Littlehampton Harbour Rally 2024

Littlehampton Harbour rally 2024

Saturday 1st to Monday 3rd June

This is our first rally to be held in Littlehampton and it will be a different challenge for a number of reasons. Being well outside The Solent it will require careful passage planning but should reward us with a trip to a lovely new location. We will be berthing at the Town Quay and we'll hold a pontoon party shortly after arriving on Saturday (as it could be a late arrival we suggest you eat on board). On Sunday evening, after a pontoon party we'll go for a short walk to The Arun View pub for dinner at 6:30 pm which, as the name suggests, has some lovely views over the river.

The first thing you need to do is study the almanac where you will observe that the entrance to Littlehampton is shown in green i.e. a drying height. Don't let this put you off: instead start to work on a passage plan suitable for your boat and you will soon realise that the dates chosen for this rally mean that you will be able to get in and out of Littlehampton if you plan your journey according to the tides at this time. There is a lot of information here:

  https://www.littlehampton.org.uk/visiting-vessels/

The Harbour Master is very helpful and has advised the following: 

"For those that draw 2m, you should be arriving within 2 hours of high water and for those who haven't been before we recommend half an hour before to an hour after HW if possible to minimise tidal streams. Motorboats can of course be much more flexible.

So on the 1st, with HW 19:55 (TBC) that's an arrival of 19:30 to 21:00. Again you could come in slightly earlier if you wished, it's neaps so the following tide behind you in the narrow entrance shouldn't be too bad. It tends to be a bit nicer waiting for the first of the ebb as you can enter slowly and you don't have to turn before berthing. Bearing in mind there's a few of you and you want to give a few minutes between you, you'll want quite a large window to aim for.

The exact moment of fully slack current varies quite widely based on rainfall between HW and HW+30

For departure on the 3rd you have HW at 09:17 (TBC) and its nice to have some flood tide as it also makes un-berthing easier and it gives you more time to get to where you need to go so I'd suggest leaving between 08:00 and 09:30 (TBC)"

More details and advice on how to make your journey to this rally a success will follow. In the meantime: start looking into it - it will be fun and different!

Crew needed and available

Last updated 4:00pm on 29 April 2024