Poole Harbour Slipways

Bigplumbs

Bigplumbs

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Me and her indoors are thinking of taking our 4.5m rib to poole Harbour and staying in one of the holiday parks.

I see that there is a slip at MDL which is £50, Are there any public slips or other places to access the Harbour with this smallish boat. I would need a place to park after the launch


Also any places to stay with water access would be great


Thanks
 
Bigplumbs said:
Me and her indoors are thinking of taking our 4.5m rib to poole Harbour and staying in one of the holiday parks.

I see that there is a slip at MDL which is £50, Are there any public slips or other places to access the Harbour with this smallish boat. I would need a place to park after the launch


Also any places to stay with water access would be great


Thanks
Click to expand...


my son used the public slip at baiter park, parking not free mind, IIRC he used Davis's boatyard slip also through bridge and next door to MDL at Cobbs Quay, chargeable of course but more secure For leaving trailer. Rockley park holiday place too methinks.
 
Not alot, frankly. You could try Rockley Park, but it gets very shallow there and it is a bit of a treck. Even further , there is a small boatyard on the south side of the river Frome.
There is a very very shallow public slipway at Baiter Park, with a car park. Most will use waders or wet suited jet skiers, to give you the picture.
All the marinas are going to charge.
Much of Poole is quite shallow, be advised, and the HM has the most amazingly powerful cameras covering almost all of the harbour, and automatic radar speed monitoring. Just note then the speed limit is 10 knots.
No landing permitted on Brownsea Island.
The first few hundred metres just outside the entrance can be very bumpy if the tide is in full chat.
Poole and Bournemouth are holiday destinations, so no shortage of accommodation.
Even for just a car, you will have to pay to park anywhere within a hiking distance of the water around Poole.
 
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gjgm said:
Not alot, frankly. You could try Rockley Park, but it gets very shallow there and it is a bit of a treck. Even further , there is a small boatyard on the south side of the river Frome.
There is a very very shallow public slipway at Baiter Park, with a car park. Most will use waders or wet suited jet skiers, to give you the picture.
All the marinas are going to charge.
Much of Poole is quite shallow, be advised, and the HM has the most amazingly powerful cameras covering almost all of the harbour, and automatic radar speed monitoring. Just note then the speed limit is 10 knots.
No landing permitted on Brownsea Island.
The first few hundred metres just outside the entrance can be very bumpy if the tide is in full chat.
Poole and Bournemouth are holiday destinations, so no shortage of accommodation.
Even for just a car, you will have to pay to park anywhere within a hiking distance of the water around Poole.
Click to expand...
Has the whole of poole Harbour got a 10 knot speed limit
 
colhel said:
There's a beach launching site at the bottom of Lake Road just past the yachtsman pub. Various residential streets around people use for fee parking. A long walk at low at low tide though.
Click to expand...

Salterns marina at Lilliput have a slip and parking too if the bank account allows. leaving a trailer on street would not be my favourite option.
 
Bigplumbs said:
Has the whole of poole Harbour got a 10 knot speed limit
Click to expand...

Speed limit applies apart from Wareham Channel, Middle Ship and North Channels in the Winter months between 1 October and 31 March.
It also doesn't apply if you are on a Royal Marines Training exercise in the dead of night, or if you are Sunseeker staff testing out a Sunseeker before it's been handed over.
For everyone else in season, it's 10kts.
 
If you are planning on a holiday park you may as well go to Rockley Park where they have launching etc on site, how they charge for this if you are staying there I don't know.
Speed limits everywhere during season but there is a water ski area near Rockley, though this is ski only, no inflateable towables.
Speeding is monitored though you wouldn't know it some days.......
Patrols all tied up by late afternoon early evening usually............
If you are staying elsewhere Lake Road is one of only two free options if you can fit between and under size restrictors (see street view).
The other is next door to the RNLI college, but no parking close by and access has a dogleg, but maybe ok for 4.5m........
 
dpb said:
If you are planning on a holiday park you may as well go to Rockley Park where they have launching etc on site, how they charge for this if you are staying there I don't know.
Speed limits everywhere during season but there is a water ski area near Rockley, though this is ski only, no inflateable towables.
Speeding is monitored though you wouldn't know it some days.......
Patrols all tied up by late afternoon early evening usually............
If you are staying elsewhere Lake Road is one of only two free options if you can fit between and under size restrictors (see street view).
The other is next door to the RNLI college, but no parking close by and access has a dogleg, but maybe ok for 4.5m........
Click to expand...

We were indeed planning to go to Rockley Park so I will give them a call... Thanks for the information
 
If you are at Rockley Park then they have a reasonable slipway that we have used quite often.

When the tide is running fast then recovery is a test of seamanship as it runs across the end of the slipway, always a huge crowd of appreciative spectators during holiday season. Low water (particularly low water springs) sees a LOT of mud exposed with a narrow channel of water through it. Disconcerting to be coming up the channel with water under the boat whilst small children have paddled out in the shallow water up to their knees to stand a metre or so from you.

Main issue was (the last times we were there which is a while ago now) that the yellow "no parking" hatching across the slipway had worn away, resulting in all and sundry holiday makers parking on the slipway approach. we had a couple of conversations along the lines of "I will park there if I want" which elicited the response from me of "OK, I will try and blind reverse my boat past your car within scratching it" (they always moved!)

Here we are recovering at Rockley in our previous boat (sorry for the camera vibration its mount was loose). As a boater you will appreciate that the bow was not pointing at the trailer on the approach due to tide and wind.
 
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Thanks Martin that is incredibly useful. and has swung it for me. The boat I will take is only a 4.5 m light rib with 60 hp on the back so no real issue. I usually launch and recove at the Deben Entrance and that has a huge tide.

I assume that is the boat park near the caravan park..... Is it associated with the actual Caravan park and if so what do you pay to launch etc

Thanks

Dennis
 
FlowerPower said:
Speed limit applies apart from Wareham Channel, Middle Ship and North Channels in the Winter months between 1 October and 31 March.
It also doesn't apply if you are on a Royal Marines Training exercise in the dead of night, or if you are Sunseeker staff testing out a Sunseeker before it's been handed over.
For everyone else in season, it's 10kts.
Click to expand...

and 6 knots in the quiet areas, basically south of Brownsea Island.
 
FlowerPower said:
Speed limit applies apart from Wareham Channel, Middle Ship and North Channels in the Winter months between 1 October and 31 March.
It also doesn't apply if you are on a Royal Marines Training exercise in the dead of night, or if you are Sunseeker staff testing out a Sunseeker before it's been handed over.
For everyone else in season, it's 10kts.
Click to expand...

Don't forgot Pilot Boats, they are required by law to travel at whatever speed produces maximum wash whilst in the harbour limits :rolleyes:..
 
Bigplumbs said:
Thanks Martin that is incredibly useful. and has swung it for me. The boat I will take is only a 4.5 m light rib with 60 hp on the back so no real issue. I usually launch and recove at the Deben Entrance and that has a huge tide.

I assume that is the boat park near the caravan park..... Is it associated with the actual Caravan park and if so what do you pay to launch etc

Thanks

Dennis
Click to expand...

Its within the caravan park and is associated with the Rockley Watersports company, which is part of the caravan park group. We have only ever paid as a day visitor, not as a caravan park resident. It was around £40 per day for park and launch.
 
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