Burry Port

bitbaltic

bitbaltic

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Boat in Milford Haven
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Anyone been there recently (ish)?

Lots of teeth-sucking around Swansea Marina when it is mentioned- lots of people who surely have never been anywhere near there saying don't go there, which makes me interested in going there. Had a look at it from land the other day. Pilot (2008) says the marina sill impounds 1.5m minimum depth but google earth clearly shows a drying lump in the middle. Approaches up the Burry Inlet I am not so worried about- settled offshore weather, rising tide, 1.2m draft, motoring. There are at least twenty local yachts and the same again in mobos or fishing boats up there, so it can't be that wild, and sailing is about exploring. But I will not take the ground, so it's the marina depth that's my main concern.

Any experience on the board?

Cheers
 
Perhaps those who went there long ago have such awful memories that they won't return. In the 1970s I sailed in on a late summer but windy and wet Sunday evening to the old drying harbour and found a berth against a slimy wall: it was the most depressingly dead place I'd ever been into.
 
jwilson said:
Perhaps those who went there long ago have such awful memories that they won't return. In the 1970s I sailed in on a late summer but windy and wet Sunday evening to the old drying harbour and found a berth against a slimy wall: it was the most depressingly dead place I'd ever been into.
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I don't think they've ever been there.

It's very pleasant now, except for the loos near the lifeboat house which are like something from a prison. Tidy little yacht club, couple of cafes, semi-permanent burger van (not much use to a vegetarian but still), and on a Saturday afternoon two ice cream vans and a crepe van!

The town itself doesn't look amazing although it has most facilities close to the marina. Would only be going if the weather window was large-ish; it is less than 18Nm on from Burry Port to Tenby, and it seems a bit different to cruise Carmarthen Bay rather than going straight across it.

I think I'll ring the harbourmaster and ask about depths.
 
I have any number of different sets of waypoints for it:

An admiralty set from 1992 on a cancelled chart (havent looked at these yet)
A set from the 2008 pilot book
A set (different) measured in 2008 by the yacht club (http://www.burryportyachtclub.co.uk/waypoints.wps.htm)

Looking at different vintages of chart though, my impression is that although the depths of the channels changes (probably seasonal), the actual location of them is pretty fixed. Does anybody have an up to date copy of Admiralty 1167 and can tell me the date of the survey of the burry inlet on it? I have an old chart based on a survey in 1977 and would like to guesstimate the rate of change.
 
We, (CYC) went on a club cruise about five years ago. I had an updated Navionics chip in my plotter and decided to anchor and wait for the tide when I saw a guy on the sands fishing, where my plotter said there should be a channel. Other members had different chips and we're able to head straight to off the entrance to wait for the gate to open. The channel at the entrance was a bit strange, you had to go past and cut back but it was well marked.
The year after our trip I wanted to go back but they had problems with the gate. It's worth phoning first!
Allan
 
Thanks Allan, just the sort of stuff I wanted to know. There seems to be a sort of sand bank at the mouth of the entrance channel, it looks best to sail a cable or so east of the entrance then turn back. Probalby no issue at HW though.

Do you remember anything about the retained depth?

I am going to give them a call perhaps next week anyway.

Cheers
 
I can't recall any depth problems at the time. I believe it's far enough down not to suffer like Watchet etc. Most of the boats we took were around 1.5m draught.
Allan
 
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