Alternative Sailing Locations

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bedouin

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Over recent years our use of the boat has changed so that we now seem to go for fewer, but longer, visits than previously. So I'm beginning to wonder if there are better locations than the Solent for our current pattern of usage.

Requirements include:
(a) Accessible enough so that we can get a full weekend sailing done in the weekend (which equates to no more than 3 hours door-to-door - or 4 at most).
(b) Not significantly more expensive than the Solent when considering say 10 trips a year (family of 4)
(c) A good cruising ground with a long season (none of this haul out in October)
(d) A good range of all weather destinations for weekend sails.

There must be dozens of areas that satisfy those requirements - West Country, Ireland, Brittany, Holland.

Has anyone got experience of doing this - how does the costs and travelling work out?
 
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Where is home. That's the crunch question? as per your travelling time requirements. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Home in this case being Surrey - that makes us good for flights from Gatwick, just over an hour from ferries from Dover or Portsmouth.

I know the travelling time does impose a significant limit - but I don't see that we would use the boat much if it were any further away
 
I've never done what you are proposing but I have cruised all your potential locations fairly intensively.
Holland has probably the largest range of weekending destinations and is very economical once you move away from the coastal marinas. However, it can be quite a frustrating place to sail as there are few places to go that don't involve waiting for bridges, locks, etc. We used to look forward very much to getting out onto the sea but there are very few worthwhile destinations along the flat and shallow coastline. I'm not complaining but after seven years there we were more than ready to move on.
West country is very nice but seems to be crowded and expensive to berth. Plenty of attractive destinations using, say, Brixham as a base.
Ireland east coast is far better than it used to be, more low cost marinas sprining up all the time. Extremely tidal, which makes life interesting, but sandbanks all along its length, at least the southern part. So the sailing tends to be a bit 'up and back'. Once you round the corner to the south coast it tends to be a bit 'samey' until you get a long way west, when it is fabulous.
South Brittany is excellent, although not sure if it is within your 3-4 hour limit. A really great cruising area, and consequently crowded and quite expensive. There are berths, though. I don't know about cheap flights.
Cheap flights to La Rochelle, even further south, and a very nice place to sail from. North west Brittany could be good, plenty of destinations and low-cost berths. Try some of the ones to the west of the Cotentin peninsula.
How about even further away? We flew Perpignan to Southampton last year with FlyBe, flight time a couple of hours. Cost was £180 for two of us.
 
would have thought a trip East round the
M25 gives you a choice of the Medway,
Thames, Crouch, Blackwater, Orwell, Stour,
Deben, Ore/Alde - a taste of English sailing without
the fuss - plus good access to the Channel and
North Sea.

Facilities are cheaper and the attitude is different.
 
Before environment taxes make cheap flights a thing of the past, do Southern Ireland. Gatwick to Cork on Easyjet, keep the boat in Cork or Kinsale then cruise around to Dingle and Baltimore in the summer. Its on my must do list!
 
I thought sailors by default are earth friendly......why on earth fly anywhere to sail...it completely negates the whole objective, by using tons of fuel just so people can mess around in a flat calm till a 30 knot gust comes (probably caused by all the crap up there) and fightens them half to death. The UK is surrounded by some of the best cruising waters on the planet...... no need to fly anywhere....easyjet wants stuffing
 
How about the Baltic? Ryanair (I know!) flies to Lubeck which has a good train service to Travemunde which has a number of marinas/yards and all are prob cheaper than the Solent. The sailing is FANTASTIC and the season can be quite long - we were in Copenhagen last w/e and the sailing was great.
Having kep the boat in Holland I agree about the frustration of the locks and bridges and the limitation of coasatal sailing but we did love it nonetheless.
 
There are many of us who have 'broken away' from the Solent, if only for long enough to experience the delights of the East Coast, SW Ireland, N & S Brittany et al. But if you're restricted by counting the cost, then sell yer boat!

Seriously, simply 'do' each locality in turn. Find a berth on the Medway, transferring to, say, the Stour halfway through the season. The following year base yourself in Plymouth or Falmouth (NOT Brixham, it's at one end of the cruising ground). Another year go across to Morlaix and hit North Brittany. And so on.

If you can break away from the mind set which bedevils most of us, then go for it! I've been stuck in a rut for forty years, and now in retirement there's little chance of changing.

(Must dash, have another coat of varnish to apply . . .)
 
You will have to go a long South to avoid October haul out. Portugal and beyond which is where we are at present. Spent many years in Brittany, quite a microclimate Morbihan to La Rochelle, easy access and challenging sailing if you wish but you're still in the Bay of Biscay so Sept is about the end of it.
 
Gordon

I realy do agree with you, but even if your not on the aircraft Easyjet will be going there and its better the aircraft is full of reople. If you move the boat to anywhere that is going to result in a significant drive to get to it then your going to be burning fuel.

Best bet is to retire early then just work your way around the coast (another plan!)
 
As soon as you start thinking about travelling abroad, it doesnt really matter where you base yourself in Europe.

getting there and getting home will take up the best part of a day, so as long as you are moored near a low cost flight destination, time and cost will be similar.

e.g. I am going to Lagos, (Algarve), next Wednesday... flying Manchester to Faro on Jet2, (about £80 return), taxi to station, (12 euros return), and train Faro to lagos, (12 euros return)... the train stops outside the marina.

I'll set off about midday, and be on the boat at 9.30pm.

Mooring - £2700 from 16/9/06 to 15/6/07 then it rockets for the summer.
 
There are plenty of alternative locations indeed you point out a number of them, the difficult thing is access particularly in view of your 3 to 4 hour traving restriction which I hasten to add is not unreasonable and one that many of us that live in land have to put up with. To achieve what you require I think you are going to have to rule out public tansport, consider the logistics home to airport/station/ferryterminal, at the other end then on to the boat all to be repeated 36Hrs latter. You will not do that journey and achieve any sailing in a weekend and feel asthough it was worthwhile. No your locations are limited to how far you can travell by car and the west / east coasts will both offer all year round sailing with easy access to more distant places. If however you are not bothered about weekend sailing but will opt for longer periods away when the time alloted to travelling is not such a large part of the total period then southern Brittany and Holland would be good both have sheltered areas, the baltic would not be my prefference for a winter cruising area even for the odd weekend. You pays yer money and takes yer choice or should that be chance!
 
We moved the boat to Falmouth about a year ago and have'nt regretted it. Berthing is cheaper than the Solent., travelling is a bit of a pain but sailing out through Carrick Roads rather than past Fawley Refinery justifies it IMHO.
Obviously its not as sheltered as the Solent so more thought needs to be given to weather.
 
We keep our 8m boat in a Marina in Kortgene on the Veerse Meer. It costs £850 per year for a brand new pontoon berth inclusive of electricity. The facilities are first rate.

We catch the 6pm NorfolkLine ferry on a Friday night (Dover to Dunkerque - £54 return) and are on board our boat with a cup of coffee in hand by 10.30pm having had an enjoyable evening meal on the ferry.

We usuall get the 8.00pm ferry back on Sunday night.

The place is fantastic - you can dawdle around the Veerse Meer, overnight on little islands for free or head out into the Osterschelde and the rest of the dutch inland systems or the North Sea.

Everyone is very friendly and they all speak English.

We used to sail in the Mudway, but never again.
 
Your thoughts echoed my own. Once you involve any form of public transport and foreign travel the minimum realistic time door-to-door has to be in the order of 6 hours. I travel regularly to Holland for meetings from Southampton which is a very easy airport for access and I average about 5 hours d2d.

As you say OK if you're going to for a longer weekend but otherwise it will be the UK mainland. Have you thought about doing a partial UK circumnavigation, ie moving around the coast from port to port each weekend? There was an article in YM (from memory) about a couple that did the whole of the UK in a season. That sounded a bit too much sailing and not enough shore but the theory looks good.
 
[ QUOTE ]
... better locations than the Solent for our current pattern of usage.

Requirements include: ....
(c) A good cruising ground with a long season (none of this haul out in October).


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Solent is a brilliant cruising ground ... in winter. What's all this about a haul out in October - Why?
 
Exactly - I don't in the Solent but it seems to be common practice in other areas (e.g. Scotland / Baltic and some areas on the East Coast)
 
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