Worst Bar/Entrance In Uk?

  • Thread starter Thread starter C08
  • Start date Start date
paella said:
If I have to go aground would like to do it to the same musical score.
Click to expand...

I have been known, at tricky moments, to stand on the foredeck bellowing "Ich ... will ... mein ... Oper". I like to think that my crew find this endearing and reassuring, and if any of them ever sail with me again, or indeed talk to me again, I shall ask them if that is the impression they got.
 
TSB240 said:
Caernarfon deserves its reputation. Nasty especially as you can be flushed out of a flat calm Strait and find a nasty breaking swell the remnants of the previous days storm with limited or no chance of turning round with a plan B in mind.
I fear Portmadog (shallow for much longer) and Aberystwyth which are just as untenable in a bit of a SW wind.
We seem to have more than our fair share of hazards around here and Tidal overfalls at Bardsey,South Stack Skerries Carmel and Lynas tend to concentrate the mind.
I still get a twitchy bum each time we push through by the Bridges..
But this is soon forgotten when you salute Lord Nelsons statue and remember what he said about circumnavigation of our little island.
Click to expand...


What did Lord Nelson say about Anglesy?
 
The entrance to the river Irvine in the Clyde deserves an honourable mention as does the entrance to Port Patrick on the Rhins of Galloway (Na Rannaibh) though my all time favourite for separating the men from the boys (without resorting to a crowbar) must be the entrance to Loch Nan Ceall an hour or two BLW.
 
I think there's a particular danger in some of the ones that are not generally the most scary, but the fact they're usually benign means that some don't appreciate how nasty they can be in the wrong conditions - Salcombe springs to mind. The fact that the sailing directions stress how careful one needs to be is a mixed blessing, as if you've read them and then find after 99 entrances nothing to even spill your tea means you start to doubt the warnings of potential doom. Then on the 100th. . . .

At the regularly scary end of the scale, there's few interesting entrances in Brittany that put most of the UK ones I know in the shade.
 
The one your trying to cross in a rising gale after twenty hours at the helm and that funny noise your woefully under powered inboard made is the beginnings of the dreaded fuel bug !

Do not forsake me in my hour of need pleaseeee
 
Last edited:
PowerSlapper said:
The entrance to the river Irvine in the Clyde deserves an honourable mention as does the entrance to Port Patrick on the Rhins of Galloway (Na Rannaibh)
Click to expand...

I chickened out of going in there the year before last when on the way down from Lamlash the wind rose to westerly F6 and the waves to around 2m. I went to Stranraer instead, which I consider to be a good decision. This is rarely said about going to Stranraer.

though my all time favourite for separating the men from the boys (without resorting to a crowbar) must be the entrance to Loch Nan Ceall an hour or two BLW.
Click to expand...

Is that Arisaig? I went in a few times last summer, but always in fairly benign conditions. I never did spot the very shallow patch which Antares Charts shows on the way in (between perches 5 and 6?).
 

Even in benign conditions easy to get knocked over this one was ok. Listen out as one of the spectators says "that's one way to do it, not the way way I would do it" BTW obviously not UK but just a reminder of what happens if you get it wrong...as if anyone needs reminding.
 
Last edited:
C08 said:
What did Lord Nelson say about Anglesy?
Click to expand...
If you can sail around Anglesey you can sail around the world (or words 5o that effect.)

TSB240 said:
River Villaine gets interesting reports in swell conditions especially since it has silted up due to the Barrage at Arzal.
Click to expand...

I berth on the Vilaine and wouldn't consider it a dangerous bar, certainly less so than Caernarfon . The Quiberon archipelago shelters it from big seas. The Etel bar to the west is far more hazardous. It has a semaphore showing when safe to enter and there are roadsigns to it for tourists to view the action.
 
C08 said:
Following on from another thread, what is considered to be the worst/most dangerous bar or entrance in the UK. I am well acquainted with the delights of the likes of Carnarfon, Aberdovey, Barmouth and to a lesser extent some of the south coast nasties, but I have mostly managed to avoid really bad conditions in those sort of places.
It would be interesting to list the top ((say) 10 entrances/bars in descending order of evilness. It may well be that some of these generally thought of as very dangerous are more perceived as dangerous (over rated) rather than actually dangerous and others less well known (generally under rated) are actually more dangerous. What do people think?
Click to expand...

It is also worth considering the question 'what makes an entrance dangerous?" So putting on my philosophical hat I would ask what do we mean by 'dangerous'?
 
I don't suppose that it has changed from forty years ago when I used to find the Wyre at Fleetwood running out at 7knots a bit of a challenge even when the prevailing westerly was only light.
 
NickRobinson said:
Do you mean Kinski abandoned Moitessier on the beach?
Click to expand...

Alas my books are buried in storage but if I recall correctly Moitessier anchored closer in to the beach than he thought prudent because Kinski was a complete nightmare and couldn't get the hang of rowing. Supposedly if he'd been as far out as he would otherwise have been Joshua might not have been wrecked.

Not a bar story though (sorry)
 
Quiddle said:
The Etel bar to the west is far more hazardous. It has a semaphore showing when safe to enter and there are roadsigns to it for tourists to view the action.
Click to expand...

M. Bombard (the doctor who purposedly crossed the Atlantic in a raft without water, just to show it was possible to survive without) years later was rolled there and died.

I think the worse in that area is the river Laita, Pouldu/Guidel villages, every year there are deadly accidents.
 
There are a number of places which I wouldn't normally worry about but which cause great concern in bad weather. The Western Entrance to Dover can be very unpleasant in a westerly 6-7, with seas big enough to throw crew about and risk loss of control. There was also loss of life in Eastbourne a few years ago, and Brighton can be quite interesting.
 
I have a theory as to why people you meet in harbour offer such gloom laden advice about the terrors of their own bars.

First of all they get to see them at their worst when the water is boiling and raging around the bar

secondly, the blokes you meet in harbour who have the time to tell you about the risks are the sort who never leave their home port.

I always listen politely to what they have to say and then ask them a few questions about their own seagoing experience. Despite rolling up to me in RNLI issue yellow seaboots, sou'wester and smoking a pipe of old shag some of them will turn out to have done little more than stand on the shore with a fishing rod in their hands.

D
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top