Do you live near/sail out of Southampton?

[Nerissa]

There is a possibility we may have the opportunity to move to Southampton next year. I've never been there and don't know a lot about where to live - we would need to be nearish the university and the train to London, and need to take secondary schools into account but obviously I am also keen to use the opportunity to put myself in the way of a bit of sailing which is not possible where we currently live. Anyone here got any hints/tips on where to live, how to go about doing this. Ideally, I would like to get a boat of our own (Wayfarer or 20-22ft daysailer sort of thing). My spouse is reasonably keen but kids not so much. Any advice at all would be welcome.

 

[Seajet]

There is a possibility we may have the opportunity to move to Southampton next year. I've never been there and don't know a lot about where to live - we would need to be nearish the university and the train to London, and need to take secondary schools into account but obviously I am also keen to use the opportunity to put myself in the way of a bit of sailing which is not possible where we currently live. Anyone here got any hints/tips on where to live, how to go about doing this. Ideally, I would like to get a boat of our own (Wayfarer or 20-22ft daysailer sort of thing). My spouse is reasonably keen but kids not so much. Any advice at all would be welcome.

Nerissa,

sorry but you may not like what I have to say; Southampton is a pretty violent place especially in the evening, after a few experiences I wouldn't dream of strolling around in the evening, this includes Ocean Village where I saw the most violent scrap I've ever witnessed, ending in 6 police cars inc dogs !

If you could get a bit out towards the New Forest it would be a whole different ball game, we have friends there just on the outskirts of Totton who love it.

Sailing wise in Southampton Water, there have been threads on this very recently; the concensus seemed to be 'fine but a long drag out to the Solent, usually with the wind funneling against one'.

It might be worth thinking about keeping your boat in Cowes, either in one of the marinas or up the Medina ?

Easy ferry access.

Have Fun whatever you do,

Andy

 

[prv]

sorry but you may not like what I have to say; Southampton is a pretty violent place especially in the evening, after a few experiences I wouldn't dream of strolling around in the evening,

What a bizarre thing to say.

I live in Southampton, I've never thought of it as a violent place. Like any city I'm sure it has its moments, but I regularly "stroll around" in the evening without worrying about my safety.

Not really sure how to advise "where to live", as always it depends on what's available and what you can afford.

There are several dinghy clubs on Southampton Water which it sounds like you should get in touch with.

Pete

 

[Nerissa]

Thanks guys for those answers. It is early days yet, and finding school places for three secondary age children is going to be my biggest headache as regards places to live. Dinghy clubs would be a good place to start - wish I could interest said children. What about crewing opportunities - would I be best to ask at yacht clubs and which are friendly ones as opposed to scary posh ones?

 

[prv]

What about crewing opportunities - would I be best to ask at yacht clubs and which are friendly ones as opposed to scary posh ones?

I've not been to any of the yacht clubs, but certainly Southampton Sailing Club doesn't strike me as scary or posh!

You might also have some luck posting on here.

Pete

 

[carannah]

http://www.southamptonsailingclub.com/
Link for Southampton Sailing Club. It is a small cheap club to join and they have RYA accredidation. They have cruisers and a growing dinghy section and also have club dinghies.
Open wednesday and Friday evenings for a drink at the bar or see their calender for dinghy races etc. I am sure there would also be crewing opportunities.

 

[Boomshanka]

For schools in Soton (unless you want to go independent)... one look at the league tables will show you that all is not tip top (I realise this is a very personal view, and each to their own). The best state school would be Thornden (10 miles north in Chandlers Ford), houses in catchment area can be 20-30% above what you might expect to pay for non-catchment in Chandler's Ford and surrounding areas. PM me if you want more info for the Uni as well.

 

[l'escargot]

Southampton is no worse than any other big city, there are good areas and bad - it is certainly no worse than London. There are lots of nice areas in a 10 mile radius of Southampton but you are looking at London style property prices. Plenty of good schools. Despite being a port Southampton is not really considered a sailing area, look down towards the Hamble or Hythe on the other side for that.

 

[blackdogsailing]

As a member of Southampton Sailing Club I can thoroughly reccomend them for what you are looking for. Southampton Water is great for dinghy and small boat sailing. A bit of a hike down to The Solent for the bigger boats but with the prevailing west or southwesterlys it's usually a reach of one description.

I have lived in Southampton for 10 years and have lived in Portsmouth, Plymouth and Liverpool before that. Southampton is no better or worse than any other city for trouble at night.

PM me if you want more details about Southampton Sailing Club. I am on the committee.

Chris

 

[ianat182]

A list of excellent sailing clubs in the Southampton area might be:
Eling S.C at the top of the Docks; Marchwood Y.C: Southampton S.C; Netley and Weston S.C.: Hythe S.C on the Western side of Southampton Water.
The Hamble River has 4 clubs, and all have dinghy sections as well as the cruiser fleets these are Warsash Sailing Club, Hamble River S.C ;Royal Southern Y.C and the R.A.F. Yacht Club; all are RYA approved training centres with fleets of Optimists, Mirrors and Pico dinghies as well as Wayfarers and most other classes of dinghies.
All are excellent and friendly clubs but joining fees and subscriptions vary considerably depending on your/their membership requirements.
Hamble is within easy accessibilty to Southampton City, however it is your choice of residence that can make the clubs local to you.
Hedge End and West End, Chandlers Ford are well established residential areas with plenty of choice of housing types; prices are also around the national, or at least southern counties average.
Commuting to London by car is via M27/M3 motorways or from Eastleigh or Southampton Central stations by rail, and or the local airport at Eastleigh for elsewhere.


ianat182

 

[Boomshanka]

The kids and I are booked in to do two weekends of dinghy sailing (stage? 1 and 2) at Southampton Sailing Club in September (15/16, 29/30 I think - Mrs Boomshanka is chief organiser)... so it would be good to meet any forumites who sail from there (I'm not very good at remembering YBW forum names so do please say 'hello')... I hope to spend more time in the dinghy rather than in the water

 

[Seajet]

What a bizarre thing to say.

I live in Southampton, I've never thought of it as a violent place. Like any city I'm sure it has its moments, but I regularly "stroll around" in the evening without worrying about my safety.

Not really sure how to advise "where to live", as always it depends on what's available and what you can afford.

There are several dinghy clubs on Southampton Water which it sounds like you should get in touch with.

Pete

Why the hell would I want to know about dinghy clubs, Peter ?!

Take 2 visits to Southampton - at the Frog & Frigate pub I was crushed against the ledge on the bar when a gang of yobs burst in and felt I was lucky to get away without cracked ribs or worse.

At a nightclub in Ocean Village we were bored so went to leave, then a doorman held us back, " hang on lads ".

Next thing a huge fight erupted, bouncers v yobs, a yob tore the big ashtray of the top of a bin and frisbeed it at a bouncer; he ducked, and it took a chunk out of the wall !

I'd say that was pretty violent; the police turned up mob-handed, with a dog van.

I'm told this is not so rare, so combined with fairly unattractive sailing waters nearby I have my doubts.

I must say the Royal Southampton ( ? Long time ago ) YC were very friendly, but we were in the company of a star member YM Examiner who'd done every Fastnet and had been at the Battle Of The River Plate, which I suspect helped !

Southampton has all the atmosphere of the moon but a bit more dangerous, if one edges towards the New Forest it's OK as a place to live, a decent sailing base not costing an arm and a leg takes a bit of effort to sort out.

 

[prv]

Why the hell would I want to know about dinghy clubs, Peter ?!

You don't, the OP does, which is why he started this thread.

The comment about housing wasn't addressed to you either, in case you were wondering

I'd say that was pretty violent; the police turned up mob-handed, with a dog van.

So you've witnessed (not even been involved in) two pub brawls and you therefore condemn the entire city as an exceptionally violent place that you "wouldn't dream" of visiting?

This and your permanent blacklisting of Yarmouth, you do seem to be one for jumping to conclusions.

Pete

 

[Seajet]

Pete,

I'm sorry I didn't get involved in the brawls at the pub and nightclub to qualify as judging them a place not to be, call me yellow but I thought getting out without being punched or knifed was a reasonable result.

I've always fancied one of those bar scenes where John Wayne says " The Hell You Aint ! " and smashes a balsa wood chair over someone who then slides along the length of the bar !

The things I saw weren't like that, just downright scary; those were just two examples, I have seen others there.

If it makes you feel any better some parts of Portsmouth are only slightly less bad, I lived in Southsea for a while and that's a place to keep ones' wits sharp too.

You would have to pay me quite a reasonable amount to walk through Pompey at midnight ( having done it ), double it for Southampton !

 

[prv]

You would have to pay me quite a reasonable amount to walk through Pompey at midnight ( having done it ), double it for Southampton !

I walk through Southampton at midnight on my way back from the pub quite regularly; who do I have to see to get paid for it?

Pete

 

[Seajet]

Pete,

depends very much on which bit and how far; if you can access your Guardian Angel account you'll find your credit status, sounds like you're quite possibly in the red and should consider getting a big machine gun.

Andy

 

[prv]

sounds like you're quite possibly in the red and should consider getting a big machine gun.

I was once called onto the stage in a school assembly to be presented with the "Individual Machine Gun Trophy", which earned me a certain notoriety.

(The actual title was "CADSAM Light Support Weapon Champion Shot", but the Headmaster didn't know what that meant so somebody simplified it for him, and he chose to read out the simplified version.)

Sadly I don't have the weapon any more, just the trophy

Pete

 

[[2068]]

Having lived in Southsea, there are areas where I wouldn't expect to find any wheels still on the car when I returned.

And Mrs Flower Power spent several years working in Southampton, working with some errm "service users with challenging socio-economic backgrounds".

But in both cases, regularly getting involved in pub brawls usually means you're going to the wrong pub!

How can this be?
Everyone up North seems to think the South of England is all posh?

 

[boatmike]

As others have said, Southampton and Portsmouth are big cities with all the advantages and disadvantages that represents. There is a fairly extensive ribbon development between the two which makes the whole area one of the densest populated areas in the country. I live at Lee-on-Solent which I love but being retired I don't have to join in the total traffic chaos to get to work and back every day which is pretty horrific. You don't say what your budget is but there are places like Warsash and Hamble that are great and you could commute from there easily. I think you would also find a better class of school for the kids there too but it's more expensive. Otherwise going north towards Salisbury you will find some excellent rural villages and the commute into Soutn is not as bad. I would suggest you look very carefully before moving into Soutn itself as, with a short commute you might find a nicer place, but your budget will dictate as the house prices reflect desirability.

 

[Garold]

We have been a berth holder in Ocean Village a couple of times now and we quite like Southampton.

Lots of choices for restaurants and a wide variety of pubs. There's shopping when it's bad weather, and you can go look at ships if you want a dose of 'dockyard scenery'.

Never seen or heard of any trouble in Ocean Village or Southampton worse than what my 20-something sons tell me can happen late at night in the cities they spend time in (mainly London, Birmingham, Manchester). But you probably need to be out very late and be a bit unlucky to experience or worse be involved in anything significant. We eat out in town most evenings when we are on board but not sailing.

But it is a city. And you should choose an area that suits you. If you don't want to experience a bit of city congestion or late night noise then the suburban/fringe areas not too far out are very quiet and even rural.

As for us, we like urban activity combined with safe full tide access for boating. And Southampton water looks great for dinghy sailing since there is often 'wind without waves'. And we seem to pass several sailing clubs on Southampton water.

For us, we often seem to be having breakfast going down Southampton water and doing 'end of weekend cleaning' on the way up. Scenery there isn't the best in the Solent.

I guess 'troublesome places' depend on your point of view and experience. We met some friends who have a small house in lymington a few weeks ago and were talking about the nice and the 'troublesome' areas of lymington to us. All depends on you expectations and personal experience I suppose.
Anyway, go spend a couple of weekends there in a hotel and explore. We've met many youngsters who have attended the university there and all have seemed very happy there.

And right now the place has a bit of buzz because they have Premiership football back in town. So, if you don't like noise then stay out of town on match day because the local supporters are singing everywhere and you will see whole families dressed for football. Amazing how the locals get behind their team. Excellent. Not sure all yachties is would have the same view though.

Just my twopennyworth.
Cheers
Garold