Devon 2026 | Cody Sailing Club

Weir Quay 2026 April Saturday 18th to Sunday 26th Sailing Camp

Summary:

9 days of camping and sailing on the River Tamar, hosted by Weir Quay Sailing Club.
4 minute walk to the Boatyard Cafe, which is excellent
Downriver sailing for Saltash and Plymouth Sound
Upriver sailing for Calstock and Cotehele
Tents only, no vehicles in the campsite, because it is actually of one of our landlord’s front garden
Boat Park, Road Base park, Access to the sailing club showers and toilets
Use septic-tank safe fluids in the camping toilet

A change for 2026 – we may not be able to park at the farm due to building works – it may or may not be completed in time. If so we will need to park on the road by the boatyard or in the Weir Quay public, free carpark.

Booking Form <<< Book here, which is a separate booking form to our usual one and is shared with Weir Quay SC

We are offering an up-to 9 day sailing holiday based at Weir Quay Sailing club and hosted by an array of local people who are interested in helping us enjoy the location. It runs over a period of time when the tides are good for sailing, with the start of the holiday favouring exploration downstream and the latter exploration upriver.

Weir Quay Sailing Club is on the upper reaches of the Tamar, 7 miles from Tavistock. It has access to the only all-tide public slipway on the upper reaches of the Tamar.

Weir Quay SC seem to be very similar to Cody SC, in that they don’t seem to primarily race, they use their dinghies for fun, they camp out, visit pubs for lunch, get the kids involved in fun things to do and enjoy very similar things to us – I recommend you spend some time on their website seeing what they have got up to this summer.

If this camp is oversubscribed we will need to balance the experience of people and boats and tents taken, and it may be that we need to wriggle the attendance around to make sure that the right number of boats and experience go to camp. As a committee we reserve the right to balance the factors in order to have a successful camp.

April	April	April	April	April	April	April	April	April
Saturday 18th	Sunday 19th	Monday 20th	Tuesday 21st	Wednesday 22nd	Thursday 23rd	Friday 24th	Saturday 25th	Sunday 26th
Camp Opens								Camp Closes

The location of Weir Quay Sailing Club is in the village of Weir Quay, https://w3w.co/outhouse.defeated.fidgeted

Camping

We have secured permission to camp on a completely flat field right next to the River Tamar, which is effectively the front garden of Cleve Farm. The owners of Cleve Farm ask that we put no vehicles on their front lawn, and leave it as we find it.

Campsite looking South while standing at the gate. There is a hose here for water.

From the entrance gate looking North, the gate that looks like it goes to the Tamar is on the left of this picture.

At the North end of the camping field there is a closed gate which leads to a drop.

Camping Field Space

The field is 63m long and 10m at the narrow end, 14m at the wider end and we know that we can fit 8 tent units into this space while maintaining sufficient distance between the units for safety.

These are 6m by 6m squares imposed on the image of the camping field

The owner will not let us drive our vehicles onto the field – we will need to stop on the road and empty our camping stuff out, and park our cars in the farm yard (which has space for 8 vehicles).

We will have 6m by 6m for each camping unit, so that the sum of our camping units fit into this space.

Car Park, Road Base Park and Boat Park

New for 2026 – Vehicle Parking change

The Car Park may not be in the farmyard because of building works, so we may have to park in the Weir Quay Parking location to the South of the campsite, or on the road by the boatyard.

Road Base Storage

The road base park (probably placed on top of each other and chained together) will be in a concrete yard just adjacent to the camping field, and the boat park that we have permission to use is the strip of ex-Weir Quay boat park closest to the road. There is a low barrier that separates the strip that we can use from the bit that we can’t use.

Boat Park looking North. Our local ‘fixer’ is Rosie, on the right.

This is the connecting beach between the boat park and the slipway

This is the all-tide slipway at about half-tide

Weir Quay SC Facilities

The facilities of Weir Quay SC are shared with the Tamar and Tavy Gig Club, who between them have a metal shed with toilets and showers fitted. The combined facility is called the “Hub Club”.

WQSC will require us to become temporary members of WQSC (using their existing temporary membership option that they use for people wishing to try out 3 dinghy training sessions before committing to full membership). This helps in that we will have guaranteed access to the Hub Club Boat Shed at any time and also the Hub Club will not have to pay VAT on some parts of the camping fees. Nearer the time, we will be guided as to how we sign up for this (free) temporary membership online using their MemberMoJo system. Our family groups or individual adults will only have to enter the name and address of the lead member plus details of their emergency contact person. In theory, this temporary membership lasts for 3 months in the WQSC system. It seems that it’s likely that your temporary membership lasts all year in their system.

From Rosie: Our Commodore, Rob Kirby is hoping that our dinghy section might do a joint sail with Cody SC but this is at the early planning stage. Your sailors will of course be welcome to join the regular Friday evening club dinghy sailing from 17:45 till sunset each week.

The wastewater from this building goes to a septic tank, and it is critical that we use camp loo fluids that are safe for septic tanks. These fluids are widely available and we will make sure that club loos come with the correct fluid.

Inside the Weir Quay SC and Tamar Gig Club shed. The combined venture is known as the “Hub Club” and strictly speaking we are guests of both the WQSC and the Tamar Gig Club.

We will access the shed via the pedestrian front door using the keypad and code. We will lock the door each time we leave in the same way as the members of WQSC and TTGC do. Before the camp WQSC will clean the toilets and showers. During the camp we are required to clean the toilets and showers.

Domestic Rubbish Collection

WQSC are managing this on our behalf, and will arrange for the handling of our domestic waste. We will get details of the recycling scheme and how to manage this closer to the event.

Site Access and Camping Costs

The site access fee for the camping, boat parking, road base parking and access to the sailing club is £18 per adult per night and £9 per child per night. Proceeds are split between our separate hosts.

The Clarke family allow us to camp on their front lawn, an amazing location to camp at.
The Kumpel family provide us with access to their boat park and road base parking land.
The Weir Quay Sailing Club provide access to the Sailing Club facilities – showers and toilets, where we may dispose of black waste, and they arrange for our domestic waste to be removed
The slipway itself is a public slipway into the Tamar maintained by the local council

Breakfast at the Boatyard

The Boatyard has a very good cafe and we have been made very welcome in the past.

The boatyard café changes its opening days each month and Rosie’s best guess is that they will open from Thursdays to Sundays (inclusive) 10:00 – 16:00.
There is a Community Café and Shop from 10:00 – 12:00 at Bere Ferrers St. Andrews Church Hall every Saturday – serving home-made cakes + coffee/tea plus a range of local stalls with home-made jams and cards etc. Otherwise known to all as “The Saturday Shop”. A walk of 40mins approx. will get you there by foot along the quiet local road. It’s a popular local institution!

Constraints

As you can see, there are constraints on the space that we can use for camping and storing boats. For planning purposes we have been granted space for

8 vehicles in the farmyard, if we are permitted to park vehicles in the farmyard
8 boats
8 camping units

We have committed to taking no more than 8 dinghies to camp as that is the number that will fit on the ex-Weir Quay SC half-boatpark. If we want to take SUP and Kayaks and Paddleboards, as long as we can store them on the camping field that will be OK. This camp is only suitable for tents; no vehicles of any kind can be accommodated on the camping field.

We have committed to taking no more than 8 units to camp, but what that actually means is that we will not overload the camping field with units. We know that there is room for a maximum of 8 individual 6m by 6m plots, and we can do what we want within the plots. If the camp is popular, we may need singles to share a 36sqm pitch, or combine two together if a family of 4 adults are planning to camp as a gang.

The target is approximately 16 people, on the assumption of 2 people per tent, and 8 tents, but if we bring more people because we can fit them in the space and boats that will be OK.

Participation Planning

If you are interested in participating in this camp, please complete your interest on the booking spreadsheet under the 2026 Weir Quay tab.

Social and joint ventures

Plans are likely to be afoot to daysail and have social BBQ events with the members of WQSC and TTGC. There are many pubs to sail to, and the members of both clubs are both friendly and intrigued about what we do. There are also spectacular walks to be had in the area, and Rosie is very keen to encourage us to enjoy not just the water but the local environment.

Please take a look a the WQSC website, and you will find that they do very many of the same sort of things that Cody SC do, like sailing to a beach for a BBQ, and sailing to local pubs. There is a stretch goal of getting to Morwelham Quay and the Ship Inn, which will require us to ‘drive’ some of the way using outboards (not got there by water yet).

Local Facilities

Weir Quay is a surprisingly remote location, and all the approach roads are single track with few passing places. A highlight of the village is the Weir Quay Boatyard, which has a cafe selling hot drinks and cakes. The local village of Bere Alston has a full range of small shops, Co-op, Post Office and so on.

Rosie Says: I wonder if you might wish to refer your members to this website Family Days Out & Outdoor Activities | Devon, Cornwall (tamartrails.co.uk)

It has a rather good film at the top of the page not only about the Tamar Trails activity centre (that is a great place to walk, bike and start to understand the huge importance of mining to this area) but also showing the beautiful landscape upriver from Weir Quay. Not many people first coming to this area can quite understand how immense an impact the River Tamar has had on this valley and surrounding lands. This mighty river was once the main artery using sailing barges to transfer goods into and out of here – farming produce (daffodils, soft fruits etc) to Plymouth and further afield, copper ore to South Wales, tin, lead and silver ores to smelting works here at Weir Quay, incoming limestone to our many lime kilns for use on the land, pit props, dock-dung (!), coal for lime kilns, metal ingots to the rest of the world from Weir Quay, Arsenic to the USA cotton fields from Morwellham Quay etc. And who would want to miss an opportunity to visit the fascinating Arsenic works within the Tamar Trails site!

Another place well worth a visit is the historic village and copper mine at Morwellham Quay a few miles up-river from here and also the location of the Ship Inn Food & Drink at the Ship Inn (morwellham-quay.co.uk)

And Calstock too Calstock – Independent, Local Travel Info | Cornwall Guide (cornwalls.co.uk) – for it’s amazing viaduct plus Valenti’s ice cream shop, Lishe Coffee Shop (20+) Lishe Coffee Shop | Facebook, and the adjacent Okel Tor mine workings.

Then there is the National Trust site at Cotehele – a great watering hole with gardens and a Tudor mansion plus watermill Cotehele | National TrusGood morning! Good to hear from you.

Tides for Weir Quay

All times are GMT