Berth Holders

This page is designed to inform you as a berth holder, what promotions and events are available to you on site here at Universal Marina. 

If you have any advice for your fellow berth holders or just want to find out where they're planning to sail to for a weekend, we would encourage you to join up with our new 'Facebook' page to communicate with one another.  Whether it be comments on a new piece of marine equipment  or a fabulous anchorage you would recommend, we hope it will help you to get to know one another and share your experiences. 

You will need to be a registered member of Facebook to communicate on the group page, which is a straight forward procedure.  Go to the Facebook homepage and follow the directions to start an account.  After that you can search for Universal Marina and then on the left hand links you will see a link that reads 'pages' click here and Universal Marina should appear.  If you have any problems accessing the page, please don't hesitate to give Lauren a call on tel. 01489 574272.

Universal Marina News Update 17

 I suppose we should have some sympathy for the poor souls who work in the weather forecasting business, as the wretched second half of what is supposed to be our summer is hardly ‘their fault’! Nor should we complain, as their forecast for the weekend was ‘spot on’; they said it would be grim and it was. On Saturday, only the brave or the very committed ventured outside of the river, as between the showers the wind was brisk, with sharp blustery squalls that blew through at regular intervals. For the Commodores Cup racers out in the Solent, the start of the ebb coincided with a marked increase in wind strength, creating some decidedly unpleasant conditions for what was supposed to be mid August. It’s an ill wind as they say, with the sailmakers and mast builders in the Solent expect a busy autumn, repairing the damage that was done throughout the fleet!

 

Set against all this bad news is the possibility that things might be about to change for the better, with some cautious predictions that we could enjoy a return to summery conditions, the weather pundits are suggesting that it may not be too bad along the south coast for this coming weekend, with brighter, fresher but drier weather and at long last some fair winds. 

 

Cowes will be the place to be at the weekend as competitors and spectators flock to the area to enjoy the British Powerboat Festival. If you can stretch the weekend into a 4 day break, then you can catch the start of the on-water fun, as the Cowes 100 starts at 10.30 Friday morning. This will be a high speed ‘dash westwards’ to a turning mark just short of Portland Bill, where the boats will turn north, heading in towards Weymouth, before taking an  inshore line that will route them past Swanage and the Old Harry Rocks. Keeping inshore, the fleet will follow the course around Poole Bay, before racing back up the Solent to the finish line at Cowes. Given the speed of some of the competing boats, they could be back in Cowes for lunch! They will certainly be back in time to see the Royal Navy Helicopter Display Team at 15.00, this amazing show of the things a helicopter can do (plus a number of things that the designers never intended) will he held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

 

The ‘Big One’ though will start at 1000hrs Sunday and again the fleet will start off westwards. This time though they have to negotiate the pleasures awaiting them south of Portland Bill as they continue west across Lyme Bay to Torquay. Once in the waters off the ‘English Riviera’, the powerboats will make a (very) quick trip around the bay, before heading back east, Portland Bill for the second time, then the final dash back through the Needles and up the Solent to the finishing line. As befits such an exciting weekend, the Festival will come to a close with a classic Cowes Fireworks Display at 2100.

 

However, if the glamour (and noise) of the powerboats are not for you, then be advised that the more leisurely option, of sailing eastwards to the delights of Chichester Harbour, could be equally fraught. Hayling Island Sailing Club, at Sandy Point on the western shores of the harbour entrance, is hosting the Laser World and Laser Masters Championships, with courses set both in Bracklesham Bay and to the west of the Chichester Beacon. Patrol vessels will be on hand to request that yachts and power craft pass the racing fleets to seaward, before making the turn northwards towards the beacon and harbour entrance. Attracting the Laser Championships to the UK’s waters has been a major coup, that should bring a much needed boost to the tourist economy in the area, but at the same time sailors using the Solent should expect considerable congestion in the area for the next 4 weekends!

 

Of course, there is always a third option! Stay close to home, use the Marina as your base and then walk along the river bank on your way to enjoying the fun that is Bursledon Regatta. To give the event its proper title, it is the ‘Swanwick, Bursledon and Warsash Regatta’ with 2010 being notable for seeing the event into its 140^th year! The theme this year is ‘A Passage to India’ and even if you cannot get afloat to take part in the fun, you will be able to get into the spirit of things with hats and masks, for both children and adults, on sale Friday and Saturday! The big day will be the Saturday, with Gig racing plus all the other regatta activities (most of which involve getting very wet!), not to mention the famed ‘water carnival’. Come the evening, the bar will be up and running outside of the Elephant boatyard, plus there will be a pig roast and barbecue.  In keeping with the traditions of the regatta and carnival, once it is fully dark, the climax of the evening will be the Firework display, this really is an event ‘not to be missed’

 

http://www.bursledonregatta.co.uk/

 

Be it the Powerboats on their bone jarring race to Torquay, the Lasers at Hayling, or the more genteel competition at Bursledon Regatta, all at Universal Marina will be keeping their fingers crossed for that all important ingredient, a break in the weather so that everyone can enjoy to the full the Bank Holiday Weekend.

26.08.10