Yacht ownership in Edinburgh

the Clyde and the West coast offer the best sailing in the world!!!
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I think the sailors in British Columbia will have something to say about this and I am afraid I would agree with them...They even took MArtin Lawrences style of pilot books and improved on it( A UK couple /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Thank you all for the informed replies.

To fill in some gaps, I have never owned a yacht, but learnt to sail 29 years ago, did the standard Sabot, Mirror, Moth and small cats thing until uni. Then skippered some charters and crewed for mates who had a lot more money.

I now commute weekly back to edinburgh and so the boat would be for weekends and holidays. Having seen most of the West Coast, I agree that it is fantastic and reminds me of the Whitsundays (less the weather).

I hadn't considered the drying our factor as I was looking at a Beneteau. I like the tip on drawing only 1.5 for the canal so getting across to the west can be made much easier than around the top.

Having said all this, I think that the Fort might be the best for the first year to gain some northern hemisphere experience and get my wife more involved. After that then the west may call.

Ken, I would love the chance to come down and meet to pick your brain.

If anyone has anymore please keep posting as my case just keeps getting stronger for my 40th birthday present.

McA
 
I sailed on the Forth for 5 years keeping my boats at Port Edgar before transfering to the Clyde for my first season last year. I would concur with most of what has been has been said above. However, we did make it through the Forth & Clyde canal with a 1.7 M draft, although we became well practised at techiques for getting over lumps, which are more limited with the mast down! I also know of a Contessa 32 (similar draft) which has been through several times. Problems were possibly due to going through early in the season (3rd week in March) before the canal had been fully topped up following winter mainatainance - or at least that was their excuse. Do a forum search on "Fort and Clyde Canal" (sic) to find a useful thread on the canal.

As has already been said, Port Edgar is planning a major make-over with the profits from selling off some of its land for housing being promised to the project, if you believe the publicity. From the artist's impressions of the new bridge I have seen it seems to be planned to leave the sothern shore some way to the west of the harbour so building should not be too disruptive to the above plans, although I can imagine it having some effect on the selling price of the new houses.

To be quite honest the sailing on the Clyde is in a different league, particularly the number of anchorages and convenient hostelries. And the scenery is superb. Still exploring, but all I have found so far has convinced me that I will probably never bring the boat back east. However, I do miss being able to nip out for a sail on the way home from work in the summer!

As for road access from Edinburgh which has been refered to above, this used to be a pain, but the recent upgrading of the access to the Forth Road Bridge should have improved the situation considerably - get an OS map and try out the different routes, I would probably now favour going through Kirkliston.
 
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However, we did make it through the Forth & Clyde canal with a 1.7 M draft, although we became well practised at techiques for getting over lumps, which are more limited with the mast down! I also know of a Contessa 32 (similar draft) which has been through several times.

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I think the Contessa 32 was me ("several" = twice) and after last spring's trip, never again without a cast-iron guarantee that there is no drop in levels. We came back at the end of September through the Caledonian canal - a relaxed, civilised trip - just avoid hire boat changeover days.
 
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