Poole vs. Solent for a first time boater

[Granthsmith]

This season is going to be my first as a motor boat owner as I am in the final throws of buying a 27ft motor cruiser for me, my wife and our 5 year old. I was planning to keep the boat at Saxon Wharf dry-stack in Southampton as that is easily accessible from home (Bracknell) via the M3 but I have heard that the Solent is scarily busy and might be a bit intimidating (read dangerous) for a newbie. The possibility of going a bit further afield to Cobbs Quay at Poole has been suggested to find somewhere a little more quiet to ease my way into the hobby. We're looking for general cruising activities and a little fishing so would appreciate any thoughts the forumites may have as to where to base ourselves for the first year?

 

[splosh]

Congratulations, and I'm sure your itching to get on the water.
The Solent is fine, any time of year. Yes, it gets busy in a sense - particularly the Hamble River can be a bit of an exodus (Hamble Scramble) early on a weekend morning and returning in the early eves. But, as you are a motor boat this will present little problem as you have good manouverability.
It's all fun being part of the scene. I note you are mentioning dry stacking at Saxon. This is a good idea and works well. Saxon to open water is about 20 - 30 mins till you can open up.
The Itchen River is quite calm and is perfectly accessable against Cobbs Quay. Cobbs you need to go past Poole Town Quay either way and there is the Poole Lifting Bridge to contend. Depending on your air draft you will have to wait & queue for a scheduled bridge lift and you will be milling around with the rest of the boaters waiting to pass through. Can get busy in a small area there.
On the Itchen hand you can come and go up and down the river as you please with little disturbance and wash and congestion.

Once out into Southampton Water you can progress down to the Solent. From the Solent you have many places to explore such as the Beaulieu River, The Medina (Cowes), Lymington etc. For fishing you have either got the area around the Forts at Portsmouth or Hurst opposite Yarmouth on the overfalls.
Then you have some good areas to explore around Poole such as Brownsea or up Wareham Creek.
On both hands all are within easy reach and both are good learning grounds, but obviously the Solent waters area will offer more places explore for a newbie.


Good luck and enjoy.

 

[hlb]

Dont the Solent start about Weymouth then extend from there, I always though it did.

It's mostly infestidiod by idiots and Sckool boats.

Far better holidays are had by going some where different.

 

[gjgm]

This season is going to be my first as a motor boat owner as I am in the final throws of buying a 27ft motor cruiser for me, my wife and our 5 year old. I was planning to keep the boat at Saxon Wharf dry-stack in Southampton as that is easily accessible from home (Bracknell) via the M3 but I have heard that the Solent is scarily busy and might be a bit intimidating (read dangerous) for a newbie. The possibility of going a bit further afield to Cobbs Quay at Poole has been suggested to find somewhere a little more quiet to ease my way into the hobby. We're looking for general cruising activities and a little fishing so would appreciate any thoughts the forumites may have as to where to base ourselves for the first year?

The mouth of S/hampton water can get extremely busy, but at 27ft you dont need to stick right in the middle of the main channel! There's more room at the edges, so have a look at the charts and check the tides. I would def choose the Solent; you get the shelter from the island for one thing, so in almost any weather, you can still head out for a potter about.Then there are so many places to visit, safe places to anchor,beaches,villages etc... you could spend a few gentle seasons without ever leaving!
One thing to consider about dry dock..quite alot of the fun of boating is the social side in the marina;staying on board;having a drink as the sun goes down;having breakfast in the fresh morning air. if you can, I would seriously suggest

 

[mm1]

Poole v Solent

Sir,Poole (imho) is a much better place for anyone to start there boating life,if it is a bit windy then you just stay tucked up in the harbour somewhere,there is always somewhere you can go to get out of the wind,or if conditions are right you have many safe beaches within a short distance,yes after aprox 0830hrs on sat morn trafic is a b*****r,before this time it's no problem,also going home on sun eve between 6 thru 9pm can be very busy(& i mean very busy indeed),i'm sure,in fact i would put money on it that your crew will love Poole & if they are happy job done,regards mm1.

 

[Malabar]

Main problem with the Solent is that during summer weekends, especially around the obvious destinations (Cowes, Newtown etc), it's a veritable zoo.
On the other hand, so is Poole. Chichester Harbour is another option but same applies. During the week or at this time of year cruising any of the above is a delight. Probably a good idea to think about a Day Skipper's course, or maybe a Power boat level 2 (School or own boat). That would help reduce the "buttock-clench factor" while you are finding your way round.

 

[mm1]

well done sir!

Dont the Solent start about Weymouth then extend from there, I always though it did.

It's mostly infestidiod by idiots and Sckool boats.

Far better holidays are had by going some where different.

Well where to start with this,lets just say well done & thanks for your input,i am sure the o p found it very useful,regards mm1.

 

[Nick_H]

Well i'd discount Poole just because of the drive in the car to get there, the last bit from the end of the M27 just seems to take forever, and is always snarled up with traffic.

Then in Poole, if you leave your dry stack, and you want to go and stay in another marina in an interesting village or town, where do you go? The Solent. Poole's OK for anchoring, but if you want marinas then you have no choice. In Solent you can go to Southampton, Hamble, Portsmouth, Bembridge, Cowes, Beaulieu, Yarmouth and Lymington and stay in a marina, and add several more places to that if you're happy to anchor out.

I can't see the point driving an extra hour (or more at weekends) to get to Poole, to head back to the Solent on the boat.

Also, I agree gjgm's point, dry stack makes lots of sense in theory, and i'm sure it works for some, but half the fun is staying on the boat, fixing a few things, chatting with the neighbours. Dry stacking also probably means you'd travel down on Sat morning instead of Friday night, so that drive to Poole will be tortuous.

 

[colingr]

Congratulations, and I'm sure your itching to get on the water.
The Solent is fine, any time of year. Yes, it gets busy in a sense - particularly the Hamble River can be a bit of an exodus (Hamble Scramble) early on a weekend morning and returning in the early eves. But, as you are a motor boat this will present little problem as you have good manouverability.
It's all fun being part of the scene. I note you are mentioning dry stacking at Saxon. This is a good idea and works well. Saxon to open water is about 20 - 30 mins till you can open up.
The Itchen River is quite calm and is perfectly accessable against Cobbs Quay. Cobbs you need to go past Poole Town Quay either way and there is the Poole Lifting Bridge to contend. Depending on your air draft you will have to wait & queue for a scheduled bridge lift and you will be milling around with the rest of the boaters waiting to pass through. Can get busy in a small area there.
On the Itchen hand you can come and go up and down the river as you please with little disturbance and wash and congestion.

Once out into Southampton Water you can progress down to the Solent. From the Solent you have many places to explore such as the Beaulieu River, The Medina (Cowes), Lymington etc. For fishing you have either got the area around the Forts at Portsmouth or Hurst opposite Yarmouth on the overfalls.
Then you have some good areas to explore around Poole such as Brownsea or up Wareham Creek.
On both hands all are within easy reach and both are good learning grounds, but obviously the Solent waters area will offer more places explore for a newbie.


Good luck and enjoy.

Couldn't put it better myself. Come to Saxon, there are some nice people there

 

[mlines]

Can't speak for Eastern Solent.

Cobbs Quay is easily accessible from Reading area. Yes the last few miles can suffer from holiday traffic, but you just time your route/times appropriately.

Your problem with Cobbs Key is the lifting bridge, at peak summer times the queue for the bridge (boatwise) has to be seen to be believed. A couple of times last year the boat queue had hardly passed through before it was the next bridge opening again.

We launch from Cobbs Quay, but we have enough air gap to go under the bridge at any tide - jumping the queue (we have a SMALL boat)

Martin

Martin

 

[MRC]

We started off in Poole and then moved to Southampton. Poole is lovely if the weather is good but there wasnt really anywhere to go for a day trip / pub lunch other than head to the Solent.

You can usually go out in most conditions within the Solent area which means plenty of pubs to visit for the odd weekend or day trips.

My vote would be for somewhere in Southampton area and use Poole as a destination for weekend trips.

 

[PEJ]

A lot depends on what you want to do when you stop your engines.

If you want to anchor off a nice beach and dingy ashore for the little one to play in the sand then Poole has much better beaches nearby.

If you want to tie up to a pontoon and go and get lunch then So'ton has much better places within easy reach.

When I was inexperienced I found the entrance to Poole Harbour pretty scary (still do!) but So'ton Water when it is busy is more of a nuisance than anything scary.

 

[Kaste]

You could consider berthing in Lymington and have the best of both worlds. We are moving from the The Hamble area after great years in Mercury to Lymington for the reasons stated above. Costs are the same for us, do not know about availablity.

 

[gjgm]

A lot depends on what you want to do when you stop your engines.

If you want to anchor off a nice beach and dingy ashore for the little one to play in the sand then Poole has much better beaches nearby.

If you want to tie up to a pontoon and go and get lunch then So'ton has much better places within easy reach.

When I was inexperienced I found the entrance to Poole Harbour pretty scary (still do!) but So'ton Water when it is busy is more of a nuisance than anything scary.

Except Studland will probably been banned to mobos shortly to preserve the sealife

 

[Garold]

We have had nearly 2 seasons at Ocean Village and the convenience of pulling in there easily after a trip down the M3 is great, late on a Friday. We also like the come-and-go-as-you-please convenience of Southampton. No need to worry about anything other than when you are ready to go. No bridge or tide worries.

As a powerboater you can get down Southampton Water pretty swiftly so you really have great scope to visit anywhere on the Solent even if only out for the day.

Finally, I think that the 10 minutes before Poole Bridge opens especially in the summer is a sight to frighten even experienced boaters. And once the bridge opens there is sometimes a bit of a free-for-all as everyone races to get through. The Solent is massive, so no need to worry. It's only us raggies that get runover because we are too slow to get out of the way!

Just my opinion though, and I can think of several reasons to choose Poole too. In fact no rubbish choice whichever you decide.

 

[Nautibusiness]

This is a fun thread with no right answer.

What works for some won't for others.

I've kept boats in and boated from Langstone, Hamble and now Poole.

River Hamble was pretty, but the remainder of Southampton Water is absolutely horrible with Fawley being a blot on the entire Solents landscape.
The Solent does off more choice for pontoon stops, but isn't hugely varied and doesn't offer much scope for getting further in a day unless you are confident.

Poole... Sure, not so many pubs to tie up and enjoy, but far more sheltered boating within the most beautiful harbour confines and if you really need a pub then head back to the Solent on that one day a year when Salties (great fish restaurant / pub in Yarmouth) is calling.
The remaining time you can cruise "proper" with Christchurch, Studland, Swanage and numerous amazing and beautiful coves all the way to Weymouth to enjoy within picnicing range.
As you get more adventurous you will rarely head East, instead heading South to France and the Channel Isles or to the West Country, all of which are a lot of fuel closer than from the Central and Eastern parts of the Solent.

In my opinion, West is best, but don't limit yourself to Cobbs Quay.
Actually, whilst it is Poole's largest marina, I wouldn't want to keep a boat there due to the rather large "sterile" atmosphere and all the issues of the bridge/s and time to the harbour proper.
Consider the smaller , family run marinas such as Dorset Lake or Parkstone Bay (where I am based and work as a broker) which incidentally also has a dry berthing arrangement. The smaller marinas will see you very quickly being part of the crowd and welcomed with open arms, the larger ones can sometimes appear a little daunting and "clicky" wherever they may be.

Tom

 

[oldgit]

Poole / Solent vs Thames

"This season is going to be my first"" any thoughts the forumites may have as to where to base ourselves for the first year?"

Some thoughts.........Wonder exactly you have bought....and how is your wife on the roly poly sea?
You may be an old sea salt with 50 years of experience in which case ignore this bit of my post if however you are a tyro you might want to think about this suggestion.
You have got the Thames on your doorstep and the Solent is not going anywhere any time soon so have you thought about starting your boating life on a nice calm safe sheltered bit of water with a multitude of attractions that are more pleasureable than say trying to stay out of the wind in a f4 while moored just off Fawley Refinery and wondering just how much worse the weather is going to get on the way home.
Ask the wife if she would prefer to be parked outside Hampton Court Palace enjoying a glass of Pino before getting changed and walking up to the town for meal and a pleasant wander back afterwards and a decent snooze on the still dark waters of the Thames or .........................................rafted 5 deep in some industrial estate of a marina.
Keeping a firm hold on the nipper as you bang and thud across the bay for an hour will lose its appeal mighty quickly especially for missis smith.
A season up there to learn how you boat handles and stuff and then next year you can fight it out on the Solent and pretend that it is a neat place to boat,while your wife keeps nagging you to go back to somewhere nice and sensible like the Thames ?
Worth considering perhaps ?

 

[epervier]

"This season is going to be my first"" any thoughts the forumites may have as to where to base ourselves for the first year?"

Some thoughts.........Wonder exactly you have bought....and how is your wife on the roly poly sea?
You may be an old sea salt with 50 years of experience in which case ignore this bit of my post if however you are a tyro you might want to think about this suggestion.
You have got the Thames on your doorstep and the Solent is not going anywhere any time soon so have you thought about starting your boating life on a nice calm safe sheltered bit of water with a multitude of attractions that are more pleasureable than say trying to stay out of the wind in a f4 while moored just off Fawley Refinery and wondering just how much worse the weather is going to get on the way home.
Ask the wife if she would prefer to be parked outside Hampton Court Palace enjoying a glass of Pino before getting changed and walking up to the town for meal and a pleasant wander back afterwards and a decent snooze on the still dark waters of the Thames or .........................................rafted 5 deep in some industrial estate of a marina.
Keeping a firm hold on the nipper as you bang and thud across the bay for an hour will lose its appeal mighty quickly especially for missis smith.
A season up there to learn how you boat handles and stuff and then next year you can fight it out on the Solent and pretend that it is a neat place to boat,while your wife keeps nagging you to go back to somewhere nice and sensible like the Thames ?
Worth considering perhaps ?

there's some really sound advice in what you say Fred.

if you live on top of Father Thames, why drive down the M3 for a couple of hours when you could be only a few mins away? My home waters are the solent my boat is 5 mins from my front door, but I'd love to have a go at some serious ditch crawling, all our rivers down here are only an hour each way, with the exception of the hamble which is probably longer than that because of all the boat parking areas that get in the way.

 

[Granthsmith]

The Thames is a very valid suggestion although I have to admit my wife has more boating experience than me and the speed of sea cruising combined with fishing and visiting different destinations is what makes the coast appealing to us. We would like to have a go at river boating some time but that is more likely to be a weeks holiday on the broads or similar rather then a fulltime exploit, at least until we're a good few years older and want a more sedate pace of cruising anyway!

I'm really appreciating the comments from everyone on this thread, it's all very useful and I am already realising we are likely to be changing our base of operation every year or two so we get different experiences.

(By the way, the boat is hopefully going to be a Monterey 265, surveyed last week and undergoing a few 'fixes' this week so with a bit of luck a final sea trial this weekend will clinch it! (weather was too rough for the surveyor to take her out last week)

 

[strakeryrius]

I'd disagree with the guys who have said that Poole is a pain with regard to traffic. I've been at Cobb's Quay for the last two seasons and never had a problem getting to the boat. You see far worse jams heading into Lymington or Beaulieu in the summer than into Poole. The trick is to travel at the right time - when everyone else is not! I have a worse trip than you in coming from Bromley to Poole - about 130 miles - but I leave early and travel back late, and the journey time usually just over two hours. Not too bad at all.

Cobb's have great staff and facilities (but NOT the Boat House - its terrible) and there is a plethora of places to go to the west - loads of beautiful coves and anchorages all the way to Weymouth as has been said, and if you want a different aspect to boating like the Solent has to offer its still only an hour away to Yarmouth or 90 mins to Cowes, with more fantastic scenery on the way. In a smaller boat like a 25' there is also loads to do in the harbour itself if its too rough out of the harbour, with all the islands to explore as well as the Wareham channel and lots more.

The Solent has a lot to offer too, but its a slightly different type of boating to what you will do out of Poole - I'd make my choice based on what you want to do on your boat once you get out on the water.