ALL AT SEA JUNE 2021
DOUGAL
on tour
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Solent based dinghy sailor David Henshall is a well known writer and speaker on topics covering the rich heritage of all aspects of leisure boating.
The bar’s OPEN! The headline that the bar is open will be wonderful news to everyone after 14 months of lockdown, but for those who h a t a at tti t th ar ca ha a th r a r worrying meaning.
E
ven in the relatively benign conditions around the Solent, there are bars that can be deceptively difficult even in reasonably settled conditions, but more worryingly have the potential to become dangerous when wind and tide conspire together to create a sea state that can be unpleasant even for a large, well found boat. Along the leisure boating hotspots of the South Coast, the most (in)famous of these has to be Hayling Bar, which is more correctly titled the Chichester Bar, a shallow spit that guards the entrance to the extensive, sheltered waters of the harbour. Since the earliest years of the post-war boom in dinghy sailing Hayling Island Sailing Club has been one of the most popular venues for hosting events, from domestic meetings right up to high-profile World Championships. Yet at the same time it has had to work against a well-founded reputation as being a location where boats and gear can be broken. On an otherwise very pleasant summer’s day, clouds forming over the rolling hills of the South Downs are a great indicator that a sea breeze will soon be blowing, but if the wind is already in the south, the two can combine to give the breeze a marked extra kick. If that coincides with a spring ebb, then the conditions on Chichester Bar can quickly change from an unpleasant experience for tired sailors trying to get back ashore after racing out in Bracklesham Bay, to a scary ride that can see masts broken and boats
In a spring ebb and strong onshore Chichester Bar really is not the place to be. Other bars onshore may be open but this one is closed! Image: Bill Rowland
Many see Tennyson’s poem ‘Crossing the Bar’ as a euphemism for life and death, but back in Victorian times, before small ships had auxiliary engines, crossing the bar could often be just that. Image: Everett Collection / Shutterstock
damaged. Today, there is a much greater awareness of the situation with the HISC Race Team always ready to call a halt to activities out in the Bay so that competitors can be brought back into the Harbour before conditions deteriorate too far. If the wind has freshened even further, then the sea state over Chichester Bar can quickly reach the point where it is unwise to attempt except at the top of the tide, and if there has been a prolonged period of windy weather, this can bring around changes in the depth of water that can easily negate local knowledge.
run at more than 6kt, rushes out through the pinch point of the harbour entrance, before flowing over the raised area and creating a series of sharp standing waves, often with constantly breaking crests, separated by troughs of what can be shallow water. If, at the same time, this tidal flow is being opposed by a strong wind, then the resulting sea state becomes that perfect storm of an almost unmanageable wave pattern.
What is the problem?
But what exactly IS a bar and why do they pose such a problem that the various
pilotage guides to a harbour contain dire warnings of when to take care and when to avoid completely? In the end, it all comes down to the local geography, with the short answer being that a bar will form across a break in the coastline that creates an inlet. In the case of Chichester Harbour (which in geological terms is classed as a Ria – a flooded valley system), the combination of the strong tidal streams that are formed as the harbour empties on the ebb tide and the wonderful fine sand that makes Hayling such an attractive holiday location result in the formation of an area of raised sand, and thus shallower water, positioned across the entrance to the main channel. The ebb tide, which at Chichester can
Variety of bars
Each bar is different; just a few miles west of Chichester Bar, the entrance to Langstone Harbour can be every bit as unpleasant when that combination of conditions
With ripping currents, shifting sand banks and the Pacific swell, the mouth of the Columbia River is acknowledged to be one of the worst bars, if not THE worst, in the world. Image: Bob Pool / Shutterstock
creates an area of broken water that is the best warning to either head for an alternative location or wait until the flood has given sufficient rise of water. Another famous bar across a harbour entrance is that at Padstow. It is immortalised by the name ‘Doombar’ and, although the name is actually a version of the word ‘Dune’, in a strong Westerly or Northerly wind Doombar can be a very apt name as the number of shipwrecks in the area will testify. From Caernarfon around to Southwold, to the entrance into the Deben or the very tricky bar sailors encounter when heading into the harbour at Littlehampton (which can reach 0.9m above chart datum), the location may change but the dangers remain the same. However, these can be minimised with careful planning and prior preparation, and boaters should always have a ‘Plan B’ should the conditions require it, as there is one consideration that should always be uppermost in the mind of the sailor: once committed to a bar crossing, it is very difficult and nearly always too late for a change of mind!
World’s worst
“Once committed to a bar crossing, it is very difficult and nearly always too late for a change of mind!”
Of course we should be wary of complaining too much as even the scary UK bars are nothing when compared with some of the monsters found abroad, with the commonly accepted ‘worst in the world’ being on the west coast of the USA, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific. In a little over 200 years more than 2,000 ships have been wrecked there, so it is of little surprise that the huge bar, which covers some 18 square miles, is often referred to as the ‘Graveyard of the Pacific’. Yet for all their perils, once the bar has been crossed there is that promise of a safe harbour, which has accounted for the notion of ‘crossing the bar’ becoming synonymous with the passage of life itself. It is amazing then that the great poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson could relate passage over another of the South Coast’s scarier bars at the entrance to Salcombe (even more infamous for the loss of 13 RNLI lifeboatmen back in 1916), with one of his most enduring poems, Crossing the Bar, which has as its final stanza: The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face All images: When I have crossed the bar.Andrew Wiseman
