Ribble link draft

[Midnight]

1 hour ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

They'll make a special exception for you now you've said that and close them in July, which is a shame because I was thinking of doing the Rochdale this year...

 

Maybe I'll go in June instead! 🤣

The Rochdale?

In June?

Dream on!

[Grassman]

We were told by a regular link user that if you have a deep drafted boat try and be the first in the convoy on the outward journey and the last on the return journey, they said this should mean a better depth on Savick Brook.

 

Our boat is well within the draft limits, but our length is nearly 63ft so a few of the bends on Savick Brook were challenging. However because its mud rather than silt we tended to slide nicely round them, so the same might probably apply for the deeper drafted boats. There are a few places were rocks jut out, but generally it’s fine.

 

As others have said, on the way to Savick Brook keep up a good pace, and don’t just stay behind other boats because if they’re too slow and miss the ‘window’ then so will you.

 

On the return journey we found the most challenging part was emerging from the brook into the Ribble. Having to make sure your stern clears the sandbanks and then turning into a strong incoming tide needed full revs.

 

A couple of internet vloggers called Foxes Afloat were in front of us. They made the mistake of heading straight into the middle of the Ribble where the tidal flow was strongest before starting their turn and got into difficulty, briefly being swept sideways towards Preston. Then once recovered they filmed us coming out and it clearly shows the tide trying to push us towards Preston as we made the turn.

 

If you want to see it, here’s the link to the vlog and it starts at 8 mins and our turn into the brook appears at 10 mins. All those vloggers tend to over dramatise things but in this case it really was quite a sight. They were being swept sideways towards Preston, but soon managed to recover. Unfortunately by the time we started filming them they had straightened up but were by then the Preston side of the brook instead of the other.