Intel on Portheras Cove (North coast of west Cornwall) please

shmoo

shmoo

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Does anyone have any experience of Portheras Cove, just north of Pendeen.

We are still house hunting and now are about as far west as you can get without getting your feet wet. Looking a running a small boat out of the "Boat Cove" between Portheras and Pendeen watch, maybe even a sea kayak until I can negotiate storing rights for something bigger.

Does the coasties VHF reach in there?
Is the race between the Wra and the shore as mean as it looks?
What else do I need to know?

By the way apologies for lack of management of yourboatpix, I will be back on that when house is found.
 
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If it was me I'd go to the south coast for the boat, Penzance is not too far to drive. Google Portheras Cove and look at the pictures and the aerial pictures and you'll pretty much see a surfing beach. These are not great for boating! The complete lack of marinas and moorings along the north coast of cornwall should tell you quite a lot, although in good weather you'd have some stunning scenery (the Newquay surf contest is usually held in excellent boating weather so try then :) )
 
It's tiny, exposed, has quite steep concrete slipway. Seems to be a winch for pulling out the small local fishing boats. You could launch a kayak from there, after you'd carried it down the path. Surfing beach as mentioned before.
Lots of tide off there too, obviously worse at springs.
 
I beach fish off there occaisonally. It's lethal and I wouldnt dream off launching from there unless I was 127th generation local and desperate to get out!!!
 
If you want to live in that area and go boating close to home I suggest you look at places like Hayle/Lelant or Marazion.
 
snowleopard said:
If you want to live in that area and go boating close to home I suggest you look at places like Hayle/Lelant or Marazion.
Click to expand...

On the face of it Hayle and Lelant look like good choices but the the RSPB own, like actually own, more or less the whole of the Hayle estuary. I got quite far on a house in that area before I discovered exactly what you can't do there. It is a mesh of SSSIs,LNRs, and other bo****x. There are some nationally rare thingys of some description there, according to the huge estuary management plan. Nationally rare folks having any fun, if you ask me. I was naively expecting to pull a boat up onto the saltmarsh around Copperhouse pool and walk home with the dog. Forget it. No boats and no dogs and £80 fixed penalty ticket.

If you get that bit further west on the the Penwith peninsula Cornwall gets more like I remember it as a kid. There is a proper healthy disregard for rules and authority. You get more, "that is not allowed, but everyone does it". If I have to use a winch to get the boat down the slip and beach launch in to a bit of swell and a fierce tide to get all that, well I guess I do. Looks like mad Dutchmen driving their cargo ships up the beach is a hazard too. We are staying 500m from that beach but got up too late to see the fun and games!
 
Forget Portheras Cove. Doubt if you could 'negotiate' anything down there, the locals are a hard-bitten lot and they had a fight to get access. Forget Hayle in a small boat, see my post on 'these guys earn their money...'

Try Sennen, but if you want an easier life go to Penzance.
 
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