Hi all, does anyone have any views or advice for Poole Harbour or Queen Mary reservoir as possible venues for the coming weekend. Looks like it may be a southerly on Saturday, is this any good for poole? I Suppose the other option is Portland Harbour, had a brilliant day there in April but over a two hour drive for me. Thanks in advance for any advice posted.
Dumper

Poole Harbour would be Great in a Southerly, but I am not so sure about Portland as it would be sheltered a bit by the Bill.

Poole tides are also good on Saturday with a low at 8am and another at 3:27pm. The second one is 1.8M which is as high as it gets so you will probably be able to sail right through low tide until the light goes.

Portland also has a low at about 3:20pm, but nothing to stop sailing.

As for views, well it has to be Poole, but them I am biased as it is my main sailing venue!

Let me know if you need any more info/tips

SeanBo

PS- one last thought. Hammworthy Park (part of Poole Harbour could be good in a true Southerly as the wind will be coming across the harbour and is therefore as clean as it gets, but you would be sailing parallel to the beach

I have to say Poole is one of my favorite sailing venues too. Can find somewhere that works in almost all directions and also a few places that are still free to park at.

Actually its all free to park at this time of year around the harbour wall and Sandbanks car park.
I'll be there on Saturday and the kettle will be on if anyone can find the van..........

Anyone else thinking of going to poole? If the focast looks ok on friday for saturday I may take a drive down and brave english water after sailing in the red sea

My Plan is to Sail at Shore road on Saturday so I will keep and eye out for BEFS as we met on a FON trip to Borth.

For the others who fancy saying "hi" i am:-

Tall, strong, atheletic, well tanned and long flowing locks
(for that read "tallish, balding, tubby and over the hill")

I will probably be sailing an F2 Powerglide which I will be sharing with my wife who is Tall, blond, slim and attractive (all true!)

Oh, and I drive a silver Vectra Estate which will have an orange and grey Da Kine kit bag on the roof.

See you there?

SeanBo

Is the Whitley Lake part of Poole Harbour any good, and is it easy enough to rig up etc. there. Also is low tide sailable there Thanks for your answers so far.
Dumper

I don't know about whitley lake hopefuly seanbo will post as he is the poole expert.
If you decide to come to shore road will hopefuly see you there
Give us a clue Wes what colour is the van?
I'll be in an X reg silver zafira with all the kit in the car and empty cross bars on the roof
Im the one with the bad hair ( sun bleached dirty blonde) sailing bic techno 283 or 263

Cya tomorow people

Hi Dumper.

Whitley Lake is the official name for what most of us 'locals' refer to as Shore Road. It is the Official windsurf area within the harbour and is a great flat water blasting area.

The info I posted higher in the thread was mostly based on the "Whitley Lake" area. Parking is plentiful and free at this time of year and there are some good areas for rigging (grass, sand or tarmac).

Access to the water is via the sea wall/steps/ramps and saling is good from any direction except NE (never had a problem myself, but that seems to be the official line).

Tides are an issue most of the time as there is an odd double tide. However I think we are in neaps at the mo and tomorrow (sat) looks sailable all day.

Personally I park on the road as close to French Connection (Local windsurf shop - see "links" section of this web page) as possible as this is where the water is deepest as the tide goes out. There is also a nice bit of Grass for rigging.

Need any more info?

Sean... Have you ever sailed in Bramble Bay (I think thats what its called)... Thats the only place I've sailed in Poole Harbour.. I think its just the other side of the harbour entrance from where mst people sail.

The day I was there there wasn't a lot of wind, but i did manage to sail across to Brownsea Island which was pretty cool.

Al.

The van is a white ford Transit with a large "F2" sticker on the front. I'll be parked as close to the FC watersprts end as possible, I like sailing from up there, better for the dropping water. I'll be out on either a yellow Techno 'E' of an F2 Max2Air, failing to keep upwind!

Just watched the weather, gale force in the morning, dropping to 6.5m weather in the afternoon.

Should be fun,

See y'all there......?

Al - Bramble(bush?) bay is as you say, on the other side of the ferry.

Badexcuseforasailor had a great day there earlier this year with reaches upto a mile long. I have never sailed there for some reason.

I did chat to a canadian Formula windsurf sailor at Hammworthy once. I had watched him sailing on the horizon to and from the 'other side' and it looked great, but he was much better technically than me and I would have struggled in the conditions.

The thing is, Poole Harbour is so large (second largest natural harbour in the world, that there is a lot of water to explore). There are four regular sailing spots inside the harbour, two outside and K-bay (Kimmeridge) is just up the road. This has to be in the UK's top 5 destinations!

SeanBo

PS - I did voluteer to help Al with the beach guide for the area, but I think he is a bit too busy with the new house! ;-)

Sean... I was thinking about the beachguide today actually...

I need to make it database driven so that it can be fully searchable and so that members can leave their own comments on each location as well... Needless to say that will take me a bit of time to set up, and then even longer to input all the old data from the current beachguides, and insert loads of new locations. So much to do and so little time to do it.

It'll get there in the end.

Al.

Al...no problem. Its a great site, but my character cannot resists a 'dig' every now and then! :-)

I didn't take it as a dig... don't worry.

I'm always reminding myself how much there is to do, and I'm beginning to feel as though much of it could do with a revamp... Luckily most people who visit the site understand that if theres wind or surf then theres better things to do than sit in front of a computer.... or if its just sunny for that matter!

Al.

Wel in Al style; here is an up to date weather report-

7:16 Sat. Cloudy and raining with wind currently running at about 22-25Mph SSE.

Hope this helps anyone who is thinking of coming down to Poole. Hopefully I will get out but my Wife is off colour this morning and I may have to stay at home :-(

I know this topic is way out of date but just been looking through & thought I could add some useful info about this top windsurfing location...

It really does have something for all windsurfing ability levels from beginners through to advanced freestylers! Poole harbour is an enclosed coastal location that works on many different wind directions: south, south west, west & north west are all a variation of cross to cross on shore winds. The beauty of this location is that the harbour gradually shelves from ankle deep to over head high water; you pick your desired depth & pretty much know that whenever you jump (or fall) off you will be at that same level of water & if you go anywhere it will be being blown into shallower water by the wind! This is great not just for beginners windsurfing lessons but also for those looking to master a specific module of windsurfing, such as beach starts, progressing to waterstarts or even mastering those carve gybes!

The info posted here is expanded on in an article written on the website of Poole Windsurfing - click the link to read more in depth info.

Hope this is of use to you all.