Winter deliveries

[jff]

I have been offered a delivery from Hamburg to the Canaries in a new 43ft yacht. The good part is that if I keep the owner happy, I can continue to the Carib for a few months and possibly into the Pacific after that.

The bad part is the boat wont be ready until November, probably December by the time I'm happy with it. The other bad part is that I have zero experience in the North Sea, and I'm not at all sure that winter is a good time to be getting it!

Is this worthwhile considering, or are the conditions likely to be too nasty/dangerous?

 

[ChrisE]

I'm not the world's expert on the North Sea but last year we tried to bring our boat back from Cuxhaven, which is close to Hamburg, to The Solent in November and were defeated by a run on strong westerlies (not unusual at that yime of year). The first real weather window of eastelies didn't appear until March.....

 

[AliM]

The German Bight is nasty in westerlies as Chris says. If you are willing to sit and wait (perhaps for a week or so) in Cuxhaven so that you can get out of the Elbe, then you'll probably be OK. The pilot books advise against doing that bit in NW F6 or above. You can always duck into the canals from Deftziel and emerge at IJmuiden or even further south, all with the mast up. In good weather, it's a lovely sail along the Fresian islands - don't expect to go inside the line of the islands unless you have shallow draft and time it very carefully.

 

[capnsensible]

My experience of these have generally been ok if you are extremely patient. There are generally calmer periods where you can make some progress but be prepared for short hops plus a lot of hanging about for the right weather. Can be a bit demoralising, just hanging about, but better safe! Will be cold though, right down to the Canaries.
Good luck!

 

[jff]

Thanks for the replies. I figured that a fair amount of waiting would be involved.
Its possible that we could get the boat delivered to the Dutch coast, would that improve the situation?

Capnsensible, do the short hops include going inside Biscay, or short hops to Falmouth, then wait for weather to get across it?

 

[Pye_End]

Getting the boat out of the Elbe and to Holland could potentially save you a fair amount of time waiting for a weather window. Reaching down the Dutch coast even in a strong wind in a well found boat may well still be pretty uncomfortable, but not nearly as dangerous as the Elbe.