North Sea Passage Pilot

Publisher: Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson, 5th ed; £29.95
Publication Date: 2008

First published in 1987 and now in its fifth edition after the fourth in 2003 this book must be popular, or used to be, but it is complicated to use and difficult to see for whom it is written. Many pages are for beginners with how to write-up your log, etc. A large section is devoted to details of 22 passages with a plan for each “not to be used for navigation” showing the route but without courses even though the text refers to “Courses on the plans”.

Distances are in each route’s summary box as are recommended start times and arrival times relative to HWD. The elapsed time is based on an average speed of 4½ knots, but, as the author states “The navigator of a yacht which averages a significantly different speed, say by half a knot or more, should recalculate the listed duration and tidal sets before planning his passage”. In other words, ignore this whole section and plan your route and timings yourself! Has a boat under sail ever achieved a steady speed, let alone VMG, over a whole voyage? Coastal routes are also given with distances in a summary and when to start in the text but without 4½ knot times. There are full details of the harbours at each end of each route with excellent aerial photos.

However the real giveaway in this book is a sentence in the preface “There has been literally an explosion in the number of internet websites producing an overkill of information” but apart from a list of harbour authority sites in the introduction, there is not one website or e-mail address in the whole book. Mr Navin seems to be living in the past.

Take the well known River Ore entrance. Says Navin: “It is essential to plan your trip well in advance and obtain the leaflet of the entrance”. He then lists eight providers, admittedly with phone numbers, all way inside the river. He should know that one google click brings up eastcoastrivers.com and two more clicks provide a downloadable chart of the latest survey and a good aerial photo with the track marked on it.

Much space is devoted to tides and tidal streams (including charts showing lines of equal HW time interval referred to the time of the moon’s meridian passage at Greenwich for springs and neaps, and, an absolute beauty, lines showing equal mean range for springs and neaps), and, rightly for this area, to Traffic Separation Schemes. Would I buy this book? No. It is too big, too expensive and unnecessary if you have Reeds and the CA Almanac on board. It could be useful to a yachtsman without a computer at home or on board, or to a beginner with little experience of planning and tides. - RHR