Which do you love best - Springs or Neaps ?

[alec]

I favours Neaps meself.

More chance of bucking tides, and less bounce from the wind against tide scenario.

I even try to pick neaps if I have a week's holiday.

But what do you like best ?






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[Mirelle]

I agree

Funnily enough, last season I started to think about this, and I came to the same conclusion.

My reasons all relate to the Thames estuary, where I usually sail

1. Neaps give you an ebb out to sea in the morning and a flood up to your anchorage at night. The flood back up to your mooring on Sunday can be particularly helpful!

2. If you are going to go aground in a river on the ebb, you will do so in the morning and refloat in the afternoon, which is better than going aground in the afternoon and refloating at an Ungodly Hour!

3. If you go aground in a river at High Water, there is no risk of being there for a fortnight.

4. There is more water than the chart says, everywhere, all the time.

5. Struggling over bars against the tide is slightly easier.

6. Slightly less wind over tide chop.

7. More chance of getting dinghy to and from hard without getting muddy.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Mirelle on 19/01/2004 23:56 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[whisper]

Re: I agree

Varies according to where I'm going and what time I expect to get there. If exploring somewhere shallow, like up a river, then prefer to do that on a rising spring. If I want access to somewhere for the greatest no. of hours then often neaps are better. Don't therefore have a favourite - it's sea horses for courses.

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[kingfisher]

Neaps, as they have LW in the morning and HW around 1500h, so that way I can sail towards the mouth of the Westerschelde.

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[Peppermint]

Re: Depends where I am

East Coast Neaps, Solent I like springs, West Coast of Scotland, were you can ride a tide for up to ten hours Springs.

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[AndrewB]

Similar thinking, different conclusion.

Nicely put, Mirelle. Here on the south coast it's a bit different though.

Springs ... tide goes west down Channel in the morning, east in the afternoon. No problems getting out if I arrive a bit late. Coming home from the west is with the prevailing wind.

Neaps ... tide goes east up Channel in the morning, west in the afternoon. Arrive late and the lock has shut. East has less interesting destinations in the summer, but better fishing grounds in the winter.

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[Romeo]

depends where I\'m going

I prefer springs when the tide is with me, and neaps when I have to make a destination up tide!!

I take what I am given, but if booking a summer weekend away I usually go for neaps because of their weekend timing. Nearly all the harbours in my area are tidal, available on average 3 hours either side of HW. Neaps give me a longer days sailing as the tide will be out of the harbours when I am making passage during the day and in when I want to make land fall in the evening. On the other hand with the short days of winter I want springs for weekend day sailing. All to do with timing, rather than the strength of the tide.

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[Romeo]

Re: depends where I\'m going

tide is also a big factor in deciding where to go and when to go. Obviously a factor for everyone but more so for those of us that sail without engines.

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[alec]

Re: I agree

You make some very good additional points that I had not thought of.

I sail mainly on the East Coast now and if the wind is free from say the Blackwater or Colne , against neaps, you can still have a nice sail up the coast in a F3 or so. It’s fun to keep well inshore for a change to dodge the tide and you see many things you haven’t seen before. You can then take a nice big shortcut to the Walton Backwaters over the sands.

The Crouch/Ray trip to the Colne/Blackwater is another trip that seems to work out well.

I would love to go through Havengore near the top of a neap to Southend but have never tried it. I draw 4’ 6” and have been told that this is too much.

Thanks for all the replies . Great to here other peoples’s ideas.



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[longjohnsadler]

Re: I agree

The following rather confuses me - tho admittedly its late at night:
The tides are related to the moon - (ok as well as the sun) - which has a different cycle to the earth rotation/daylength cycle.
Yet in this part of the world HW Springs is never in the middle of the day. Ever.
How does that work then? Or am I working on the Two Short Planks Theory?

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[FlyingSpud]

Re: I agree

It doesn’t ‘just’ relate to the sun and moon, don’t forget the earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours, so it makes sense that springs tie up at the same time of day in each area

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[peterb]

Re: I agree

Yes, tides are largely governed by the moon. But spring tides happen when the sun and moon are lined up (or more precisely about one to two days after they are lined up), so the spring tide times can be specified by either lunar or solar times.

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[AndrewB]

Times of spring tides

It just so happens that right the way round the coast from the Solent around to the Thames Estuary, the two largest yachting centres in England, high tides occur at much the same time of day, and spring tides always occur in early afternoon between about 1230 and 1430 GMT. Other places can be quite different!

Its always been like this, as long as I've been sailing, but maybe over centuries it changes.

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[EME]

Urrgghh?

Excuse me being stupid, but the greatest fun has to be derived from avoiding either .. i.e. boating in areas ( eg Med . High Seas ) where these do not apply.

A NEW THREAD >>> 'What are the key features of boating>>>>> would, I respectfully suggest , show that Neaps v Springs is not in Top 50 'needs'.

But then again I am frequently wrong !\

Top of my needs woulde Sun .... if I were sailing ( force 3-4 as in beginner)... no wind over tide ...


All IMHO

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[Mirelle]

The Establishment of the Port

Not by much.

You can find long case clocks made in seaport towns 200 and more years ago which show, rather than the phases of the moon, the "Time of High Water at ..."

"High Water Full and Change", or "the Establishment of the Port" to use an even older expression, that is to say the time of high water at full moon and change of moon, for any given place, is fixed by the time that the crests of the pair of waves caused by the Moon's gravity, which are almost static as the planet revolves beneath them, reach the place concerned, when the Sun and Moon are either both on the same side of the planet or on opposite sides of it.

24 hours in a day, and 28 days in a Lunar month; nothing much to change there!

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[charles_reed]

Springs

I've had some fantastic runs from N Wales to S Brittany (and back) by getting the tidal gates right.

As for preferring the grotty tideless waters of the Med - I'm stuck there now, nothing like as good as the Atlantic.

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