Yachting

PILOTAGE UPDATE

I

’ve moored my boats on the

West Solent’s Beaulieu River

since 1985 when the family and

I pitched up from an American

voyage in our old pilot

cutter. As luck would have it, Sir Francis

Chichester had vacated a suitable buoy not

many years before, so, not having a house

at the time, we made the river our home.

The quietness and the wildlife were

high on our wish list. One spring morning,

my wife watched a stag with full antlers

swim across the river past our stern, and

when we moved ashore we named our

cottage after the migrant geese of the

marshlands. The fact that the river isn’t

jam-packed with moorings and has only

one small marina appealed, but best of all

was, and still is, the shelter. Once around

the second bend, no weather can touch us.

Over the years the long-term river team

have become our friends, so that driving

down to the boat today is like coming back

to where we belong.

With passing time, the river has seen

steady improvements in aids to navigation

and shoreside backup, but the waterway

the Beaulieu, the harbourmaster

Mike Nicholls is retiring, but while

weeping may endure for a night, joy

comes in the morning. We have a

new harbourmaster, Wendy Stowe,

an active sailor who has served her

time as deputy on the Hamble. As

we chatted in her offi ce she made

a perceptive remark. The harbour

has the reputation of being pricey,

she observed. She’s right. It does,

yet this is often unjustifi ed. The

marina is no dearer than many. In

fact, it’s cheaper than some, so she’ll

be encouraging a friendly approach

rather than rattling the collecting

can as soon as someone has hooked a

mooring. Wendy is also preparing to roll

up her sleeves, tidy the yard and sort out

the WiFi as she continues to preserve the

timeless nature of the river.

Meanwhile, on the green sward down

which the keels rolled to Trafalgar, Mary

Montagu-Scott has initiated a school for

traditional shipwrights in collaboration

with the International Boatbuilding

Training College at Portsmouth. A new

replica timber-frame workshop is already

in place. Soon, the historic village will echo

again to the ring of caulking hammers, the

rasp of the pit-saw and the chunking of

an adze fi nishing a deadwood more fi nely

than most people could plane it.

And the river fl ows on. If it all works

out, as I believe it will, the sedge will

cover and uncover undisturbed for another

thirty years. If I’m spared, I’ll be on my

mooring to see it. W

Tom Cunliffe

reports on recent

happenings and

goings-on in the prettiest

haven on the Solent

never changes. There are more egrets now

and fewer curlews, but the geese come and

go with the seasons and the English oaks

whose forbears built the Navy that saw off

Napoleon still line the banks.

So what’s new? For years, Agamemnon

Yard at Buckler’s Hard, named for one of

Nelson’s fl agships, has been leased out.

While this has functioned well, some berth

holders who, like me, choose not to afford

yard prices, have been driven from the

river to have jobs done. This situation is

common around the south coast and, for

all I know, elsewhere too. Overheads are

shocking so you can’t blame the yards,

but that doesn’t help the working man, so

when I heard Agamemnon was to become

an ‘open yard’ run by the river staff, I

was delighted. If I want to bring in my

favourite chippie at his own rate that’ll be

fi ne, given insurance and a nominal fee.

Amid loud lamenting, after 42 years on

Changes on the

Beaulieu River

The Beaulieu River has a new

harbourmaster and its boatyard is to

become an ‘open yard’ run by river staff

MAY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 57

The best thing about the Beaulieu River is the shelter

PHOTOS: TOM CUNLIFFE