Port dinorwic menai straits.?

MORUMAN

MORUMAN

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hello everyone and a prosperouse new year to you, my brother has a relation who lives by port dinorwic and he says it's a good place to keep your boat. ? am i correct in thinking that yes it's a quaint scenic location, BUT, there are three problems:
1: to enter the straits you have to negotiate a lock.?
2: to reach the open sea you have to compete with strong tidal streams. ?
3: if your a sea angler you would have a 3 hr steam to reach hollyhead. ?

item 3 is based on information i have received that anglesea's best fishing grounds lye off hollyhead.

any information you have will be well received. moruman.
 
1. Yes
2. It is not essential that you compete with them, it's far easier to go with them. Timing is essential and you need an awareness of what is happening outside the Strait, as crossing Caernarfon Bar in fresh southwesterlies is not recommended.
3. You would have to go some to make Holyhead in three hours but for a mobo probably doable. There is good fishing off Puffin Island, nowhere near so far and more easily accessible once through the Swellies.
 
port dinorwic marina

Hi

Agree with Vyv Cox's comments and negotiating the Swellies at other than high water slack needs research and practice (and a good engine)!

There is good fishing to had between PD marina and Britannia bridge and unless you are experienced the sea conditions and tides off Holyhead can be challenging !

The other option would be to base the boat either in Holyhead Marina or join H/H Sailing Club and take a swinging mooring and use the club launch service . Holyhead Bay is quite sheltered.
 
We have been at Conwy marina now for about six years or so, once you come to terms with the tidal gate, it's a great place to be. Popular with lots of private pleasure fishing boats, may be worth having a look there, although I know there are both pro's and con's for both locations.

Where ever you decide it's a beautiful part of the world. Enjoy.
 
many thanks to you all, much appreciated. it's good to know there are still some fish around angelsea, we have fished the scottish sea lochs and inner hebredies for the past 30 yrs, had some monster cod in the 70's, 80's, and one or two in the 90's, employing lures and feather booms, BUT, they are all gone now, just mackrell. the buckie dredgers plough up the sea bed and gill netting is across most places, so sad, and the scots want us to leave them now, they were short sighted not to stop the commercial fishing inside the 6 mile limit, especially when most boats were foreign, with small mesh net sizes and free diesel. the area used to be mobbed with small boat anglers and the pubs and hotels were buisy every weekend, it's a ghost area now.

SO why is wales not suffering the same with heavy commercial fishing. ? moruman.
 
The local fishing charter boats (there are quite a few out of Menai) focus on wreck sites where commercial netting is not practical. One of the key advantages of the Straits is that you can head to Puffin & the 10' bank if strong SW'lies or over the bar & off the Lleyn if their are strong NW'lies.

Tides are strong all around the area & that means plenty of overfalls which make excellent feeding grounds for many species of fish - can't be bad can it? BTW you can lie afloat at moorings in many parts of the Straits in relatively good shelter, so no need to be tied to lock gates. Tidal streams flow at up to 10kts in places so you need a powerful engine & deep pockets for fuel if bucking the tides.
 
many thanks searush some good info there. with reference to the port dinorwic marina, my brother just contacted me and said it is the small marina just a few meters south of the marina which has the lock gates, this marina is open at all states of the tide without any lock gates. looks like it can accomodate circa 60 boats, but they may be part of the private development and not available to other boat owners. ? just looked on google earth, post code. LL56 4JN. moruman.
 
I think you mean the old drying marina, although I confess I am not up to date. Your boat needs to be able to take the ground as it dries to mud. Thus you cannot get out at low water anyway. It's cheaper than the locked marina, which according to the PBO review recently is the most expensive for many miles.
 
many thanks, vyv cox, your comments make sense and a cill that is only navigable with high tide is no better than a set of locks which i want to avoid, i am used to marinas and harbours in scotland where as you will know you can access at any state of the tide and more importantly in any weather. you can also go out and come in to your time table, not the tide table. moruman.
 
many thanks, vyv cox, your comments make sense and a cill that is only navigable with high tide is no better than a set of locks which i want to avoid, i am used to marinas and harbours in scotland where as you will know you can access at any state of the tide and more importantly in any weather
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Do not know the draft of your boat but probably your choices are restricted to Holyhead or a swinging mooring in the Straits, preferably above the bridges, if you want all tide access to the Irish sea.
 
The locked basin is a lovely place to stay, very well sheltered, but in the autumn we had to contend with lots of dead leaves blocking the cockpit drains, and the lack of sunlight means that things can go a bit mouldy.
 
MORUMAN said:
many thanks, vyv cox, your comments make sense and a cill that is only navigable with high tide is no better than a set of locks which i want to avoid, i am used to marinas and harbours in scotland where as you will know you can access at any state of the tide and more importantly in any weather. you can also go out and come in to your time table, not the tide table. moruman.
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Best stay well away from an area with 30' tides then.

Wherever you moor around N Walesthere are tide gates that have to be respected either due to shallow water (Caernarfon Bar) or fast tides (Swellies, Puffin Sound, Skerries or the N & S Stacks). Don't get me wrong, these are lovely places & good sailing - but you must respect the tides & work with them, even in a MoBo you will use a lot more fuel & possibly get a right battering if you ignore the tides.

Holyhead has the depth & 24 hour access, but you still need to be aware of the tides & overfalls either side (Skerries plus North & South Stacks)
 
Kilter said:
Plus Holyhead is a depressing dump!
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Depends on your attitude and where you go there and want to do. Don't let the council applied pebbledash over original brickwork fool you. I'm from Holyhead originally but now live in Cheshire after moving around a lot,, I am still amazed by the attitude and behaviour of some of the A**holes from Cheshire and Manchester when I'm in Anglesey, I'm not surprised there's some animosity, they'd get beaten up if they behaved like that at home ! There's:

A couple of good Indian restaurants

A fantastic new Chinese restaurant

A number of good pubs ( one very close to the marina, but not the one you can see from there ). Some very dodgy pubs in town (unless you're a local !)

Nice scenery, walks. Supermarkets ( need a car or a taxi; plenty around as the DSS pay for the local unemployed / claimants to get to a Supermarket. Holyhead was a very cheap place for NW England local Authorities to export problem families to !)

A couple of miles away gorgeous scenery and some decent pubs/ restaurants (Trearddur Bay, Porthdafarch, Rhoscolyn; again needing a car/ taxi to get there.

As to the overfalls, not really a problem in a MOBO as long as the sea isreasonab calm/ winds are not above a F5/ you are sensible as to when you go through them.
 
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GrahamHR said:
(snip)
As to the tidal gates, not really a problem in a MOBO as long as the sea is fairly calm/ winds are not above a F5/ you are sensible as to when you go through them.
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Exactly, he doesn't want to be restricted by tides, but 4 times a day on springs the tide will be running at 8 or 9kts round the Stacks & the Skerries, OK you & I happily wait a couple of hours until it dies down if it is against us, he says he can't be doing with that - so shouldn't consider coming here.

It is no accident that the site of the next tidal generator is between Carmel Head & the Skerries. Here is a pic as I pottered past the Skerries last year with no wind but the engine running on tickover. I was probably doing about 2kts thro the water 7.9kts (it had just shown 10) were from the tide.

IMAG0054.jpg


The previous day I had arrived at the Stacks at the wrong time & only just got past with a srtrong following wind & engine going flat out, making about 1-2kts over the ground & often being pushed sideways by the tides too.
 
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many thanks grahamhr and searush, i have two 200hp ford diesel engines and emergency fuel tanks to switch over to if i get a fuel line problem etc, i have also pushed tides off the mull of galloway and the cory in scotland etc, as you i do try to avoid them where possible.
my self and my two brothers are keen sea anglers so somtimes we have to go to where the fish are and as you said this is where the strong tides are.

with reference to holyhead i made a visit and it looks good, the sea side and the marina,that is, the town is a bit like morecombe and fleetwood, but not a problem and we are eating and drinking on board, as this is a change from pub and restaurant life at home in lancashire.
 
The unlocked basin south of the locked basin is operated by the same company - Port Dinorwic Marina. The unlocked basin has some drying berth but they're for boats less than 6m long, the remainder of the basin has about 1m - 1.5m most of the time.

We kept a small boat in there for a couple of seasons but found the tidal access irritating and moved her on to a mooring just below the Swellies. There are lots of moorings in the Straits and during the season they are, IMHO, a better bet than the various marinas up and down the coast, as you are not stuck inside them by the tide.

If you boat doesn't draw too much you can exit either end of the Straits at most states of the tide but you need to have you wits about you to transit the Swellies or Caernarfon Bar anywhere near to low water! We kept a motor boat on the Straits for about 7 years and had an enourmous amount of fun before buying Rampage and escaping to the sun.
 
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