East Coast Pilot News May 2019
  Dear Subscriber
  
Once again it's that time of year when we publish the new 'chartlets' for the River Deben and River Ore entrances. Perhaps it might be useful if I explain how these chartlets came about.
  Trinity House survey the two river entrances each Spring, and normally would provide the data for their surveys only to the UK Hydrographic Office. However, some years ago it became apparent that the potential scale of changes at these entrances was such that the relevant detail on UKHO charts would be out of date before it was even printed.
  ECP's publisher, Imrays, who are of course also chart agents, approached Trinity House and the two parties came to a unique arrangement whereby this particular survey data is passed to Imrays soon after it is gathered, and Imrays then produce the familiar chartlets. The other part of the arrangement is that Trinity House agrees and signs off the chartlets, and that then, only then, do they get published online, and only on the East Coast Pilot website.
  The chartlets then normally remain unchanged until the next survey, so any extra remarks or advice to do with pilotage are added by us in the form of the note that is included in the download from our site. That note often changes as the sailing season progresses and we add our own experiences of the entrances to those of readers who write in to tell us, plus, of course, advice from our two on-the-spot Honorary Port Pilots, John White and Philip Attwood.
  So the advice note might change during the year, but the chartlet won't - indeed we are not allowed to change it unless there are special circumstances, such as a serious storm that dramatically changes an entrance and itself might trigger a new survey.
So, that's the background. As usual you will find the chartlets on ECP's 'Downloads' page and as last year the downloads also include an aerial photo of each entrance provided by an ECP reader.
 
News Items and Book Updates
   News items and book updates continue to be added on our website as usual, although during the winter months these certainly slowed up. Remember that if you've bought a copy of ECP recently, a complete listing of all the current updates to the 4th Edition can be downloaded from the 'Summary by Date' page.
 
Out and About
  Garth and I have been involved in quite a few talks at clubs and conferences during the past winter, but both of us are now busy, like many of you I expect, putting finishing touches to boat maintenance and improvements for the summer. We wish you well with it all, and hope you have a great summer's boating.
 
 Kind regards,
 Dick Holness
 Co-author and webmaster
 East Coast Pilot. 
 Follow us on Twitter....at @eastcoastpilot
 
Header photo taken by Dick Holness - a fine day for sailing on the Orwell.
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