Sailing from Cheltenham?

DJE

DJE

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An old friend has just announced that he wants to take up sailing. (I am assuming that he means the coastal variety as he's just started a Day Skipper shore-based course.) But he lives in Cheltenham. Of course I will take him out whenever he can get down to Fareham but I was wondering if there are any clubs or sailing schools in his neck of the woods that anyone can recommend.

You there Graham?
 
I did my shore based in Cheltenham a few years ago. Not much yacht sailing in that neck of the woods, but I kept my Enterprise dinghy at Tewkesbury Cruising and Sailing Club. South Cerney Sailing club at Cirencester is also a good bet, but of course neither will offer much scope for practicing navigation or secondary tidal heights! I found Brixham a reasonable journey from Gloucester and the area is fantastic for the practical course. I used "Plain Sailing" in Brixham who were really helpful. I Dont have the contact numbers to hand but you can get them off the web.

Hope that helps.
 
Lydney Yacht Club are a very friendly bunch and do some really cool stuff in the Bristol Channel with Wayfarers, Drascombes etc. Not a great location to learn to sail though!
 
We're also in Cheltenham, and sail from Gosport. On a good day it is a 100min drive, rarely more than 120mins, and they're spending millions to improve the Swindon by-pass for us (I did ask nicely).

Day sailing in the Solent would be do'able for anyone more dedicated or keen than we are, but down Friday evening, on-board overnight, sail Saturday, overnight in say Cowes, back to pontoon Sunday, home by mid-afternoon for quiet dinner, is both do'able and enjoyable.

We also thought about Bristol and may do that in future.
 
Nobody has mentioned Cardiff. I live in Bristol and sail from Cardiff. From Cheltenham you could avoid the bridge charges that annoy me on every trip.
The Bay is a great place to learn to sail and when the time is right out through the barrage to one the best sailing areas in the UK.



Sincerity is the key, when you can fake that, you've got it made!
 
Just caught up with this thread, having been away. Had no idea there were so many of us in this neck of the woods.

I moved here from Portishead a few years ago, and for a while remained a member of Portishead Sailing Club, which is very active for dinghies. The Portishead Cruising Club, based at Pill, is for yachts. Interesting tides round there, and only 40 mins or so from Cheltenham. Otherwise, its Cirencester water park.
 
Based in Gloucester, just down the road from Cheltenham. Sail an Enterprise on the lake at Frampton-on-Severn, and our Westerly Griffon out of Portishead. I've known a lot of folks learn to sail dinghies on the lake at Frampton then move on to bigger stuff on tidal waters, I guess myself included, although almost all the others seem to go abroad or south and look at me quite strangely when I mention the Bristol Channel.

All depends what he wants out of sailing, how much he wants to spend, how far he wants to travel, how often he wants to get afloat and, I guess, the discomfort he's prepared to tolerate.

For me, the convenience of having the Westerly 40 minutes down the road more than balances out the occasionally inconvenient, frequently brutal tides we get around here. And if the weather's too inclement to go out there, I can still get my fix racing the dinghy around the cans on the lake :)

Good luck to your friend.
 
Last edited:
jac said:
As the OP raised the question 9 years ago I suspect that the friend has a solution to his sailing needs by now!!!!
Click to expand...

Amazed to see this one re-appear. For the record he did a couple of long passages with me (including a Scuttlebutt Cherbourg rally) and a few other UK coastal deliveries as crew and this seemed to confirm his view of offshore sailing. He has now settled for a 23 footer on Windemere!
 
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