A pilotage plan is a sequence of things you expect to see and do, worked out on the chart before you arrive, so that in the entrance you are checking rather than working out. IMO's voyage-planning guidance describes four stages — appraisal, planning, execution and monitoring — and a harbour entry is that process in miniature. This guide walks through what a Day Skipper-level plan contains and how to run it.
Appraisal: what you need to know first
- Chart: the largest-scale chart of the approach, corrected. Note the IALA region and the direction of buoyage arrow.
- Pilot book and almanac: the harbour entry notes, any leading lines, tidal constraints (a bar or sill, a lock, a bridge), harbour signals, VHF channel and any restrictions on small craft.
- Tides: height of tide at the time of arrival and over the next few hours; the direction and rate of the stream across the entrance; whether the entrance is safe in the expected wind against tide.
- Weather and light: wind direction relative to the entrance, whether you will arrive in daylight, and where the sun will be — an entrance into a low sun with unlit marks is a different proposition from the same entrance an hour later.
- Depth: your draught plus your chosen clearance against the charted depths and drying heights on the route, at the height of tide you will actually have.
The plan
Write it as a list of legs, each with what you will see, the course and distance, and what tells you to turn. A typical plan for a buoyed entrance:
- Approach waypoint: a position in safe water outside the entrance from which the first marks are identifiable — often the safe water (fairway) buoy or a charted position on a clearing bearing.
- First leg: from the waypoint towards the first pair of lateral marks; the bearing to steer, the distance, and the light characteristic of the mark at night.
- Transits and leading lines: any two charted objects that, kept in line, lead you up the channel. A leading line is the most accurate track you can follow and needs no compass.
- Clearing bearings: for each danger near the route, a bearing of a charted object that keeps you clear of it, with “no more than” or “no less than” written beside it.
- Depth checks: the expected echo-sounder reading at points on the route, corrected for tide, so an unexpected reading is noticed immediately.
- Turning points: what you will see abeam or ahead at each alteration of course, and the new course.
- Point of no return: the last position from which you can safely turn round and go back to sea, and the conditions in which you would.
- Escape: where you will go if the entrance is blocked, the visibility closes in, or the engine stops — an anchorage, a mooring, or back to the approach waypoint.
Two charted objects in line from the boat, forming a leading line into a harbour.
Execution: running the plan
In the entrance, one person conducts the pilotage from the cockpit with the plan on a card or in a notebook, and does nothing else — not the helm, not the sails. The routine is: identify the next mark before you reach the current one; call its expected bearing and check it; check the depth against the plan; note the time at each mark. If something does not match — a buoy where there should not be one, a depth two metres shallower than expected, a leading line that will not come into transit — stop, slow down or turn back to the last known-good position, and resolve it. Never carry on because it is probably fine.
Speed is a tool. A harbour entry at three knots gives you twice as long to identify each mark as one at six, and half the consequences if you touch. Keep the engine ready under sail; keep the sails ready under engine.
Buoyage in practice
Confirm the IALA region before the first mark, not at it. In Region A, entering with the direction of buoyage, red cans to port and green cones to starboard; in Region B, green cans to port and red cones to starboard. Shape and topmark hold in both regions, so identify by shape when colour is doubtful. Cardinal marks tell you which side of a danger is safe — pass on the named side — and the safe water mark, red and white stripes, is the usual outer mark of a buoyed approach. At night, use light characteristics from the chart, and time them with a watch rather than guessing.
The common mistake
Doing the pilotage from the chart table, or from the plotter, in the entrance. Both take your eyes off the water, both lag reality, and neither shows the yacht coming out of the channel. The plan exists so that you can keep your head up; if you find yourself below with the dividers in an entrance, you did not finish the plan.
Check yourselfA shoal lies north of your approach to a harbour. A charted beacon on the shore to the west bears 270° when you are on the line that just clears the south edge of the shoal. Do you want the beacon to bear more or less than 270° to be safe, and why?Show answer
Less than 270° — in this geometry, being south of the clearing line means the beacon, to the west, bears south of west, i.e. a bearing between about 180° and 270°. Write the clearing bearing on the plan as “beacon not more than 270°”. If the bearing creeps above 270°, you are north of the line and heading for the shoal; alter to starboard. Work out the sense of every clearing bearing at the chart table, where you can draw it, not in the entrance.
Key takeaways
- Pilotage is planned at the chart table and executed from the cockpit by visible marks, transits, clearing bearings and depth.
- A plan lists legs, expected marks with bearings and light characteristics, transits, clearing bearings, depth checks, turning points, the point of no return and an escape.
- Identify each mark before you reach the last one; if anything does not match, stop and resolve it.
- Confirm the IALA region and direction of buoyage before the first mark; identify by shape and topmark when colour is doubtful.
- Slow is safe. One person pilots; they do nothing else.
