Yachties are always in the shipping channels?

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thecommander

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I'm absolutely nothing against yachties but every time I'm in Southampton water theres always dozens of yachts causally powering (not sailing) at 4 knots up the main shipping channel blissfully unware of what's going on around them. Yesterday at high water the Red Falcon passed within 5-10 metres of a yacht in the main channel. The yacht in question wasn't under sail and should have (in my opinion) been using the secondary channel in Southampton Water.

Maybe it's just me, but it always frustrates me seeing this happen in such a busy commercial port. We consciously keep out of the channel and use the secondary channels when possible.

Don't get me started on whats happens at Calshot and West Bramble. Yachts everywhere, the Redjet having to navigate past them all and the Harbour master having a stroke flashing his lights left, right and centre. Accident waiting to happen in my opinion!

It would be interesting hearing some other opinions on this - maybe I'm just being a fussy in my old age? :confused:
 
thecommander said:
I'm absolutely nothing against yachties but every time I'm in Southampton water theres always dozens of yachts causally powering (not sailing) at 4 knots up the main shipping channel blissfully unware of what's going on around them. Yesterday at high water the Red Falcon passed within 5-10 metres of a yacht in the main channel. The yacht in question wasn't under sail and should have (in my opinion) been using the secondary channel in Southampton Water.

Maybe it's just me, but it always frustrates me seeing this happen in such a busy commercial port. We consciously keep out of the channel and use the secondary channels when possible.

Don't get me started on whats happens at Calshot and West Bramble. Yachts everywhere, the Redjet having to navigate past them all and the Harbour master having a stroke flashing his lights left, right and centre. Accident waiting to happen in my opinion!

It would be interesting hearing some other opinions on this - maybe I'm just being a fussy in my old age? :confused:
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I am a yachtie and power boater and yes the yachties seem in a dream world sometimes more often than not oblivious to whats going on around them
God knows what they are taught on these sailing coarses that they all seem to go on common sense is not one of them.
 
epervier said:
Prey tell, what is and where is the secondary channel in Southampton water?
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It's the marked channel to the east of the main channel. You must know this surely?

Even if it wasn't marked, with oodles of water outside the main channel on both sides, I agree with the OPs sentiment that you should generally navigate outside the main channel, though disagree it's a failing exclusive to yachties.
 
epervier said:
No Mark, I'm oblivious to this, when transiting Soton water I've always kept outside of the reds and greens, it's too busy in the main channel for a slow old tug like mine. Hythe ferry is faster than me.
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I do the same as you, staying outside the reds and greens. On the east side there are a smaller set of greens. So you just stay between the little greens and the big greens. Simples.
 
Elessar said:
It's the marked channel to the east of the main channel. You must know this surely?

Even if it wasn't marked, with oodles of water outside the main channel on both sides, I agree with the OPs sentiment that you should generally navigate outside the main channel, though disagree it's a failing exclusive to yachties.
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with the exception of the run up to and including Cowes week, then think the Solent should only be for yotists, with the usual hail of, we're racing you know! but as you say not exclusive, some moboers do tend to run unnecessarily close to sailors causing all-sorts of mayhem.
 
Elessar said:
I do the same as you, staying outside the reds and greens. On the east side there are a smaller set of greens. So you just stay between the little greens and the big greens. Simples.
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From memory I think it's marked on my chart as the high speed channel. I use it when inbound but when out bound I stay outside the reds. Seems to be a lot of people use that channel both inbound and outbound.
 
I agree with your post and yes the secondary channel is pretty wide and obvious. Both yachts and motorboats tend to aimlessly wander down the main channel in my view, its just the yachts are more noticable as slower.

After 17 years with a 10m yacht, we have just bought a similar size, semi displacement power boat so looking forward to experiencing life on the other side of the debate this year. Happy sailing / motoring to ALL in 2015.

Chris
 
As a yotist, I've always travelled along the secondary channel (which I'm aware of from charts and was also taught during my sailing course, thank you very much), unless of course I'm crossing from one side to the other, but then always making sure I don't impede a fast vessel's progress.

However, I've noticed both raggies and mobos completely cluelessly disregarding the channels. As mentioned, it's only more obvious with raggies because they tend to be slower.
 
It's the same mentality that leads to people driving for miles in the middle lane of motorways, usually at around 60mph, whilst the left hand land is unoccupied.

The M5 this weekend was particularly bad for that.
 
I think many owners "play it safe" on the theory that if that's deep enough for that F off orange thing that's blocking out the sun, it'll be ok for my 12 metre prinfairseeker. Not right but there it is.

On the other hand I do tend to find that, when helming a rental, shallow water holds no concerns at all.
 
thecommander said:
Yesterday at high water the Red Falcon passed within 5-10 metres of a yacht in the main channel. The yacht in question wasn't under sail and should have (in my opinion) been using the secondary channel in Southampton Water.
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So, HW, neither vessel constrained by draught or manoeuvrability, both under power and one chooses to pass at high speed 5-10 metres away from the other?

I'd have reported a near miss to VTS!
 
It's all a matter of comparison: Whenever we sailed in the Solent, I thought the waters were sailed (and motored) by shoal of incompetent morons, then when we arrived in the Bay of Naples and I realised that the Solent fleet weren't bad at all. Later we reached the waters off Athens and decided that perhaps the Neapolitans were bearable after all; a couple of weeks ago we were in Miami and they somehow managed to make the Greeks look vaguely competent.

With any 'big-ship' channel, we always look to get out of it completely, if depths don't allow that, we'll hug the starboard edge, going buoy to buoy; the US boats (sail especially) seem to just love them though and at every port we've entered or left, we've seen them motor all the way out to/in from the fairway/clear-water buoy, irrespective of surrounding depths. Crossing New York's outer bay we were passed by a yacht making better speed than us into the headwinds and foul tide on a pretty awful day, the only thing that brightened it for us was when we turned south and got the sails up almost immediately after we'd cleared Sandy Hook - crossing a 100m 'shoal' with 15-20' over it - whilst watching them motor eastwards for a further hour at least before making their own turn
 
The OP said
Yesterday at high water the Red Falcon passed within 5-10 metres of a yacht in the main channel.
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Is the Red Falcon not one of the car ferries, and not the Jets? In which case, there is a discrepancy in manoeuvrability between the two boats involved - not that that really should matter as this still isn't a constraint for either (I'd assume?).

I must admit, I am shocked by the amount of people (mobos / yotists / PWCs) who seem to be treating the main channel as a boating lake. If I am out cycling, I would tend to stick to the slower urban roads if given the choice, rather than take a dual carriage way... not because its forbidden, but because, to me, the slower urban roads are lower (slightly) risk. Same applies when boating. I would rather us be out of the channel when we inevitably break down, rather than a sitting duck inside of it!
 
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