Anyone ever been to Charlestown in Cornwall

[yellowberd]

Just wondering if anyone has been to Charlestown harbour in Cornwall. That has to be a completely unique place . 17th century harbour complete with resident fully working fleet of three! square rigged vessels up to 50 m.
A sight to behold

 

[jhr]

Never been there myself but there is an account of going in there, in "One Summer's Grace" by Libby Purves, complete with a picture of Grace O'Malley, rather precariously dried out on the quay, iirc.

Fascinating looking place, though I think they discourage visiting yachts?

 

[Billy_Mizzen]

I worked for Square Sail (Owners of the Harbour and Tall ship operators) for a while in the 90s, and when first there the harbour was still being used for loading China clay and was a real time warp village!

I don’t know about them discouraging visiting yachts and I’ve certainly never heard that before. But it can be tricky getting in, and best avoided if there’s any east in the breeze.

Leaving can also prove a problem as the inner harbour is fresh water fed and when the lock gate comes down, you need to let the pressure difference equalise. The outward flow can be surprisingly savage and I’ve seen a number of skippers embarrassed by this.

 

[Peterduck]

I called in during my tour of the UK in 2000. I was very impressed with it. Claud Worth's 'Tern III' was there as well as the square-riggers.
Peter.

 

[hlb]

Been there loads of times. Never bothered going into the lock though, but many have.

 

[Jean]

Tern lV was in there several years ago (sure it was Tern lll that you saw there?). She was sold on to a couple who were taking her down to the Pacific (he was Hawaiian and she Swiss), with the intention using her for charters down there. I met up with her again down near Gibraltar sheltering from a storm.

 

[NealB]

been in a couple of times, when I had wooden gaffer.

I'm sure they'd still welcome our catamaran, but we wouldn't feel that we adding to the ambience now.

They certainly don't discourage yachts, of any sort.