boatyard at Southwold and am on the water almost every day and frankly there really is all sorts of **** written about how difficult it is to navigate the entrance and river.

A strong (F5 +) onshore wind with an ebb tide will make it lumpy and create a couple of 1.5 to 2.5 standing waves.
Is that so different from any other river/harbour entrance ?

The prevailing wind is usually off shore or in the south so 99% of the time there will be no issues at all.
In the summer we get a sea breeze from around 14:00 to 17:00 (ish) but rarely will this be much more than a f4 and not enough to create any difficulties.

Turning round in the river is easy for any boat less than 50ft.
You have one great benefit and that is a tidal flow of around 2 to 3 knots, possibly 4 knt on springs.
Use the flow and you'll turn on a sixpence even if you're a heavy long keeler.

Sure you can put your nose on the mud but really the only time we do this is when the odd 40 to 50' sailing barge visits.

The bailey Bridge is a about a 1/4 mile up past the visitors moorings, it again is not a factor.

Getting in and out of the Ore or Deben is in my mind a far more daunting prospect.
 
We went there a couple of times, a few years ago. It was lovely and as Javelin says, it was really no problem.

We watched a large long keeled Dutch boat come in on the flood, and in order to turn, they dropped their anchor, slewed around neatly, then motored back to the stagings. They said they had been there before, and because they have a rather large turning circle, had used this strategy to turn.
 
Just do it. Close to heaven in my book. Will visit again this year all being well.

Speak to HM first. There are stagings where you might well be rafted up but also some alongside pontoons if you ask nicely. The stagings are near the pub which is good for loo access when they are open.

When we were there last year we found out why my home port was shown as Southwold - the first owner came from there and one of his crew came to say hi and put me in touch with his widow. Nice to find out the missing history.
 
Southwold was exciting to get into (it wasn't the best of conditions!) and fantastic once we were in. The tide runs fast and needs to be treated with respect but it wouldn't put me off going back again. And again
 
It is our favourite spot, yes entering is a bit tricky, but as Javelin says, not so bad as can be made out in some pilots.

Do go in at the right time, i.e. an hour after LW or before HW - depending on your draft of course, the flood is not running that fast but gives nice control when coming alongside. There is plenty of room to turn just above the stagings so you can then motor ahead to the berth. You just need to be practised at turning short round, we can do it easy in a long keeler so any fin keel should be a doodle. Other, mishandled yachts present the main problems!

The only real hazard is the entrance, if there is an onshore breeze of any strength then it can be pretty lumpy.
 
If it looks busy then give Harbour Marine Services (Southwold Boatyard) a phone.
http://www.harbourmarine.co.uk/
We usually have space and on the odd occasion we're full we know and control a number of stages you can use.
Also remember the Sailing Club bar opens during the summer months from around 19:00 and welcomes all,
We have showers and a loo's and CHEAP beer. :)
The club also has a pontoon.
If you want to come as a group contact the club and we could open up earlier.
During the week, do pop down to the yard and say hello, ask for "Mike".

btw, I noticed the bar had shifted in the last few weeks.
Once we get a decent day weather-wise, we'll go and pole the entrance to check depths.
We expect things to change this year as the new North harbour wall has been re-built and subsequently
the scouring flow will have changed as the river at that point is now some 4m narrower.
 
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