Burry Port

[Birdseye]

Stuck in Swansea on a no sail day this week so we hopped on a bus to have a look at Burry Port. Its a pretty big marina, larger than Milford at a guess, but run down and well silted. However its been bought by the Marine Group who according to the staff in the office have big plans. They have commissioned a new dredger to shift the sand, and are repairing the lock gates.

Looks like a big task to me with a huge area of shifting sands outside the entrance which will also need some dredging. Could be a great asset - or could be another Watchet.

Currently could be a visit for a mobo but not my deep fin sail boat.

Got a few piccies but my favourite image hosting outfit Postimage seems to have disappeared.

 

[Gwylan]

Stuck in Swansea on a no sail day this week so we hopped on a bus to have a look at Burry Port. Its a pretty big marina, larger than Milford at a guess, but run down and well silted. However its been bought by the Marine Group who according to the staff in the office have big plans. They have commissioned a new dredger to shift the sand, and are repairing the lock gates.

Looks like a big task to me with a huge area of shifting sands outside the entrance which will also need some dredging. Could be a great asset - or could be another Watchet.

Currently could be a visit for a mobo but not my deep fin sail boat.

Got a few piccies but my favourite image hosting outfit Postimage seems to have disappeared.

The whole estuary has been silting up for ever. Struck me as needing lots of local knowledge.
I grew up on the Gower side. One of my favourite sailing memories is drying near the lighthouse. That was more than 10 years ago. Is it still there?

 

[norwester]

I expect Whitford lighthtouse will be still there when we're all gone. It is made of thick cast iron plate. I vaguely remember it was for sale for just £1 quite a while back but didn't hear of any takers.
The estuary up to Burry is very open to swell that can find its way in up the channel from the Atlantic at times. If you can get hold of a copy of an old book called ' Gower Gleanings' there's an account of one horrific incident with great loss of life when a fleet of small ships got caught out at such a time on the sands there.

 

[Birdseye]

The whole estuary has been silting up for ever. Struck me as needing lots of local knowledge.
I grew up on the Gower side. One of my favourite sailing memories is drying near the lighthouse. That was more than 10 years ago. Is it still there?

If its the one on the pierhead of the harbour, then yes its been renovated..

It does look like a difficult estuary to get caught in and there is sod all to do once in the town. But the more marinas in the channel the better, particularly if they would Marinerise Ilfracombe.

 

[bitbaltic]

I agree bury port is a bit of a forgotten destination. We scoped it out when at Swansea but didn’t go. I’d have had no qualms about going in on a decent flood tide with my 1.2 m wing, but the marina was full of drying sand bars and looked difficult to be sure of staying afloat. Also sad to see a huge second basin empty of boats but full of rotting pontoons. Lots of potential for the seaman if renovated but marinas need landslide footfall to shops and businesses and hard to see that being developed. The town not up to much but it is set quite a way back from the marina which is a bonus given all the noise, hen parties, rough sleepers etc around Swansea marina. Good luck to Marine Group but they will have their work cut out. My feeling is like watchet it needs a coffer dam and a fleet of JCBs

 

[chrishelen]

I had my first boat in burry port around 30 years ago, went down there last year for a look around and apart from lock gates and new houses on the old boat yard it's exactly the same. I had a few interesting sails out of the port, but as I say, that was 30 odd years ago.

 

[Allan]

A few years ago I organised a club cruise to Burry port. We had 10 or 12 boats. We stopped the first night at Oxwich, went around the Tower and anchored on the south side of the bay. I remember that my plotter (navionics) was completely wrong but boats with C map sailed straight across! Once in the pontoons were free from silting and the club was very friendly. The facilities were basic! A dozen boats turning up on one tide was quite an event for the locals! The harbour master was nice guy, I think he lived, or at least spent a lot of time, on a motor cruiser in the harbour.
The entry and exit were a little strange, you had to go passed then turn inshore around three buoys. A great trip, I hope they have great success with upgrading it all.
Allan