Poole Harbour Camp 2025

Eight day camp on the edge of Poole Harbour
Adventurous and local dinghy sailing, weather permitting
Saturday 24th May to Sunday 1st June 2025

I hope you’re looking forward to your upcoming visit to Cleavel Point. The gate code to access the Rempstone Estate will be checked for 2025.

  • Landlord Rules
  • Absolutely no ground fires. All fires must be in a pit and raised off the ground.
  • Disposable BBQ’s are banned in the Purbeck area
  • The digging on latrines is forbidden. We will have a portaloo provided by the campsite for our use
  • The site must be left as found, with all rubbish being taken away on departure.
  • Loud amplified music isn’t permitted as there are some cottages nearby.
  • The site is only licensed for tents, campervans and motor homes (up to 7 meters). They don’t have a license for caravans.
Camping at Poole Camp

The camp runs from Saturday to the following Sunday primarily because that’s the period for high Spring Tides and allows us to launch from the camping field.

The campsite is a commercial camp site run only for groups and to join us you need to be a member of Cody SC.

The camping in 2024 had a fee of £10 per person, £5 for children which includes the use of hired in waste services for disposal of wastewater. We will provide the price per person per night when we know, and it’s likely to be about that amount.

Tents or motor homes are allowed. No caravans allowed. Water is available from a tap in the field.

There is no launch fee or local fee to pay to sail, row or have a small outboard in Poole Harbour.

EXEMPTIONS FROM HARBOUR DUES
Vessels having no means of propulsion other than oars or sails.
Vessels up to 4.5m in length which are equipped with motors of 5 b.h.p. or less

If you want to share a club portable toilet in a loo tent you need to let the organisers know.

Nearest shops are in Corfe Castle and Wareham. Detailed directions to get to the site will be sent to those who have expressed an interest.

Dinghy Cruising and Independent Sailing

The launch beach

We sail as a fleet (or two separate fleets) and in order to sail together we need a fleet to have boats of roughly the same speed. If you wish to join us on our ‘Gold Fleet’, you’d need a vessel that is no slower than a Wanderer. We may also run a “Silver Fleet” if there is enough interest for slower boats and single handers, which will have a closer destination.

For close destinations we typically sail as a single fleet – Pottery Pier and Arne are places where we don’t split up – there’s enough fun to be had in the faster boats along the way that we’ll sail as a fleet and arrive at the same time.

Adventurous daysails include Swanage, Shell Bay Marine, round Brownsea, threading the islands, Rockley Point, Wareham, Studland, Bournemouth, Jazz Cafe Sandbanks and so on…

Note that there is no landing on the shore of Poole Harbour along the south of the harbour, including no landing or anchoring at Arne. Please read the details on https://www.phc.co.uk and the map at https://www.phc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Harbour-map-phc.jpg

There is no expectation that you have to sail as a fleet – if you want to head off on your own you are welcome to do so.

Social

In the evenings we sometimes gather as a single group and have a communal cook-up on individual BBQs which turns into a camp fire, and we sit around and chat, or we’ll invade each other’s tents (in non-Covid times) and chat if the weather is wet. We might go out for one evening to a local pub as a group.

Daysail to Bournemouth Pier

Safety

In common with the many dinghy cruising organisations we do not run a safety boat. Many of us carry VHF Radios, mobile phones and orange smoke flares for attracting the attention of emergency services if we need to. Sailing as a fleet, mostly with 2 or 3 crew means that if there is someone in difficulty we generally rally round to help. We also help each other with launching and recovery. We expect you to have sufficient experience and a sufficiently seaworthy vessel to manage the risks of a given cruise yourself, and we have published recommended minimum standards for your competency and equipment.

The fleet in Poole on a quiet cruise, coming back from Rockley Point

Launching and tides

Over the past 43 years that Cody has been using this venue, the creek that we launch into has gently silted up. On neaps, if there is a meteorological very high pressure, or strong winds from the West to suppress the height of the tide, on some days the water no longer gets high enough to allow dinghies to launch. During the height of Spring Tides there is plenty of water.

The tidal prediction for the week is Springs.

To launch from the campsite beach the tide needs to be 1.65m. The sunset is about 21:00 during this period in May.

Remember that these predictions are GMT, and we will have tipped into BST on 31st March.

Add 1 hour to all the times in these charts.

Saturday 24th

Water from 18:00

Sunday 25th

Morning tide with a second blip of water around 12:30 which is not to be relied on, then water from 18:00

Monday 26th

Morning tide until a second blip at 13:30, then evening tide from 19:00

Tuesday 27th

Tide from 8am to 14:50, then from 19:30

Wednesday 28th

Water from 8am to 15:30, then 20:00

Thursday 29th

Water from 9am to 17:00, then 21:00

Friday 30th

Water from 10am to 18:00

Saturday 31st

Water from 10am to 19:00

Sunday 1st

Water from about 13:00

More Information

The camp is on the northen shore of the Isle of Purbeck and has launching access three hours either side of high water to the Harbour which is an ideal venue for sailing, windsurfing and canoeing. The site has no facilities other than a standpipe for water and the field itself is flat.

Launching into Poole, with spectators as it looked a bit windy…

For those who want a rest from watersports, there is plenty on offer in the area. There are good walks around Studland Heath or along the Dorset Coast Path and a walk is usually planned during the weekends activities. For the more adventurous there is the seaside town of Swanage a short drive away or the the ferry to Poole and Bournemouth. There are fine pubs in Corfe Castle and Langton Matravers.

Recent Posts

Summer Camp 11th August – Upriver

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The wind was forecasted to be from the East F3-4 early on Monday morning, and so 7 boats took to the water at 06:30 on a Monday morning in a raging spring flood current to sail and float upstream.

  • Trio Debbie, Mel & Steve
  • Trio Donna, Alan, Joshua, Lewis
  • Trio Rob and Stephen
  • Laser 2k David and Martin
  • Weta Chris & Adri
  • GP14 Mike & James
  • Trio Anna & Simon

The objective was to enjoy the nature of the early morning drift, so we chose not to use engines, instead choosing to paddle. The bright morning began with the predicted Easterly which powered us nicely for the first 30 minutes and the destination of Landshipping seemed secure. Then the wind dropped and we drifted with the current for a while, before the wind set in again, and this pattern of a small bit of wind and then flat calm repeated itself during the four hour cruise. We turned at 08:30 when the tide turned, about half a mile short of Landshipping.

Many of us then risked the challenging manoeuvre of landing on the jetty at Rudders Boatyard for some of the best bacon rolls, sausage rolls, croissants and excellent coffee. We stayed a long while until we were shoo’d off the jetty (and to be fair, we had stopped eating and drinking by then) and dashed across the ebb to arrive back at camp.

Approximately 10Nm sailed or drifted over about 4 hours will not break any speed records, but being on the river in the early morning light, and seeing the nature going about it’s business was a treat.