Swanage

[Way]

Firstly I dont live there. Don't have a business there. Have no affiliation at all with Swanage sailing club. But I have been going there every year for 28 years and cannot understand why more yachts don's visit. Appreciate Studland round the corner is in some ways more tempting but there are limits to what you can do there. Personally love swanage and love taking the boat there now. Great sail back to the solent with prevailing westerlys too.

Swanage sailing club have short-term moorings you can use. They don't really make it clear which is perhaps why they're not more used. It's £5 a night if you stay more than one night. Great place to hop off to the west or cross channel.

I dealt with Mike from SSC on 07732703033

 

[alant]

Firstly I dont live there. Don't have a business there. Have no affiliation at all with Swanage sailing club. But I have been going there every year for 28 years and cannot understand why more yachts don's visit. Appreciate Studland round the corner is in some ways more tempting but there are limits to what you can do there. Personally love swanage and love taking the boat there now. Great sail back to the solent with prevailing westerlys too.

Swanage sailing club have short-term moorings you can use. They don't really make it clear which is perhaps why they're not more used. It's £5 a night if you stay more than one night. Great place to hop off to the west or cross channel.

I dealt with Mike from SSC on 07732703033

Just a little more exposed than Studland perhaps.

 

[Tranona]

Yes, can be very rolly at times.

 

[Hambler Rambler]

Yes, can be very rolly at times.

I visited Swanage recently by way of land rather than sea and was observing the visitors being thrown around on their moorings from the open air seafood restaurant on the quay.... wind was quite light but some kind of Easterly so not ideal...

Incidentally the seafood restaurant (Gee Whites) is reason enough to visit Swanage - really excellent!

 

[LadyInBed]

Cheaper to anchor
The challenge at Swanage is landing the dingy and then finding a decent launching place to get back out to your boat.
The roll out landing stage is private, the slip often has a lot of swell and the steps are used by commercial trip boats. There is the beach, but often no space up above HW line to leave the dingy. Otherwise, I love going round to Swanage

 

[sailorman]

Firstly I dont live there. Don't have a business there. Have no affiliation at all with Swanage sailing club. But I have been going there every year for 28 years and cannot understand why more yachts don's visit. Appreciate Studland round the corner is in some ways more tempting but there are limits to what you can do there. Personally love swanage and love taking the boat there now. Great sail back to the solent with prevailing westerlys too.

Swanage sailing club have short-term moorings you can use. They don't really make it clear which is perhaps why they're not more used. It's £5 a night if you stay more than one night. Great place to hop off to the west or cross channel.

I dealt with Mike from SSC on 07732703033

we used to join the club on temp membership & sail our mirror dinghy from there ( over 40 yrs ago), much cheaper to join & get free parking & launch

 

[mainsail1]

If only Swanage built a breakwater. As it is, I have spent too many rolly days and nights at anchor to recommend it. Sorry.

 

[oldvarnish]

Had a glorious night at anchor a couple of nights ago. It was perfect. However, over the years I've had nights there I'd rather forget.

 

[Way]

Can be rolly agreed. but in a prevailing westerly, or southerlies it tends to be fine. Especially if you can creep in nearer the stone quay.

Heard good things about Gee Whites too

The Snackbar is great for a cocktail and they love bringing out the free shots once you've bought a couple of rounds!

 

[Robin]

The only problem we had with anchoring in Swanage over the years was parking the dink when going shore so it was safe from beach grackle brats jumping in/out or just filling it with sand. Otherwise you need to find a spot clear of weed in which to drop the anchor, it always seemed to me more weedy than Studland.

 

[onesea]

Have been trying to get there all summer, the day I sailed passed with intent to stop, it looked kind of full. I was single handed had spent the day beating into F4-5 and did not fancy a night on the hook...

Ended up in Poole instead, which I can assure was neither free nor cheap (although not as expensive as expected).

 

[Greenheart]

The only problem we had with anchoring in Swanage over the years was parking the dink when going shore so it was safe from beach grackle brats jumping in/out or just filling it with sand.

The local delinquents are my worry too. I love Swanage, but arriving in a sailing dinghy in cruising mode, I'd hope for some kind of sleep at anchor, bivouacked on the cockpit floor...

...but if there was any kind of swell/onshore breeze, I'd be daft not to expect imminent capsize...so I'd have to haul her out, and hope not to be stoned by the local stoners/drunks etc.

Same story at many/most seaside towns, but I'm not keen to visit most of those.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Otherwise you need to find a spot clear of weed in which to drop the anchor, it always seemed to me more weedy than Studland.

Shhhh. Or people might think that anchoring reduces the weed cover at Studland ...

 

[Greenheart]

Maybe all those disappearing seahorses just migrated to Swanage for the better sub-aqua forestry there.

 

[oldharry]

Maybe all those disappearing seahorses just migrated to Swanage for the better sub-aqua forestry there.

S'funny that: Swanage HAS got its own Seahorses, and lots of Eelgrass - and nobody in conservation gives tinkers about it!

 

[Greenheart]

Sorry Harry, didn't mean to make light of your excellent campaign for anchoring rights at Studland.

But I wonder if eelgrass itself can be pruned and replanted in another place - like Swanage perhaps - to broaden the available habitat for the briny equines?

 

[oldharry]

Oi! you cant mess Eelgrass around like that! Its 'protected'. No, it just gets me that there's all this fuss about Studland, yet EXACTLY the same conditions apply in Swanage, and in Poole Harbour - where there is evidence of a MUCH larger colony of Seahorses, yet none of the conservationists are in the least bit interested. Long may it stay that way, I say.

There's a growing feeling that Studland is just an overspill grazing ground from the Poole stables - maybe just those unfortunate individuals who get the tide wrong and are swept out round the corner?

But going back to OP, Swanage can be very rolly unless you get so close inshore that that the razz-matazz of the Brit Seaside holiday resort intrudes. I spent a miserable night there kept awake to about 1.00am by the amusement arcade's hoots, whistles, and a raucous electronic chicken thing.... I also noticed the wind funnels down off the high ground and down the valley in pretty hefty gusts, making it quite uncomfortable. Same can happen in Studland in strong offshore winds, but Swanage seems more prone to this.

 

[Greenheart]

...kept awake to about 1.00am by the amusement arcade's hoots, whistles, and a raucous electronic chicken thing...

Laughing out loud, here...but I sympathise entirely.

 

[grumpy_o_g]

S'funny that: Swanage HAS got its own Seahorses, and lots of Eelgrass - and nobody in conservation gives tinkers about it!

Couldn't possibly be anything to do with the fact that it's easier to dive off Studland of course...

 

[rob2]

I've always fancied picking up a mooring in Swanage for the weekend of the folk festival. As others have said, the problem is where to land and leave the dinghy. If you go to the club, could you land there and leave the dink, o'b, lifejackets, etc.? Noise not a problem as I would be in the pub till late playing in a music session!

Rob.