Welcome Anchorages

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Quandary

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2019 edition is out, free with 'Yachting Life'; not a lot has changed but some places like Leverburgh and Scalpay have sent in updates and a lot of other places have not bothered.
 
I just had a look at it last night. It really is a great publication for anyone coming to the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland to sail.

For me it really beats the internet for an easy to read, informative overview. It also put me right in the mood for the forthcoming season!!! :)
 
Funded by advertising.
There are at least two anchorages, Muck and Eigg, most of the others have pontoons or moorings. Not surprising, this is not a guide book it is a collection of puffs sent in by pubs or communities hoping to promote visits. If you do not have anything to sell unlikely that you will send anything in, if you don't send it in they will not go out to look for you. As well as being misled by the title a lot of folk presume that it is a comprehensive guide book, it is just like any other free magazine, limited to what makes profit. You need to be wary using it, some of the moorings reported are long gone or unserviced, while there is an incentive to promote new facilities there is very little to encourage reporting their demise.
But if you want somewhere with a mooring, a pontoon, a pub or boatyard it is handy, but don't use it for navigation, get a set of Antares harbour charts.
 
NormanS said:
Does it include any anchorages? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's a bit of a misnomer.. there are visitor moorings, pontoons, a few piers, some small plans but it doesn't include anchorages!
It is quite nice to have, but like many commercial publications with navigational overtones, take with a pinch of salt and use your eyes as well
 
Surely the whole point of cruising on the West Coast is visiting the huge wealth of sheltered natural anchorages. Sure, facilities are useful, but if people only stop at pontoons and moorings, I feel that they are really missing something. That's just my opinion, and I suppose if a fair proportion of boats just go to the "facilities", it leaves the real anchorages to anchoring enthusiasts like myself.

Getting back to my first point, do the promoters of the publication not have enough imagination to come up with a more relevant and honest title? I've nothing against the publication, but it has nothing to do with anchorages, and everything to do with commercially provided facilities, which is a useful function.
 
NormanS said:
Surely the whole point of cruising on the West Coast is visiting the huge wealth of sheltered natural anchorages. Sure, facilities are useful, but if people only stop at pontoons and moorings, I feel that they are really missing something. That's just my opinion, and I suppose if a fair proportion of boats just go to the "facilities", it leaves the real anchorages to anchoring enthusiasts like myself.

Getting back to my first point, do the promoters of the publication not have enough imagination to come up with a more relevant and honest title? I've nothing against the publication, but it has nothing to do with anchorages, and everything to do with commercially provided facilities, which is a useful function.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more, but there is no money in suggesting places people can go at minimal cost. They might even try to shop at the local CO-OP rather than at the bijoux restaurant??
It is a problem, but for a commercial publication you cannot expect a lot more?
The commercial enterprises work on the charter market- 8 to a boat - eat/drink out every night for a week, go home. End of story. They can't milk those on a limited cash budget who have plenty of time to pick and choose..
 
All getting very cynical and negative. Wrongly IMHO.

It’s a FREE guide which originated to identify all the available visitor moorings and pontoons in the West of Scotland (now expanded to cover Ireland and East Scotland).
There are thousands of anchorages in this area, which are listed in about 8 volumes of excellent Pilot guides / sailing directions - that take up about 4 inches of shelf space (I have them all, and brilliant if not cheap).
When this free guide started, visitor moorings were rare, and only a handful of pontoons / marinas outside the Clyde. So this guide prove to be invaluable for finding places to find a secure berth and/or stock up.

Agree the title is not particularly helpful, but assume not changed as it hasn’t become a bit of a familiar brand.
However, it is a very Welcome publication. And anybody who suggests it should cover all the anchorages as well had better look at the coastline and the 4 inches of pilot books that cover these before complaining
 
I rarely use it now as so many entries are old and out of date. With 4G being widespread, google is far better and up to date.

Shame really as it started so well.
 
NormanS said:
Surely the whole point of cruising on the West Coast is visiting the huge wealth of sheltered natural anchorages. Sure, facilities are useful, but if people only stop at pontoons and moorings, I feel that they are really missing something. That's just my opinion, and I suppose if a fair proportion of boats just go to the "facilities", it leaves the real anchorages to anchoring enthusiasts like myself.

Getting back to my first point, do the promoters of the publication not have enough imagination to come up with a more relevant and honest title? I've nothing against the publication, but it has nothing to do with anchorages, and everything to do with commercially provided facilities, which is a useful function.
Click to expand...


I brought this up with the editor some time ago. Answer was that this was the only title that he could use as Welcome Ashore and others were already in use. Welcome pontoons doesn't have the same ring to it.

Donald
 
Aja said:
I brought this up with the editor some time ago. Answer was that this was the only title that he could use as Welcome Ashore and others were already in use. Welcome pontoons doesn't have the same ring to it.

Donald
Click to expand...

"The only title he could use". Really? Sounds pretty pathetic if the only title he could use is one that gives a totally wrong indication of the contents.
 
What impresses me is that it is always sunny in the photographs. It must be a strange life being a tourist brochure photographer.
 
dunedin said:
All getting very cynical and negative. Wrongly IMHO.

It’s a FREE guide which originated to identify all the available visitor moorings and pontoons in the West of Scotland (now expanded to cover Ireland and East Scotland).
There are thousands of anchorages in this area, which are listed in about 8 volumes of excellent Pilot guides / sailing directions - that take up about 4 inches of shelf space (I have them all, and brilliant if not cheap).
When this free guide started, visitor moorings were rare, and only a handful of pontoons / marinas outside the Clyde. So this guide prove to be invaluable for finding places to find a secure berth and/or stock up.

Agree the title is not particularly helpful, but assume not changed as it hasn’t become a bit of a familiar brand.
However, it is a very Welcome publication. And anybody who suggests it should cover all the anchorages as well had better look at the coastline and the 4 inches of pilot books that cover these before complaining
Click to expand...

Agree Dunedin. We seem to have a bunch of misery guts on this forum! It's a free publication and for most of us quite handy.
 
It’s nothing to do with miserable folks. It’s just a pointless publication the functionality of which has been superseded long ago by other media. It is almost utterly irrelevant. Maybe as a free giveaway on Visit Scotland’s stand at some holiday destination show, boat show or packaged with Decembers edition of YBW, it has some value.

I can honestly say that my free copy stays in the chart table and gets binned at the annual tidy up, if not used as fire lighter material. Publishing it is probably like pushing a piano up Ben Nevis, why bother!
 
I agree it’s a very usefully publication and I’ve used it a lot. It’s a lot easier than consulting Reeds or other pilots for places we visit often. The plans of pontoons etc and photos of the places are always welcome reminders.
 
I have nothing whatsoever against the publication, except for the stupid and misleading title. I hardly ever use pontoons or commercial moorings, but can see that the listing of them is a great benefit for those who do. Does that define me as a "misery guts"? I don't think so.
 
At the start it was a must have on board and like others I kept spare and gave to visiting foreigners.

However, wrong information is worse than no information. And that is the problem with it now.

If if it is worth doing, and it is, do it right. Otherwise drop it.
 
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