St Albans Head Inside Passage

[WestwardBound]

I have a request for local knowledge, assuming that the wind is from W or SW what is the max windstrength you think would be prudent to take the inside passage westbound at St Albans Head ? Desination Portland. It would be early next week so not Springs.
I would do it bang on slack water or very near to.
The boat is a 12M sloop, I was planning to do it under power if wind from that quarter. I have a rope cutter and with wind from W, SW if fouled we could get jib up quickly to egress to the East.
I've gone through in inside eastbound in very settled conditions which was fine of course. I'm aware that the overfalls can be massive over the ledge.
I was thinking that F4,5 should be doable, I was thinking that if F6 forecast it would be quite likely to gust F7 around the headlands which might be a little sporty. Obviously with wind against tide the long way around in F6 would not be a smooth ride either.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I have a request for local knowledge, assuming that the wind is from W or SW what is the max windstrength you think would be prudent to take the inside passage westbound at St Albans Head ? Desination Portland. It would be early next week so not Springs.
I would do it bang on slack water or very near to.
The boat is a 12M sloop, I was planning to do it under power if wind from that quarter. I have a rope cutter and with wind from W, SW if fouled we could get jib up quickly to egress to the East.
I've gone through in inside eastbound in very settled conditions which was fine of course. I'm aware that the overfalls can be massive over the ledge.
I was thinking that F4,5 should be doable, I was thinking that if F6 forecast it would be quite likely to gust F7 around the headlands which might be a little sporty. Obviously with wind against tide the long way around in F6 would not be a smooth ride either.

There is a passage inside the race (when going East), where the current is running East when the main tide is running west. You can go very close into the rocks there, and it is generally flat calm. This route will save you hours in a westerly flowing tide. Of course you will generally be on a lee shore, so beware that any failure could lead to a problem.......

The race is further out and in a 5 you will find a series - about 4 standing waves which can be quite fun to go through! Its all over pretty quickly.

 

[Robin]

We once went round westwards inshore in a F7 in the midst of the Round Britain Powerboat Race, we were in an Elizabethan 30 and this was 25 years or more ago. It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't at slack water. Swanage lifeboat had towed in several powerboats that couldn't handle it and we (under sail) passed several that had slowed almost to a standstill in the conditions, just letting the tide carry them through. Not recommended!

That said what you want to do is possible with good timing. There is an inshore back eddy tide that runs along from Studland past Peveril and Anvil Point to St Albans, from about 1.5 hours before HW Dover, slack at St Albans is about 30 mins before HW Dover. This eddy is very close inshore but it gets you there nicely for slack water turning west and is ideal for a trip past Portland across Lyme Bay. The eddy tide is weak, almost nothing compared to farther out. In your case it would allow you to approach the inshore passage with the inshore eddy tide not holding you back and not kicking up quite such a bad seastate. Once you get to St Albans you MUST keep close in (spitting distance!) and stay in or head up into the bay for a bit before peeling off for Portland. If you do get in the rough bits let the tide take you though rather than pounding into it under engine, unless your teeth are firmly stuck in.

Personally if wanting to head westbound I think stopping at Portland or Weymouth unless you really want to go there is a waste of time. We used to make Dartmouth from Poole in 10hrs give or take by using the back eddy, if we averaged 6kts. We did that easily in a Westerly 33 and later even more easily in a Sun Legende 41.

 

[WestwardBound]

Thanks for reply guys,
it looks like it is likely to be a 5 or so which sounds do-able.
regards
Dave

 

[duncan]

note 'spitting distance'

if you don't know the waters (and rocks) well then the simple answer is to run 'just inside the rough stuff'

I run so tight I have to move out 10yds to avoid rocks at 2 points!

There are back eddies both sides of the head - the largest being the one Robin refers to; and it's the most relevant to sailing craft and passage making, the westerly one off Chapmans Pool being more relevant to fishing.

There's no eddy directly off the head.

For the last 5 years there have been a couple of pot ends right in the middle of what most consider the inshore passage - they may well be under when the tides running fully, esp on the ebb.

 

[KREW2]

I came back to Portland from Poole in June, there was no wind so it was going to be a motor job, and I decided to go inside even though we were going to hit St Albans in the third and fourth hour of tide. As I approached I could see 3mtr waves and no inside passage, now 3 meters is ok as a swell, but when they are only 3 meters apart it is a bit bumpy to say the least. It only lasted for 2 /3 minutes and we were doing 8 knts SOG so it wasn't long before we were spat out the other side.
Do it at slack water only.

 

[aslabend]

St Albans Ledge.... cautionary tale

I agree with the previous poster, on a calm day the race is innocuous if rather lumpy but be warned. I got "caught out" (no I didn't, it was my own stupid fault) once and ended up going through it in a force 5/6 wind against tide just off springs and it was not funny. I now treat it with the respect I really wish I'd shown it then. By comparison I've been through the Pentland Firth, rounded Cape wrath, been through the Corryvreckan & rounded Portland Bill any number of times but made sure I got the tide and weather right each time so they were fine. The one time I was on a tight schedule and thought.... "I've got to go for it, it's only St Albans ledge....." was probably my biggest learning experience and one I will only ever do once but remember forever. They say adrenalin is brown....

 

[duncan]

I came back to Portland from Poole in June............. As I approached I could see 3mtr waves and no inside passage..............

Do it at slack water only.

It's always there, but if people are looking for an 'interstate wide, glassy smooth straight track' they won't see it.

It's more like a narrow country lane and, if you just lean out a little, at times you can pick mussels off the exposed rocks as you go by....but I'm not endorsing this approach; it's a fisherman's route most of the time, for those that know the depth of each actual lump of barnacled rock at each state of the tide. I frequently see boats running in almost the worst of the conditions by coming in to about 50m from the rocks (although they will be shorter lived than 1000m off).

Not sure what you mean by 'do it at slack water' - the race only extends 7 miles and, unless you are using the inshore eddy between Durlston and St Albans against a flood first or heading into Chapman's Pool/Lullworth etc you are better off simply running wide all the way and back round into Weymouth, or stay wide outside St Albans and Portland races.

I do agree that the holes created can be some of the worst anywhere - whilst Portland can have the worst of the wave height and confused nature found off Alderney at times.

 

[laika]

Not sure what you mean by 'do it at slack water'

Last monday was pretty calm elsewhere (smooth-ish, ssw F1/2) when we hit the inside passage westbound somewhat later than intended with a springy flood tide winding up under us. Not 3m waves but it was certainly choppy. We were less than a cable off but it looked lumpy all the way in (perhaps due to the south in what little breeze there was?). Fine and *very* fast in those conditions and certainly more comfortable than it looked a little further to seaward, but based on that experience alone (My first time with the inside passage) I'd agree with KREW2 and be suspicious of doing it with a big tide and a moderate onshore or head wind

 

[KREW2]

I've done it several times, and always at slack water, or with a tide that was in my favour. If I havn't been in close enough it is only a modest chop for a few minutes.
Coming back from The Round the Island was fine, going was fine, we flew through with the spinnaker up.
Coming back from Poole early June was flat and windless until we reached St Albans head, still no wind but big seas, the first 3/4 waves took the prop out of the water as we dipped. Maybe I wasn't in close enough, however it was close enough for me.

 

[Fergus]

If you cut northwards after the point watch out for kimmeridge ledge - you can guess why I'm warning you!!

 

[jimi]

If you cut northwards after the point watch out for kimmeridge ledge - you can guess why I'm warning you!!

Yup , it creeps up on you surprisingly quickly!

 

[KREW2]

If you cut northwards after the point watch out for kimmeridge ledge - you can guess why I'm warning you!!

The annoying thing for us, was after getting a kicking to save a few miles, we were sent screaming south west by the firing range boat, to take us 5 miles outside Lulworth.

 

[WestwardBound]

We did take the inshore passage headed West, quite close in, but no way as close as 50m, perhaps more like 100 to 200m off the rocks. To my eye it did not look calmer closer in. It was F2,F3 from SW and just on the ebb as we were running about 20 minutes late. So there was by now wind against tide.
A very slight swell was coming in from SW but around the head it was mounting up into quite short steep waves, more than 2 but probably lesss than 3 metres. We were under power so as recommended cut the boat speed down to reduce the drama. We are 12 metres and the boat was pitching over the waves and the decks got quite wet. Not much slamming when boat speed cut to something like 3,4 knots and SOG around 6. It did not feel out of control but we were all a bit amazed because there was not much wind. Once past the headland the waves were slight.
Having seen this I think I would not go in there in more than F4 from SW against any tide.
The conditions were much worse earlier in the week between Egypt point off Cowes and Needles Channel with F5 wind against tide. The waves were ludicrously short and steep. We decided to give the Needles Channel a miss and put into Lymington. We were all fed up with it by the time we got to Lymington and perfectly content to head in.
On the way back headed East around St Albans the wind was from the NE F2,F3 and off the land, we went offshore because we had missed the slack water. We cut the corner quite a lot because even with wind against tide it was very smooth seas. I presume this is becuase there was little swell.

 

[KREW2]

Told you, sounds a bit like my last experience, only we had no wind at all
A light wind over tide is not the worst scenario round St Albans head. It's the 3rd and 4th hours of tidal run that causes the the big waves as it runs over the undersea ridge.
I have rounded the head on the inshore route, and outside quite a few times, and no two trips have been the same.

 

[duncan]

as Krew says it's predominantly a tidal influence, with any wind against simply steepening the wave forms.

so you are back to the simplicity of tidal flow. Tuesday last week would have had a lot more flow than the weekend; and of course the weekend tides will have a slow start to them too, whilst Tuesday would be more like a switch!

As said earlier, 50, 100, 200m are all well outside any inshore passage - 200m is probably about as bad as you can go because the combined acceleration effect from the headland is going over basically the same seabed as further out.

I can see I will have to go out and get some images of the area etc to illustrate next time the subject comes up.