Joining Instructions & Directions – SAIL AROUND BRITAIN

Directions to Commodore Yachting:

Our address is:

Commodore Yachting

C/O Premier Marinas

Mumby Road

Gosport

Hampshire

PO12 1AH

 

If you use the Search and Rescue App “What3Words”

Do a search for “Water. Ruler. Amuse” and you’ll find exactly where we are!

By Road:

Leave the M27 at junction 11 and take the A32 into Gosport town centre. Follow the signs for Gosport town centre, (you will notice signs at Fareham that also say town centre, but you should follow the signs to Gosport).

Keep following the road into Gosport town centre. You’ll see some of the landmarks along the way, such McDonalds, Aldi, Kwik Fit Garage on your left, Crown Bingo on your right and St. Vincent College on the left-hand side.

Go through a set of traffic lights about half a mile past the college and continue straight on all the way into Gosport.

As you pass ALDI on your left you’ll see the marina car park and dry-stack on your left hand side. The entrance to Premier Gosport Marina is just past this, on the left-hand side just after STS Defence, and before the Castle Tavern.

Enter the marina and drive past You-Boat chandlers which is on your right. Turn left, pass through the car park barriers and into the main marina car park, and park up in a parking space. The car parking system logs your entry electronically, so you don’t need to pay for parking in advance.

If you then walk towards the marina office, you’ll see a white gate and ramp leading down to the marina. We are at the foot of the ramp with our floating office around the corner. If you pop into the marina office, and tell them you are here for Commodore Yachting, they’ll open the gate for you. Please ensure you bring your luggage and sailing kit with you – There are trolleys by the marina office.

 

By Rail:

Catch a train to Portsmouth Harbour railway station (not Portsmouth & Southsea) – from London these regularly go from London Waterloo Station, with some of the faster trains taking just under 90 minutes. There is also a train from London Victoria as well. From Portsmouth Harbour station follow the signs for the Gosport ferry (not the Isle of Wight ferry!). The trip across Portsmouth harbour takes about three minutes and a standard adult return ticket costs £4.80 at the time of writing.

Further information about the Gosport Ferry can be found on their website.

On leaving the ferry, you can walk to the marina in about 3 minutes. Walk up from the ferry to the road and turn right, you will pass the Castle Tavern on your right hand side, with the marina entrance 20 metres past the pub. Walk past You-Boat Chandlers and the small ‘compass’ roundabout and towards the marina reception (yellow brick building with Premier Marinas sign at the top)  where they will direct you to where we are. We look forward to welcoming you!

 

Parking:

There is plenty of secure paid parking at the marina, please use the main berth holders car park. You will see the entrance on your left as you enter the marina. Just turn left at the ‘compass’ roundabout past You-Boat Chandlers. The marina make a charge of up to £3.00 per day for parking with a special discount code we will give you. Please be aware if you don’t pay for your parking, you’ll get a charge issued by letter from the parking company, and it’s £100.

Please also note that we have no influence or sway on the parking company and cannot get charges cancelled, so please don’t ask us to interject on your behalf. Thank you for your understanding.

 

Arrival time and when we’ll make a start:

Please ensure you arrive promptly on the first day so we can start at 9:00am. As the traffic getting down to Gosport Marina can be heavy in the mornings, we would advise that you ensure you allow plenty of time to get to us.

Unfortunately we are not able to allow customers to arrive the night before and stay on a yacht due to insurance reasons. There are lots of hotels in the local area, which can be found by a search on the internet.

 

Food Safety & Dietary Requirements:

We provide breakfast, lunches, snacks, and evening meals on board (If you decide to get a meal off the boat, that will be at your own cost).

We cater for most simple dietary needs (For example – Vegetarian etc) but anything which is potentially life-threatening or of a medical nature will require the customer to cater for themselves. If this is the case, we will provide a nominal discount to the course cost for anyone catering for themselves. We will need full details of any food allergies and medical conditions to be made at the time of booking. This will be disclosed to your skipper and kept in the strictest confidence.

As the boat has limited fridge space, our skipper will exercise overall rights to decide how the boat is victualled and stocked. There may be times when you may not be in a marina for 3-4 days, so careful shopping and meal planning is required. Our Skipper will discuss the typical dishes we aim to provide, and if anyone has any great ideas for other meals, then please speak up! We want to make sure you don’t go hungry, and that the meals we provide are hearty and tasty, but also easy to cook onboard!

We’d heavily advise that if there are any specific foods or treats you like, to bring some along.

Please be aware that during sailing around the UK, we may be visiting marinas/ports which don’t have much by way of facilities, which may mean small local shops. Our Skippers will do their best to accommodate and shop for everyone, but please accept that some ports have very limited facilities, and we may be limited to what we can buy locally.

The boats (our Adelaide Star & Emerald Star) have two water tanks, which give about 400litres of drinking water. This should be enough between marinas for cooking, drinking and washing. Please be aware that when not in a marina, hot water will be limited by the volume of the calorifier (about 25litres), so please try to refrain from having those long hot showers whilst at sea! In this instance, the use of the marina shower facilities is highly recommended.

When at sea, we can use the engine to heat water, but please be mindful that careful water usage is required.

 

Alcohol on board:

Whilst we don’t mind you bringing along a bottle of wine or spirits/beer etc, but whilst at sea we operate a strict zero-tolerance policy to drinking for safety reasons.

We would also advise that whilst we all love a drink when in a marina, if you get excessively drunk and cause a nuisance or inconvenience to other customers/locals/boat owners we may ask you to leave the boat. If this happens, your onward travel arrangements will be at your own expense. This is at the skippers sole discretion and no refunds will be offered. In short – please be always respectful to others.

 

Sailing Requirements:

For sailing around Britain, there is an assumed knowledge & skills level that you must have achieved. This is at the very least RYA Competent Crew, with ideally at least 50 hours or 100miles sea-time on a sailing yacht as an active crew member.

Please make sure you have this or to the level of that assumed knowledge and ability. If there are any gaps in this pre-course knowledge, please contact us ASAP as we may be able to help or provide additional training/help prior to your course commencing.

You also need to be relatively fit and able bodied, as there are instances where we use a tender to go ashore, which you will need to safely get in and out of when alongside the yacht.

Please give us a call on 023 9250 4443 and speak to Jon or Tom if you have any questions or concerns – We love hearing from our customers and making sure any concerns are eased, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We answer the phones up to 8pm each night. 

 

What To Bring With You:

You will need appropriate clothing for the time of year and the usual “UK weather” factor which changes daily! There is a high chance that there will be a lot of night sailing, so please remember that is does get colder at night, especially at sea and the further we go north.

As a guide we would advise people to bring the following:

All footwear must be non-marking and clean. Please remember to bring suitable dry footwear for when you are not on the yacht.

Whilst we don’t plan on it, whilst traversing the Irish Sea, we may stop off at Belfast or Dublin if weather conditions dictate it. Therefore, can you please ensure you have a valid passport on you.

Please bring your personal items in a “holdall” which can fold or roll flat. Please do not bring hard suitcases as whilst the yachts have plenty of storage, the lockers are not designed for bulky hard luggage. If you do bring hard luggage with you, you will be asked to leave them in your car. Overboard Dry bags are a good option and roll flat.

Depending on local facilities, there are usually washing machines and tumble driers at various marinas you will visit. Please make sure that if you use the marina facilities at Gosport for clothes washing that you do not delay yacht departure!!!

 

Whats Included:

For sailing around Britain, we include the following items:

If we have to use the Caledonian Canal due to weather conditions in the north of Scotland, this cost will be covered by us.

 

Last but not least……….

We would like to thank you for booking this great adventure with Commodore Yachting, and we look forward to meeting you!

See you soon!

Jon, Tom & Team