WSC member of some years ago Françoise Petre returned to Weymouth this week for a brief visit, to sail in the bay and walk the length of Portland in the Spring sunshine to have a cup of tea at the Lobster Pot Café and watch a yacht attempt to round the Bill in light airs against the flood tide – with the inevitable result!
While there I explained my method of judging distance off the Bill using the Trinity House obelisk just in the red sector of the lighthouse, which Françoise agreed to demonstrate in my picture. It is difficult to know how far off to stay when rounding, especially as you want to be as close in as you can get away with safely, without having to look at a GPS screen. Simply, if you have the tip of the obelisk at the bottom of the red sector you are far enough out from the rocks: I have often rounded two hours before Channel high tide with the tip at the top of the red sector, which gives about 3 metres under the keel.
Practice will permit you to find your own best rounding, and is something that can be done easily in a day trip at neaps, as you then get slack before the flood at about lunchtime. It is, of course, not recommended to attempt to land a crew member to use instead of the obelisk...
Françoise is based in London and hopes to begin work at the National Maritime Museum soon. Recently she has 'only' managed to find time to sail from Holland to Brittany! She would like to hear from members and hopes to sail in Weymouth again in the near future.
Steve Fraser
Submitted on 4th May 2012