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Dinghy Cruises
take place on Saturdays usually once a month between April and September
Register your interest with the Sailing Secretary. Read the Dinghy Cruise Sailing Instructions
Arrive in time to get changed and rig your boat before the briefing.
Rig
boats, launch boats, sail to cruise destination, beach boats, have
lunch and then return to slipway, put boats away
About our Cruises
As you can
imagine this is a very popular event, with kids (big and small!!) having
a great time. In recent years LTSC has been very successful in picking
up many of the trophies! Whilst all destinations of our dinghy cruises
(and of course return journey) are easily achievable from LTSC within a
day, the final decision where to sail is not made until the actual day
of the cruise as this will be influenced by weather, state of tide,
experience of helms, etc. All participants of the dinghy cruises are requested to be ready changed and have their dinghies rigged by 0930. A briefing is held in the Club's Solent Room at 0930 and the boats launched immediately afterwards. Our return to LTSC is usually around 1600 hours. It is recommended that all participants bring their own refreshments as the destination of the day will not necessarily have lunch facilities available. Also, whilst we endeavour to ensure that our destination will have toilet facilities, this cannot always be guaranteed! Our dinghy cruise destinations are usually within a distance of about 8nm from Lymington and can be on the mainland or the Isle of Wight. On the mainland to the west we have Hurst Spit and Castle at the entrance to Keyhaven River and Keyhaven itself, which is a small fishing/sailing port about 3 miles from Lymington. The approach from Hurst Spit takes you into a fairly narrow and winding river channel down to the harbor. This can make quite an interesting challenge if the wind happens to be blowing in the 'wrong' direction and we have to beat up or down the river! To the east we have the picturesque Beaulieu River and just beyond the entrance, Lepe Country Park which is about 7nm from Lymington. This makes a fascinating lunch stop as in addition to the restaurant and beach there are several information boards with descriptions and photographs of the WWII Mulberry Harbour which was constructed near Lepe in the period leading up to D-Day. On the Isle of Wight we have a number of popular beach destinations - to the west Alum Bay (6nm), Totland Bay (5nm) and Colwell Bay (4nm) - and to the east Thornes Bay (6nm) and Gurnard Bay (7nm). There is the small attractive town of Yarmouth which is very popular with summer visitors and has a variety of pubs, cafes and shops, and Newtown River (5nm) which is much less commercialized, but is a charming little estuary with a nature reserve, home to a variety of waders and other wildfowl. If the weather is suitable we may take the opportunity to have a beach BAR-B-QUE during our lunch stop.
For further details
or information on Dinghy Cruising |
Photos of Cruises
2008 Gallery
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