Littlehampton
May 26, 2022
HM 187. Littlehampton and the mighty River Arun.
Lying at the mouth of the second* fastest tidal river in England, approaching Littlehampton Harbour deserves respect. The pilot book talks about "a good offing", "a strong set", "counter eddies" and rather bizarrely.... "pick out the fairy castle as you enter"! We had no difficulty entering just before high water slack and received a warm welcome from Harry Gregory the HM.
It is no coincidence Harry is a qualified Civil Engineer. The power of "longshore drift" on this part of the Sussex coast creates huge challenges for all Harbour Masters who are ultimately responsible for keeping their harbours navigable. Photo 7 shows the submerged "training wall" which attempts to keep the channel deep, but Harry is charged with a much larger job, redesigning the whole of the 100 year old harbour entrance with an economic and environmentally friendly design - a tall order costing millions of pounds.
A large part of the job of a HM is collecting income to offset the port's annual running costs - in Littlehampton's case approximately £800k per year.
I don't think Harry will mind me describing Littlehampton as a little quirky. A mixture of a south of England beach resort (fun park and fairy castle included) but with deep roots of a commercial port. In the 19th C the port overflowed with vessels (photo 4) and 800 David Hillyard yachts were built here between 1920 and 2009. Harry, a qualified pilot, still encourages cargo ships to use the two commercial quays - one of them leased by Tarmac where steel slag is imported for the production of asphalt.
Harry explained one unusual phenomena of his harbour - the river Arun runs in two directions at once. At the start of the flood, after an unusually long 9 hour ebb, a distinctive "arrowhead" of sea water forms and slowly pushes inland up the centre of the river, all the while the rest of the river continues to flow out to sea. My short video caught this happening.
Littlehampton may be quirky - but it is very friendly to visiting yachts - thank you Harry.@littlehamptonharbour
Lying at the mouth of the second* fastest tidal river in England, approaching Littlehampton Harbour deserves respect. The pilot book talks about "a good offing", "a strong set", "counter eddies" and rather bizarrely.... "pick out the fairy castle as you enter"! We had no difficulty entering just before high water slack and received a warm welcome from Harry Gregory the HM.
It is no coincidence Harry is a qualified Civil Engineer. The power of "longshore drift" on this part of the Sussex coast creates huge challenges for all Harbour Masters who are ultimately responsible for keeping their harbours navigable. Photo 7 shows the submerged "training wall" which attempts to keep the channel deep, but Harry is charged with a much larger job, redesigning the whole of the 100 year old harbour entrance with an economic and environmentally friendly design - a tall order costing millions of pounds.
A large part of the job of a HM is collecting income to offset the port's annual running costs - in Littlehampton's case approximately £800k per year.
I don't think Harry will mind me describing Littlehampton as a little quirky. A mixture of a south of England beach resort (fun park and fairy castle included) but with deep roots of a commercial port. In the 19th C the port overflowed with vessels (photo 4) and 800 David Hillyard yachts were built here between 1920 and 2009. Harry, a qualified pilot, still encourages cargo ships to use the two commercial quays - one of them leased by Tarmac where steel slag is imported for the production of asphalt.
Harry explained one unusual phenomena of his harbour - the river Arun runs in two directions at once. At the start of the flood, after an unusually long 9 hour ebb, a distinctive "arrowhead" of sea water forms and slowly pushes inland up the centre of the river, all the while the rest of the river continues to flow out to sea. My short video caught this happening.
Littlehampton may be quirky - but it is very friendly to visiting yachts - thank you Harry.@littlehamptonharbour