tillergirl
Well-Known Member
Terry Corner is going to submit some comments to the RYA for feedback into the Trinity House 2010 review of aids to navigation. There is one proposal that affects the Estuary and that is the removal of the buoyage marking the Knob Channel. That is discontinuence of the NE and SE Knob, Tizard and the Shingles Mid, N, NW and Patch buoys. Seven in total.
As you will know since the removal of the North Edinburgh buoyage. the Knob Channel really doesn’t lead into any complementary marked channel. As it is at the moment anybody wanting to use the North or South Edinburgh has got to rely on GPS and also trust that the sands have not shifted much. Given that the Edinburgh Channels are arguably the most altered part of the Estuary in the last 80 years that trust could be said to be rather optimistic!
Analysing it from a yachting point of view it is only the Crouch or Suffolk based yachts that are likely to be effected. Since the closure of the SW Sunk, most Blackwater and Colne boats use Fisherman’s or Foulger’s Gat having crossed the Sunk either adjacent to the Barrow No 2 or the Sunk beacon. So, probably of the Essex based boats it is only those in the Crouch who use the Barrow Swatch or the full West Swin who might be affected. Those using the Barrow Swatch have the problem of where to cross the SW Sunk with its heaps of metal from the old beacon lying in wait for a ready bilge and those using the full West Swin down to the Mouse are, I guess, more likely to use the Princes Channel rather than to shape northwards a little again. So I think it’s pretty unlikely that this is going to have a major impact. It does of course give us an easy option to keep out of the Knock John if there is a lot of shipping about. I have to say though that I've never done that.
As for the Suffolk Rivers, there is a potential route to the Kent Rivers down the Black Deep, nipping between the Long Sand and Tizard (currently easy with the Black Deep No 12 and Tizard) into the Knob Channel. This puts them in good shape for the Spaniard to negotiate the Wind Farm. The proposed discontinuence would certainly make that a GPS exercise rather than a visual pilotage one but I guess it would be a fair argument for Trinity House to point out that its expensive buoyage for a few when the same vessels could clear the Knock John Channel and then shape for the Spaniard (or indeed use the Barrow Deep instead which is marginally shorter).
I would guess that these are pretty difficult proposals to argue against but it is a loss. Does anyone have any views that they would like to make. I will pass them onto Terry Corner so as to shape his response to the RYA.
There are, of course proposals in the same review to reduce Lowestoft Lighthouse to 18nm range, discontinue the red sectors of Southwold Lighthouse (expnding the white sector) and to discontinue Orfordness lighthouse.
As you will know since the removal of the North Edinburgh buoyage. the Knob Channel really doesn’t lead into any complementary marked channel. As it is at the moment anybody wanting to use the North or South Edinburgh has got to rely on GPS and also trust that the sands have not shifted much. Given that the Edinburgh Channels are arguably the most altered part of the Estuary in the last 80 years that trust could be said to be rather optimistic!
Analysing it from a yachting point of view it is only the Crouch or Suffolk based yachts that are likely to be effected. Since the closure of the SW Sunk, most Blackwater and Colne boats use Fisherman’s or Foulger’s Gat having crossed the Sunk either adjacent to the Barrow No 2 or the Sunk beacon. So, probably of the Essex based boats it is only those in the Crouch who use the Barrow Swatch or the full West Swin who might be affected. Those using the Barrow Swatch have the problem of where to cross the SW Sunk with its heaps of metal from the old beacon lying in wait for a ready bilge and those using the full West Swin down to the Mouse are, I guess, more likely to use the Princes Channel rather than to shape northwards a little again. So I think it’s pretty unlikely that this is going to have a major impact. It does of course give us an easy option to keep out of the Knock John if there is a lot of shipping about. I have to say though that I've never done that.
As for the Suffolk Rivers, there is a potential route to the Kent Rivers down the Black Deep, nipping between the Long Sand and Tizard (currently easy with the Black Deep No 12 and Tizard) into the Knob Channel. This puts them in good shape for the Spaniard to negotiate the Wind Farm. The proposed discontinuence would certainly make that a GPS exercise rather than a visual pilotage one but I guess it would be a fair argument for Trinity House to point out that its expensive buoyage for a few when the same vessels could clear the Knock John Channel and then shape for the Spaniard (or indeed use the Barrow Deep instead which is marginally shorter).
I would guess that these are pretty difficult proposals to argue against but it is a loss. Does anyone have any views that they would like to make. I will pass them onto Terry Corner so as to shape his response to the RYA.
There are, of course proposals in the same review to reduce Lowestoft Lighthouse to 18nm range, discontinue the red sectors of Southwold Lighthouse (expnding the white sector) and to discontinue Orfordness lighthouse.
