Secondary ports made easy
“Let’s be honest, the easiest way to find the height of tide in one of the Solent’s many harbours is to use an app. But for those who prefer to take the more traditional approach, students on a training course or exam candidates, the good old tidal curve is needed.
If you’re visiting one of the Solent’s many anchorages or rivers then you’ll also need to do three secondary port calculations before you have the information needed to complete a tidal curve:
- the time of high or low water
- the height of high water
- the height of low water
Below, I explain my quick method to calculate secondary port info … and there’s not a crocodile tooth in sight!”
Alex., Chief Instructor at HPSS
Secondary port grids
Below is a High Water Time Differences grid that I’ve created to help interpolate the time difference for high water at the entrance to Beaulieu River (Stansore Point). The lowest charted depth when entering the river is 0.9m so an accurate tidal height calculation is critical.
Portsmouth is the Standard Port for Stansore Point so the insert is an extract from a tide table such as those found in Reeds Nautical Almanac. I’m using Sunday 9th August 2020 in these examples.
Step by step
- Mark the time of Portsmouth HW on Sunday 9th August (1510 UT) along the bottom axis of the High Water Time Differences grid.
- Draw a vertical line (red) upwards from this mark.
- Draw a horizontal line (blue) from the point where the vertical line and the zigzag line meet.
- Read the time difference from the vertical axis and round this up or down to the nearest whole minute. This is -19 minutes in the example. Therefore the afternoon HW at the entrance to Beaulieu River on will occur at 1451 UT (1510 UT – 19 minutes).
- Follow the same process to find the low water time difference between Stansore Point and Portsmouth. This requires the Portsmouth low water time of either 0750 UT or 2009 UT and the Low Water Time Differences grid. The example uses the 0750 UT low water and shows that low water at Stansore Point will happen 10 minutes earlier than in Portsmouth, (0750 UT – 10 mins = 0740 UT).
- Use the High Water Height Differences grid and follow the same steps to calculate the difference for the height of high water. The height of HW in Portsmouth at 1510 UT is 4.3m. Mark this along the bottom axis then draw a vertical line upwards.
- Draw a horizontal line from where the vertical line meets the diagonal line and read the height difference from the vertical scale. In the example, the difference is – 0.6m. This means that the height of high water at Stansore Point will be 0.6m less than in Portsmouth. (4.3m – 0.6m = 3.7m)
- The final step is to find the Low Water Height Difference. This one is easy as the differences grid tell us that regardless of the height of low water in Portsmouth it will be 0.3m less at Stansore Point (1.3m – 0.3m = 1.0m)
You now have the data needed to complete a tidal curve. Download copies of the tidal curves for Portsmouth and Southampton using the links below.
Download secondary port grids
A selection of pre-prepared secondary port grids in PDF format are available to download:
- Beaulieu River entrance (Stansore Point)
- Yarmouth & Newtown Creek
- Itchenor (Chichester Harbour)
- Blank secondary port grid
- Portsmouth Tidal Curve
- Southampton Tidal Curve
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
Charted a Bavaria 36 for a weekend trip. Last minute booking and super impressed with how we managed to sort thing out so quickly and easily after just a couple of e-mails and phone calls. Arrived late Friday after office was closed but check in pack had been left for us to pick up and overnight onboard. Boat very nicely kitted out and left Sat morning to ride Westerly tide to Lymington. Great local knowledge given during the morning walk through about where to moor and get dinner. Nice sail back on Sunday. Weather turned foul but she handled really well under full sail. Everyone on board enjoyed themselves and it's exactly what I'd hoped for from the weekend. This was first time sailing from Hamble and it's a great location to get quickly into the Solent. Definitely will be back once weather warms up and days get longer to try some longer trips. Thank you Hamble Point Charters for a great weekend !
My family and I had a great charter experience recently thanks to Alex, Andy and the whole team. Well maintained boat, friendly service and advice. We plan to charter again next year with them.
Alex, Becca and the team could not have been more helpful considering we called them at 4:45 Tuesday for a boat on Wednesday, another charter company had let us down at the last minute. Check-out and back in was well organized and we had a great 3 days sailing.
As a family, including our 4 year old Labrador, we recently chartered a 'bareboat' yacht from Hamble Point Charters for 7 days to cruise the Solent. The company were fantastic from our first enquiry to handing back the boat. The yacht was clean and well presented. A great week and we will happily use them again!
We have just had another wonderful week on a yacht we chartered from Hamble Point Yacht Charters. We have sailed several of their boats, this time it was a lovely 35 foot Bavaria. Chartering from HPYC is always an easy choice for us: the boats are well maintained, support is excellent, and the staff are always super friendly and helpful. On top of that, Hamble Point is such an ideal starting location for sailing around the Solent.
This is truly a 5 * service. The team really looked after us both ashore on arrival and also while at sea. We were a relatively inexperienced crew but always felt the team ashore had our backs. Thoroughly recommended.
I just wanted to say Thank-you very much for the weekend charter. It was exactly what we were after (albeit cold!) plus Andy was an awesome teacher and great company. We’ll definitely be keen to book again soon!
We had a fabulous four days. Marina is ideally placed for the Solent, boat was in great condition, well equipped and a joy to sail. We were well briefed and the shore side team including the dog very friendly.
We charted one of the sailing yachts for a fantastic weekend cruise in the Solent. The boat was in superb condition and well equipped, the staff was very helpful explaining how things work on the yacht and there was also a video available with all the important information. 10/10 would recommend!
Had a fantastic week chartering Blue Otter, Alex was incredibly helpful and sent loads of information and date checking prior to booking. There was a handover video and both the handover and return were really smooth. The boat was lovely and well maintained and Lee was really helpful in recommending places to visit (and helping identify the steering issue as an autopilot takeover - doh!). Definitely will be back and would fully recommend!
Just back from a lovely week in the Solent. Great service from HPYC from first inquiry through to return handover. Very straightforward to deal with, and the yacht was in excellent condition. We've chartered from many companies in the UK and abroad and the attention to detail (and flawless inventory!) was second to none. Everything about the yacht and equipment had clearly been well looked after and was in immaculate condition. Great service, will use again.
Always very friendly service, and well-maintained yachts. Easy check-in and checkout. Will be back...
We had a great time and were very happy with everything. Your team were genuinely friendly and were very helpful when we needed it. Is a big contrast to many charter companies I have dealt with in the past.
Watching the sun go down with a glass of bubbly on the deck of a sparkling yacht was unbelievable. What a treat, and a much needed change of scenery in these troubled times. We will be back for sure
Fab service, nothing too much trouble, including my daft questions. I'll be a repeat customer for sure!