Foulger’s Gat

Foulger’s Gat, pronounced ‘Fullgers’ is a swatchway across the Long Sand connecting the Black Deep to the Knock Deep. It has a least depth of around 3m and is now surrounded by the London Array windfarm, although still usable by yachts.

Such crossings over the sands come and go over a timescale of, perhaps, decades: the Ray Sand shows how quickly depths can alter.

On the 1852 Thames Estuary chart the depth is around 7′ LWOST (2.4m). The 1907 Reynolds chart shows a least depth of a quarter fathom (0.4m) although this is contradicted by the 1907 Kreigsmarine chart¹Presumably based on an Admiralty chart, corrected to 1945, shows a channel at around 2.4m (2.8m CD).

The 1954²1952 Kentish Knock and the Naze to the Nore corrected to 1954 chart shows 11′ (3.3m,) so the depth increased over the Twentieth Century.

So, it appears that a channel suitable for yachts, certainly above half tide, has been present for well over a century. But Long Sand is 12nM offshore, so no landmarks are available: earlier in the Twentieth Century there were some beacons, but these collapsed in recent decades. Without fixed marks, or GPS, finding the channel would be impractical, perhaps hazardous.

Brian Foulger was a yachtsman who sailed from the Royal Burnham Yacht Club³Contributors on the ybw.com forum, thanks to tillergirl, Jan Harber and DanTribe. He was a keen offshore racer in his wooden yacht Ailish, and later Shilia. His yacht Ailish III was rolled in the tempestous conditions of the 1979 Fastnet Race. Reportedly, he later described the conditions as being “a bit choppy”.

He was credited with finding, or at least being an early user of, the swatchway that we know as Foulger’s Gat. He reported details of this to the Admiralty Hydrographer who later issued a chart correction and assigned the name. This must have been in the late 1990s as the feature does not appear on the 2001 Imray C1 but has appeared and is buoyed by two SWMs in the August 2002 edition. The construction of the windfarm later in the 2000s resulted in a kink in the channel which has necessitated another SWM.

Sadly, he did not see the gat named on the chart as he died in 2000.

• 1
  Presumably based on an Admiralty chart
• 2
  1952 Kentish Knock and the Naze to the Nore corrected to 1954
• 3
  Contributors on the ybw.com forum, thanks to tillergirl, Jan Harber and DanTribe