Sandettie Lightvessel

Sandettie is a lightvessel station located at Sandettie Bank in the North Sea. It is one of the 22 coastal weather stations whose conditions are reported in the BBC Shipping Forecast.^[1] The vessel is named after her location on the Sandettie Bank, due north of Calais and due east of the South Foreland. The ship has no engine and is not crewed. Its lights are powered by solar panels.

Sandettie

LV Sandettie being moved by MV Alert
History
United Kingdom
Namesake	Sandettie Bank
Operator	Trinity House
Builder	Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (1947–1948)
Launched	1949
Out of service	1989 (previous vessel)
Identification	MMSI number: 992351029
Fate	Museum ship (previous vessel)
General characteristics
Type	Lightvessel
Displacement	450 tons
Length	47.5 m (156 ft)
Beam	7.65 m (25.1 ft)
Draft	3.5 m (11 ft)
Speed	6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph)

Sandettie

Location	Sandettie Bank
Coordinates	51°09′21″N 1°47′07″E
Operator	Trinity House
Racon	T
Active light
First lit	1989
Focal height	12 m (39 ft)
Range	15 nmi (28 km; 17 mi)
Characteristic	Fl W 5s

The previous Sandettie lightship was taken out of service in 1989 and is now a museum ship moored in Dunkirk harbour museum (fr).^[2][3] In 2019 Simon Armitage published a collection of poems named Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic after the lightvessel's weather station.^[4]

The previous Sandettie light ship in Dunkerque harbour

External links

• The optical and acoustic signaling scheme and the radio-signal scheme of Sandettie lightvessel, ie the signal pattern of the light signal, the fog horn and the radio station in accordance with NOTICE TO MARINERS 2/2012 C1 Sandettie Light Vessel No.2/12 C1, by Order Captain R. H. Barker, Director of Navigational Requirements, Trinity House, London, EC3N 4DH, 11 January 2012
• Article about the lightship in the French Wikipedia
• "Notice to Mariners". Trinity House. 11 January 2012. Archived from the original on 27 October 2014.

Observations and Weather

• The detailed, hourly measured values of the lightship Sandettie the last 24 hours of metoffice.gov.uk
• The exact course of the air temperature and water temperature as well as the water height in the area of Sandettie Bank on the web page of the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation on the basis of the data of Sandettie Lightvessel
• Weather forecast and wave prediction for the area of the sandbank for skipper from Meteo Consult Marine, (fr)