Sharpness to Bristol Insurance Requirements

[Iceni_exporer]

Hi

 

I'm planning on doing Sharpness to Bristol during the summer of 2021. My current insurer requires a pilot for the leg from Sharpness to Portishead and the leg from Portishead to Bristol.

 

Any suggestions on insurance companies that don't require a pilot on the Portishead to Bristol leg ?

 

When I discussed the trip with Gloucester Pilots they suggested a lot less boats used a pilot for this part of the journey.

 

My insurance renews in early summer so if there are any suggestions it might save me exploring a lot of dead ends.

 

Many thanks

 

Mike

 

 

[starman]

I did the same trip about five years ago and Craftinsure only specified a pilot from Sharpness to Portishead. The leg into Bristol is pretty straightforward (our Portishead pilot gave us a couple of tips.)

[Bee]

The bit from Portishead to Bristol is straightforward, you can do it with a roadmap and only a total fool would get it wrong and start heading for Avonmouth dock entrance. (Well it was a bit misty)

[Onewheeler]

MS Amlin / Haven Knox Johnson or whatever they're called this week didn't require a pilot for the Bristol leg a few years ago. Ask them specifically though as their policy wasn't tightly worded around tidal journeys in a NB.

[mrsmelly]

How much is a pilot? How many thousand upon thousands of pounds was your boat?

[Keeping Up]

Definitely a pilot is necessary from Sharpness to Potishead, but as said above there really is no need for one from Portishead to Bristol. If your insurer doesn't agree, get another one, or else find one to give you one day's insurance. I'm with Towergate and had no problems with them but that was a few years ago.

[dmr]

A friend did Bristol to Portishead without a pilot, he either got the weather forecast a bit wrong or the weather forecast was a bit wrong, he knew where he had to go but the waves were so big he couldn't see it..He said it was the closest he ever came to dieing. ?

 

...............Dave

[David Mack]

 

1 hour ago, Keeping Up said:

Definitely a pilot is necessary from Sharpness to Potishead, but as said above there really is no need for one from Portishead to Bristol. If your insurer doesn't agree, get another one, or else find one to give you one day's insurance. I'm with Towergate and had no problems with them but that was a few years ago.

A few years back we boated down to Sharpness. Moored up just in front of us was a narrowboat that was intending to go out onto the Severn on the evening tide and heading for the Avon. The female boatowner was completely unperturbed about the prospect; her male companion was maintaining a diplomatic silence. He seemed to be a recent acquisition, on his first narrowboat trip, but with plenty of sea boating experience. 

They were going out on the evening tide, just before dusk, so presumably expecting most of the trip to be undertaken in darkness. No pilot. And when the crewman asked about an anchor she dived into her front locker and produced a tiny folding grapnel. His face said it all!

We wandered around the marina and down to the bottom end of the sea lock and watched them pass out onto the river. The estuary was like a millpond as they set off into the failing light.

I never heard of a boat sinking, so I assume they made it OK.

 

 

[davidb]

That sounds terrifying!

[Grassman]

14 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

How much is a pilot? How many thousand upon thousands of pounds was your boat?

When I asked last year, the charge for a pilot between Portishead and Bristol was about £140. Whether my insurers required it or not I would have one for the reasons mrsmelly says.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Grassman

[Iceni_exporer]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Bargebuilder]

On 22/03/2021 at 09:38, Grassman said:

When I asked last year, the charge for a pilot between Portishead and Bristol was about £140. Whether my insurers required it or not I would have one for the reasons mrsmelly says.

This year, 2022, the cost of hiring a pilot for the trip from Sharpness down the tidal Severn to Portishead, Avonmouth is £240, but that's not why I didn't take one.

 

Whether you take a pilot or not, exactly the same safety checks/equipment, engine, fuel, anchor, life jackets etc etc are required, because a pilot won't get you out of trouble if the engine stops!

 

A pilot won't set out unless he or she is totally happy that the forecast is for a stable period of light winds of no more than force 3, but this should be the case too if you go it alone, possibly even aim for a force 2 if you can.

 

If you have comprehensive insurance then they will make stipulations that may include engaging a pilot, but if not, there is no requirement for you to have one and I didn't find the trip particularly difficult or demanding without one. My wife and I in fact found the voyage in our NB exiting, exhilarating at times, and most of all, thoroughly enjoyable. 

 

The passage is very well marked for navigation with very obvious leading marks that are also brightly lit in gloomy conditions, making steering an accurate course easy. 

 

The one thing that makes the services of a pilot far less critical is the availability of chart plotter apps for ones smart phone or tablet. Much like a car's GPS, they show you exactly where you should be and exactly where you are, so you can steer accordingly. The best app (in my opinion) costs about £37 for the entire UK, but you can use it free of charge for a two week trial if you only need it for a single trip. It is simplicity itself to use and removes the mystery from navigating unfamiliar routes.

 

Every skipper must make their own decision depending on their confidence, ability, experience, vessel and conditions, but for me, at no point did I wish I'd taken a pilot and we had a very enjoyable trip, both from Sharpness to Portishead and then up to Bristol. We experienced wind speeds between 6 knots and 18 knots, but they were offshore so wave height didn't exceed about 0.6m.

 

I've included a screen print of the app we used as we went under the 1st Severn Bridge, showing at the top the time taken from Sharpness, our speed over the ground and the distance travelled. The deepest water corresponds to the white areas and our course was recorded with the curved thin yellow line with us being the red arrow at the end of it.

It's a fantastic trip, so with or without a pilot, do try it.