West Bay's new Slipway

[MikeJack]

West Bay\'s new Slipway

Aimed particularly at Launch/Recovery experiences, I would be pleased to hear of specific examples of people who have used the new facilities at West Bay, Dorset.

I have a small powerboat and have been able to watch (in some alarm) Diver's boats, Day Fishing boats, small sailing boats and others fighting with swell, crashing waves and slipperyness to get their boats in and more particularly - OUT of the water in a safe manner.

As far as I am aware, there is no focus point for collating these potentially dangerous events, and I would wish anybody reading this that has a tale to tell to make sure that it is logged somewhere.

I do hope that this will not sound too much like a rant . . . you really need to have lived in or near to West Bay to know just how much this new facility has been anticipated - and how incredibly frustrating it is to be unable to direct critical comments in the right direction.

 

[Jerbro]

Re: West Bay\'s new Slipway

I was there Friday evening. It was a real eye-opener. You would'nt launch a surf board there let alone a boat!

 

[whisper]

Re: West Bay\'s new Slipway

Are we saying that there's nowhere sheltered for visitors to moor as well as there being this slipway problem ?
I was hoping to nip up there and stop the night, next month.

 

[MikeJack]

Re: West Bay\'s new Slipway

There is now a choice of two harbours. The new harbour provides good shelter from the prevailing S/Westerlies, but as there are no floating pontoons for overnight stays yet, if you are contemplating a night stop - you will be mooring directly onto the Pier - and need to leave a fair amount of slack to allow for the rise and fall of the tide.

However, the original West Bay Harbour does have an area that remains deep enough for visitor's craft - but still no floating pontoons.

Access to the new harbour is so much easier than a year ago, and I am sure that the more visitors West Bay gets - the more chance there will be that facilities will improve.

By the way, yesterday at low water, the Harbourmaster and assistant were dutifully removing green slime from the slip - so all we need now is a long summer of offshore breezes to complete the picture.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Re: West Bay\'s new Slipway

I still wouldn't want to be there in a good SE blow. They've done nothing to protect the harbour from E or SE winds. Especially wouldn't want to be on that pontoon in those winds, recipe for damage!

 

[KREW2]

Re: West Bay\'s new Slipway

Hi
I was going sail down mid july from Weymouth and spend a boozy night in Bridport, however I drove down last saturday and with a southerly 4/5 the entrance looked a bit like the severn bore.
Keith