England Ireland Find Havens
England Ireland Find Routes
Boat
Maintenance
Comfort
Operations
Safety
Other








St Helens Duver is situated on the south coast of England, close north of the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It is an anchorage outside Bembridge Harbour and at the entrance to its approach channel.

St Helens Duver is situated on the south coast of England, close north of the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It is an anchorage outside Bembridge Harbour and at the entrance to its approach channel.

Often used as a tide-wait location for the drying channel to the harbour, this location also provides a good anchorage of itself. Although a half-mile offshore, it is well protected from south round to west. Approaches are straightforward as the large lighted fort, close south, makes a very good identifying mark from seaward and Bembridge's Light-beacon also exhibits a light at night. There are no hazards to an eastern approach, and it may be accessed at all stages of the tide.



Be the first
to comment
Keyfacts for St Helens Duver
Facilities
Hot food available in the localityMarked or notable walks in the vicinity of this locationPleasant family beach in the area


Nature
No fees for anchoring or berthing in this locationRemote or quiet secluded locationAnchoring locationQuick and easy access from open waterNavigation lights to support a night approachSailing Club baseSet near a village or with a village in the immediate vicinity

Considerations
None listed

Protected sectors

Current wind over the protected quadrants
Approaches
4 stars: Straightforward; when unaffected by weather from difficult quadrants or tidal consideration, no overly complex dangers.
Shelter
4 stars: Good; assured night's sleep except from specific quarters.



Last modified
March 20th 2025

Summary

A good location with straightforward access.


Best time to enter or exit

The Eastern Approaches to the Solent and the run-up to Southampton Water Route location provides a tidal counter and routes to the eastern Solent.
Facilities
Hot food available in the localityMarked or notable walks in the vicinity of this locationPleasant family beach in the area


Nature
No fees for anchoring or berthing in this locationRemote or quiet secluded locationAnchoring locationQuick and easy access from open waterNavigation lights to support a night approachSailing Club baseSet near a village or with a village in the immediate vicinity

Considerations
None listed




Position and approaches
Expand to new tab or fullscreen

Haven position

50° 42.410' N, 001° 5.190' W

This is on the 2 metre contour ½ out from the shore in about the middle of the bay.

What is the initial fix?

The following Bembridge Initial Fix will set up a final approach:
50° 42.468' N, 001° 5.016' W
This is the position of the Bembridge Approach Light-beacon. It is a yellow pile with an X topmark Fl.Y.2s 1M and has a tide gauge.


What are the key points of the approach?

Use Eastern Approaches to the Solent and the run-up to Southampton Water Route location as your guide for sailing along the eastern and northeastern shores of the Isle of Wight. Vessels converging on the entrance will find nothing in the way of local hazards by staying in reasonable soundings and following the marks.
    Maintain a watch for the odd lobster pots in the approaches.
  • From the Bembridge light beacon, proceed westward, feeling about with the depth sounder.

  • Anchor according to draft in sand.


Not what you need?
Click the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons to progress through neighbouring havens in a coastal 'clockwise' or 'anti-clockwise' sequence. Below are the ten nearest havens to St Helens Duver for your convenience.
Ten nearest havens by straight line charted distance and bearing:
  1. Priory Bay - 0.3 nautical miles NNW
  2. Bembridge Harbour - 0.9 nautical miles SW
  3. Seaview - 1.2 nautical miles NNW
  4. Whitecliff Bay - 2.3 nautical miles S
  5. Ryde Harbour - 3 nautical miles WNW
  6. Ryde Roads - 4.2 nautical miles WNW
  7. Sandown Bay - 4.4 nautical miles SW
  8. Wootton Creek (Fishbourne) - 5.1 nautical miles WNW
  9. Stokes Bay - 5.1 nautical miles NNW
  10. Haslar Marina - 5.2 nautical miles NNW
These havens are ordered by straight line charted distance and bearing, and can be reordered by compass direction or coastal sequence:
  1. Priory Bay - 0.3 miles NNW
  2. Bembridge Harbour - 0.9 miles SW
  3. Seaview - 1.2 miles NNW
  4. Whitecliff Bay - 2.3 miles S
  5. Ryde Harbour - 3 miles WNW
  6. Ryde Roads - 4.2 miles WNW
  7. Sandown Bay - 4.4 miles SW
  8. Wootton Creek (Fishbourne) - 5.1 miles WNW
  9. Stokes Bay - 5.1 miles NNW
  10. Haslar Marina - 5.2 miles NNW
To find locations with the specific attributes you need try:

Resources search

Chart
Please use our integrated Navionics chart to appraise the haven and its approaches. Navionics charts feature in premier plotters from B&G, Raymarine, Magellan and are also available on tablets. Open the chart in a larger viewing area by clicking the expand to 'new tab' or the 'full screen' option.

Expand to new tab or fullscreen



What's the story here?
St Helens Fort defines the location
Image: Michael Harpur


St Helens Duver lies close northward of the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight, ¾ of a mile northward of Bembridge Point, ½ a mile out from Nodes Point and to the north of the drying area west of St Helen's Fort. It is at the entrance to the Bembridge Harbour approach channel ¾ of a mile northeast of the harbour's mouth.


The shoreline gradually shelves and dries out to a ⅓ of a mile from Node’s
Point

Image: Michael Harpur


The shoreline has a ledge to which the area gradually shelves and dries ⅓ of a mile from Node's Point. This pushes the anchorage's 2-metre contour out to about a ½ mile from the shore.


How to get in?
St. Helen's Fort as seen from the north off Node's Point
Image: Michael Harpur


The Eastern Approaches to The Solent and the run-up to Southampton Water Route location guides the approaches to the Eastern Solent, the eastern side of the Isle of Wight, and the northeastern coastline, through to the guide for Cowes and the River Medina Route location. This also provides a tide timer and sailing directions for exiting all berths along the River Medina.

St. Helen's Fort as seen from seaward
Image: Michael Harpur


St. Helen's Fort, which, although the smallest of the 1860 Palmerston forts, makes itself readily known for many miles to seaward.


The anchorage is on the commencement of Bembridge's entrance channel
Image: Michael Harpur


Initial fix location The Bembridge initial fix is the position of the Bembridge Approach Light-beacon. It is located 400 metres northward of the conspicuous


The Bembridge light beacon
Image: Michael Harpur


From the light beacon, proceed westward, feeling your way in with the depth sounder towards the area close north of the first of Bembridge's channel marker buoys. The sands tend to drift here, so rely on the soundings rather than the chart contours in this position. Saint Helen's Church, a white seamark, can be seen on the shore at a bearing of approximately 235° T.

Anchor as close in as your vessel's draft will allow
Image: Michael Harpur


Haven location Anchor according to draft. The holding is good in hard sand. Expect an occasional long frequent wash from large ships coming and going from Southampton and Portsmouth.
Please note

Do not anchor in such a fashion as to obstruct the Bembridge Channel.



Land by tender on Duver Beach or within the harbour area.


Why visit here?
The area takes its name from the St Helens' Old Church, which overlooks the anchorage. Built on sand by Benedictine monks in the 14th century, it was dedicated to St Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine. The village of St. Helen's, overlooking Bembridge Harbour close south, also took its name from this church.


St. Helen's Old Church now a seamark
Image: Michael Harpur


The church was washed away by storms after the river had changed course and the sea claimed the land. The remains of the bricked-up tower were reinforced in 1703 and painted white to act as a sea mark to aid shipping, and it has remained as such to the present day. Duver, pronounced 'duvver', is the local Isle of Wight name for a stretch of sand by the sea.


St. Helen's Fort, as observed from the tower, showing its 1703 reinforcing bricks
Image: Michael Harpur


St Helens Duver and Saint Helens Road, further out to sea, have provided good anchorages for generations of Royal Navy ships. A poignant plaque on St. Helen's Old Church tower marks the fact that in 1805, Lord Nelson boarded HMS Trafalgar just off the Duver on his way to that fateful battle at Trafalgar. It was for the protection of this anchorage that St. Helens Fort, the anchorage's other and most prominent feature, was constructed. The fort was built as part of a group of Victorian-period forts and associated defensive structures called the Palmerston Forts. The structures were erected on the recommendation of the 1860 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom' following concerns about the strength of the French Navy.


Lord Palmerston c.1855
Image: Michael Harpur


The 1815 Battle of Waterloo brought peace to Europe for more than three decades, but in 1848, a second republic was declared in France, and Louis Napoleon became its first president as Napoleon III. The introduction of advanced artillery and steam-driven iron ships had all but obsoleted the Royal Navy and caused near panic in England. The commission ordered a huge programme of fortification to defend the country's arsenals and naval bases due to the doctrines of the 'Jeune Ecole'. This new French naval approach emphasised attacking ports with small craft instead of fleet action but was also backed by their first ironclad battleship. England was suddenly vulnerable again, and steps had to be taken. Palmerston, the Victorian prime minister, pushed through the large-scale construction in the face of bitter opposition.


No Man's Land and Horse Sand forts flanking the main shipping channel into the
Solent

Image: Lewis Clarke via CC BY SA 2.0


Four new sea forts were built in the eastern approaches to The Solent as part of the project: Spit Bank Fort near Portsmouth, as well as the two centrally located Horse Sand and No Man's Land forts, which flank the main shipping channel into the Solent, and St Helens Fort. A Ryde Sand fort was planned but abandoned because the sands could not support the requisite foundations. St. Helen's Fort, the smaller of the four forts, was built between 1867 and 1880 and suffered badly from subsidence, forcing many changes to its design. It ended up with two 10-inch 18-ton rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns to landward and one 12.5-inch 38-ton RML gun to seaward. It protected the St Helen's Road anchorage, whilst the remaining forts were intended to protect the Portsmouth dockyard.


Spitbank Fort now in private ownership following a period as a luxury hotel
Image: Amanda Retreats via CC BY-SA 3.0


The forts all vastly overran their budgets as a result of complications surrounding their 6 to 9 metres below sea-level foundations. The total combined defensive uplift cost escalated to one million pounds, three times what it would have cost to build land forts, and was so out of control that Gladstone, the then chancellor, threatened to resign. This price, alongside the zeal with which the prime minister pushed through the construction, set the stage for these forts to become known as Palmerston's Follies. This was, in a large part, due to the first Portsmouth forts having their main armament facing inland to protect Portsmouth from a land-based attack. This gave the general public the unfortunate impression that they faced the wrong way to defend themselves from a French attack.


St. Helen's Fort is the smallest of the Palmerston forts
Image: Michael Harpur


By the time all the forts were finally completed, the technology of the original guns had become out-of-date, and the original threat had passed. The 'Jeune Ecole' doctrine came to nothing, and the French threat had been eliminated by their defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. Nevertheless, the forts were all armed and rearmed over the years as technology improved. Although not one of the forts would fire a shot in anger, they all remained a key part of The Solent's defensive system throughout both World Wars. They were decommissioned in the 1960s and finally sold off in the 1980s. Subsequently, their main useful role has been as navigational lighthouses. The forts and the project as a whole remain to this day the costliest and most extensive system of fixed defences undertaken in Britain during peacetime.


Walkout to the St. Helen's Fort
Image: Richard Heaven via CC BY-SA 2.0


The local authority now owns St Helen's Fort, but it is not open to the public. Periodically, most often in August, on one of the lowest 'king' tides of the year, there is a mass walk from St Helens beach out to the fort and back. During these very low spring equinoctial tides, the original causeway used to construct the fort reappears along the seabed. This leads out from St Helen's Old Church, which was the quarry site from which the fort's original materials were obtained. The walkout is spontaneous, but local Bembridge yacht clubs provide safety boat services informally. After the walk, a barbecue is traditionally held immediately ashore on Duver Beach, which St. Helen's Old Church overlooks.


Duver beach as seen from seaward
Image: Michael Harpur


St Helen's Duver was formed by sea currents depositing sand and shingle at the mouth of the river Yar over the centuries. In 1882, the Royal Isle of Wight Golf Club was established on this spot, one of England's first golf courses. The club closed in 1961/2 and gifted its grounds to the National Trust. Today, the low-lying sandy spit of short turf and gently undulating ground is the most important dune grassland on the island. It is renowned for its rich flora during the summer months, especially its bright displays of thrift in May.


Duver beach
Image: Michael Harpur


The anchorage here is predominantly used as a tide-wait location but is a very serviceable general-purpose anchorage, albeit somewhat out from the shoreline. Immediately ashore, The Baywatch Café seafood restaurant is just inshore of marker buoy number 6A, in the approach channel to Bembridge Harbour. It offers local crab, lobster, and sea bass and has fine views of the boats at anchor offshore. A wonderful family beach stretches from the café to the entrance to the harbour, which has public toilets. The village of St Helens is within an easy walk through the Duver, as is Bembridge across the harbour, which a water taxi service from the Duver may reach. Alternatively, Bembridge and St Helens are accessible by entering the harbour and landing from a dinghy.


What facilities are available?
There is nothing on this shoreline apart for the Baywatch cafe that overlooks the anchorage. Many more facilities are available within the harbour.


Any security concerns?
Never an issue known to have occurred to a vessel anchored off the approach channel to Bembridge.


With thanks to:
eOceanic








Aerial view of the Duver in Bembridge





Aerial view of St. Helens Fort, Duver, Bembridge and the channell at low water



A photograph is worth a thousand words. We are always looking for bright sunny photographs that show this haven and its identifiable features at its best. If you have some images that we could use please upload them here. All we need to know is how you would like to be credited for your work and a brief description of the image if it is not readily apparent. If you would like us to add a hyperlink from the image that goes back to your site please include the desired link and we will be delighted to that for you.


Add your review or comment:

Please log in to leave a review of this haven.



Please note eOceanic makes no guarantee of the validity of this information, we have not visited this haven and do not have first-hand experience to qualify the data. Although the contributors are vetted by peer review as practised authorities, they are in no way, whatsoever, responsible for the accuracy of their contributions. It is essential that you thoroughly check the accuracy and suitability for your vessel of any waypoints offered in any context plus the precision of your GPS. Any data provided on this page is entirely used at your own risk and you must read our legal page if you view data on this site. Free to use sea charts courtesy of Navionics.