Taking a boat directly across the Bristol Channel

Forgive what may be the stupidity and ignorance of this question, but I was at Ogmore-by-sea looking out across the Bristol Channel at the Devon coastline and wondering:

If someone lived on one side of the Channel and worked on the other, could s/he conceivably commute by boat? If so, how big a boat would one need? Would something like this work?

Regardless, what would be the running costs? What stops people from doing this instead of driving places?

I’m not actually planning on doing such a thing, but I did grow up going to various lakes in Manitoba, Canada, where boats were used for all sorts of things, and always wondered why, in my home city of Winnipeg, people didn’t just commute on the river(s) that ran through the city, so I am finally asking in the British (and coastal) context.

Couldn’t it mean that people who lived in Cardiff and/or Newport could commute to places like Weston-Super-Mare and vice versa?

EDIT: If my bow rider example above wouldn’t work, what about a substantial RIB?

i think there was a swansea-ilfracombe ferry route for a while.

I have no idea, but apparently the tides around the Bristol Channels are some of the most severe in the world, with a change of 9-11m, so there’d probably be some pretty savage currents

Swim it

What stops people from doing this instead of driving places?

Convenience would be the main reason I’d have thought. Unless you live by the shoreline on one side and work near the shoreline on the other I can’t see commuting by boat is going to be a good solution.

Motor boat owners refer to fuel consumption as gallons per hour… I think you’d find the fuel costs eye watering. You may also may wish for a more enclosed helm position. I drive a RIB for club safety cover and even that can get pretty cold when blasting at 20kts in high summer. I wouldn’t be too keen on doing it in January.

It would be pretty James Bond to commute by boat, but you’d probably be cheaper hiring a chauffeur to drive you.

To expand the fuel consumption, that particular has the following specs –

Volvo Penta 4.3 GL – 262 cid 190 hp 17.3 GPH.

Which by my reckoning is ~ 79 litres of petrol per hour or approximately £102 per hour.

If someone lived on one side of the Channel and worked on the other, could s/he conceivably commute by boat? If so, how big a boat would one need? Would something like this work?

Yup. You’d need somewhere to park it each side that had land access at all states of the tide, and you’d probably want to miss days with very bad weather in that little speedboat but there isn’t anything that would legally or physically stop you.

I doubt it would make any practical or economic sense, mind ewe!

Bristol Channel is quite a tricky stretch of water to navigate – when you have a strong south-westerly wind it drives the sea into a funnel, making it choppy – if you get wind against tide it gets even choppier. Crossing the channel means you’re going to meeting waves beam-on and 3/4 at best – best get some good sea-legs! Not unusual to encounter a short-chop with 10-15ft waves which can be pretty uncomfortable in a small boat.

It can be done, in fact there were plans to offer a ferry service from Cardiff to Devon about 10 years ago, but it didn’t happen for whatever reason.

It’s not easy, the further up-channel you go the closer the distance, but it’s not a straight shot, there are massive sandbanks (hence why the sea is brown in Cardiff) in fact there’s an annual cricket match held on one, once a year in the middle of the channel. You need to be handy with charts etc.

Add into the brutal tides, as someone said some of the fastest in the world.

The ferry was going to use a FlyingCat, which sounds like a fast thing and would take about an hour to make the crossing. About as long as it takes to drive from Cardiff to Weston in good traffic.

I thought that a hovercraft between Cardiff/Bristol would be a nice idea. Could run even at low tide. Get one of those old cross-channel ones.

On the subject of boat commuting, I have often thought that the canal network up north would be a good way to commute if you had a nice fast kayak.

Maybe a giant pontoon bridge would work between somewhere like Bridgend and Weston? Awesome.

@SaxonRider let’s go on a road ride across the old bridge, you’ll see how terrifying a stretch of water it is!

Finnish commuting vehicle yesterday:

Expect around £1,000 to fill it, and probably not much more than a 300 mile range (and being British we’ll scoff at the single engine option)

We get no more than 3mpg on our 21′ boat at cruising speed (about 24 knots) with a pretty efficient Honda 225 on the back.

So to commute a single person would cost a lot – and that’s before taking into account the fact that the Bristol channel is a scary place.

Somewhere to keep the boat at either end would be a significant issue. A marina is going to cost you a few thousand a year. Then you have to maintain the boat – haul it out and antifoul it every year. You’ll have seriously bad weather a few times a year, minimum. Of course you could use a jet-ski.

I have no idea, but apparently the tides around the Bristol Channels are some of the most severe in the world, with a change of 9-11m, so there’d probably be some pretty savage currents

Thats very true.

Its also a main shipping lane, and an important one at that. So you’re gonna have to have a chat with the MCA about which part of the lane you can cross.

A mate of mine used to commute from Hayling Island to Hamble in a rib everyday, for 4 years. Cost him £250 a month in fuel for his twin engined rib… like this… and this is what I recommend would be adequate for the journey..

It’s going to get mighty bumpy, wet and uncomfortable too.. so invest in some decent oilies and a fireman’s mask/helmet.

Had a friend who lived in the Isle of White and commuted to Southampton by boat and then train to London. He only did it now and then on his boat normally taking the ferry but it is possible.

So you’re gonna have to have a chat with the MCA about which part of the lane you can cross.

I doubt this is true. Just follow the normal rules, no need to talk to the MCA at all AFAIK.

I was at Ogmore-by-sea

Nothing to do with your question but I grew up there.

Huge tidal range, so very strong tides, wind against tide causes v messy water, there’s a sand bank running from Nash Point to Tusker Rock (and beyond that). You really don’t see much leisure boating in that stretch of water. We used to mess about in boats a bit and it could get ugly quickly.

You see plenty of sailing in that area, with at least 3 sailing clubs at various points before and after the bridge.  Thornbury, Cleavedon and Portishead.  I have sailed at all 3 and they are great fun, but completely subjected to massive tidal ranges!  My office is also at Portbury docks.  To be honest it’s an interesting idea, but there are a couple of well known bridges crossing that stretch of water, now the tolls have been removed I can’t see any reason or benefit for a water based commute.

We did Weymouth Speed Week once commuting from our B&B at Osmington Mills to Portland Harbour in a huuuge RIB we borrowed from Barrus. The novelty wore off by day 4.

You see plenty of sailing in that area, with at least 3 sailing clubs at various points before and after the bridge.

But that’s nowhere near Ogmore! And just to be pedantic, it’s mostly Somerset coast not Devon 😁

Its done quite often in the western highlands. I considered it in my calculations to move somewhere like Tighnabruiach and still have access to Glasgow. But I’m really too poor. If I did have a small estate that earned its keep though….I have one of these for efficient bad weather commuting. https://www.axopar.fi/range/axopar-28-cabin/ and keep my day job as a hobby….yeah right.

I once sailed from Swansea, heading for Dublin via Holyhead in a 90 foot sailing trawler – it was the first big trip of the year, we’d all had too much to drink and by the time I went down off-watch lead Lundy light was on the port bow, we had a flood tide against a rising south-westerly and it was horrible, virtually everyone was seasick. Came up 6 hours later and Lundy light was on our starboard bow – we’d passed Lundy and the tide had pushed us back up the channel. By now it was a 15-foot ‘chop’ and green water was coming over the bows. Taking a small boat out in those conditions would have been horrible – you’d get very wet and battered in a RIB

Driverless electric submarine is the way – not in the Bristol Channel but in other places it could work , maybe..

So you’re gonna have to have a chat with the MCA about which part of the lane you can cross.

I doubt this is true. Just follow the normal rules, no need to talk to the MCA at all AFAIK.

🤷‍♂️

Just to give an idea about parking your boat, at Burnham/Brean, the tide goes out about a mile, and leaves a vast expanse of sand and mud, which is constantly changing, and is very, very dangerous.
There used to be a ferry at Aust, my dad took me there while the first bridge was under construction. As soon as the bridge opened, the ferry shut down.
That should give a clue about viability.

Couldn’t it mean that people who lived in Cardiff and/or Newport could commute to places like Weston-Super-Mare and vice versa?

They do, especially now the bridge tolls have gone; within days of the announcement eighteen months or so ago, house prices around Sudbrook, Chepstow and Newport started to go up, because of people on the north side of Bristol wanting to move away from the dreadful traffic and buy somewhere cheaper with a commute probably shorter in time than the one they were doing.
At the time, I was doing regular drives across to Newport for BCA, and it took me about an hour from Chippenham, not far off what it can take for me to drive into Bristol.

As soon as the bridge opened, the ferry shut down.
That should give a clue about viability.

That ferry serviced the exact same route as the bridge. A boat trip could be different because it could connect Cardiff city centre to Bristol city centre, or if you went from further along you could cut out a load of driving to get to the West Country.

However it would still take a while, boats are slower than cars.

OOI, why is the tidal range so big in the Bristol Channel?
You would think the moons effect would be even across the Country, but somewhere like the east coast has a 3-5 metre range, Bristol double that.

The shape of it acts like a funnel and amplifies the tide.

Not the same thing, but when I was younger we used to use a friend’s boat to go out clubbing in Torquay then drive it back across the bay to home.

JP

But that’s nowhere near Ogmore! And just to be pedantic, it’s mostly Somerset coast not Devon 😁

Weston isn’t directly opposite either… it is absolutely in Somerset.  Commuting from Cardiff to Weston was mentioned which is not a million miles from cleavedon, portishead etc.

I was at Southerndown today and sharing the same view/thought. My old yacht club apparently did an annual enterprise trip across the Channel from Penarth but that was before my time. Imagine that would be hard work.

Apart from the funnel shape, the high tides are also because the length of the Channel makes the natural period of ‘sloshing’ very close to the time between tides. The tide in the Atlantic rises and pushes a mass up water up the channel, then just as it’s draining out the Atlantic drops pulls it out, just in time for the next push in.

Here’s the MCA for the Bristol Channel…

Makes a nice read over a pint…

https://naturalresources.wales/media/674535/mca-28-bristol-channel-wales-_-final.pdf

A boat trip could be different because it could connect Cardiff city centre to Bristol city centre, or if you went from further along you could cut out a load of driving to get to the West Country.

No, it couldn’t. The River Avon into Bristol is just as tidal as the Severn/Bristol Channel, so for large chunks of the day there wouldn’t be any ability to get into the city easily for a reasonable size boat, and smaller boats have to access the Floating Harbour through a huge lock, which takes some time to cycle through. Such a system wouldn’t be viable, it just couldn’t carry enough passengers; the train from Bristol across to Cardiff is direct, costs £2.90 when booked ahead, and takes 34 minutes, why should anyone bother with a boat?
https://www.thetrainline.com/train-times/bristol-parkway-to-cardiff-central

But that’s Parkway, not temple meads😀
So not central Bristol either. Get off boat in Sea Mills and hop on the Severn Beach line into town?
It would be quite a nice way to commute on the odd occasion but not likely to make a day to day feature of anyone’s life. If I lived in Portishead I would look at commuting into Bristol by boat. The traffic in and out at rush hour is abysmal. Saying that at certain times of the year it would be easier to swim!

Often surprised more city folk don’t do this in London, relatively quick to buzz up the Thames to the city from west London

My Sister and BiL sailed from Swansea to Ilfracombe and back last weekend, thoroughly enjoyed it. Was harder than they expected, though, and had to motor some of the way home as the wind died.

Mind you, they’re clearly imbalanced as they spent one icy winter commuting (15+ miles each way) in a K2 racing kayak when training for DW.

14.2m today at Port of Bristol and 14.55 in 15mins.

A jet ski swanned past this morning… mayby considered this 😉