The comprehensive guide to every yachting harbour, marina and navigable river on England's east coast - from Dover to Wells Next The Sea. Navionics chart sections which click through to the online Navionics Chart Viewer free resource.
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Now fully revised for the 2024 sailing season.
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East Coast Harbours is formatted for easy referencing on a tablet or mobile at your chart table or in the cockpit.
We aim to give cruising yacht skippers all the info they could want on harbours, marinas, rivers and anchorages on the east coast between Dover and Wells Next The Sea. Visitors' moorings, facilities and approach guidance are all important to yacht sailors, as is local background info including hostelries and fish & chip shops!
The content is thoroughly up to date for the 2024 season, building on sailing the east coast over a period of forty years and scribbling occasional pieces for Yachting Monthly and Practical Boat Owner over that time.
East Coast Harbours textual guidance on rivers, harbours and marinas is supported by chart sections from Navionics, aerial drone photography and key facts.
Sailing on the east coast of England is unlike anywhere else. It’s not rocky or spectacularly scenic, and the sea is rarely blue. But this coast has a magnificence all its own. The rivers, creeks and swatchways are a challenge and a delight to sailors.
There is no shortage of sailing variety in this area. From coastal passages to the gentle scenery of rivers such as the Deben or the broad open spaces of the Blackwater there is something for everybody.
There are fascinating creeks like Walton Backwaters where Arthur Ransome set some of his children's books, including 'We didn't mean to go to sea' - they didn't have Health & Safety in the 1930s.
Sneaking up the Stour to Mistley Quay on the top of the flood tide makes an interesting challenge.
All these waters were once plied by working Thames Sailing Barges. They now meet up for annual barge matches, sailing out of the River Orwell and elsewhere.
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Burnham on Crouch is often seen as the east coast's yachting centre, equivalent to Cowes, with not one but two Royal Yacht Clubs. Sailing into the Burnham fairway, beyond the moorings the first waterfront building to starboard is the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. A few hundred yards upriver sits the Royal Burnham Yacht Club. Burnham Week is one of yachting's most prestigious annual events.
Although Burnham still has hundreds of boats at swinging moorings in the river it does also have the very modern Burnham Yacht Harbour marina just west of the town.
Branching off the Crouch is its little sister, the River Roach winding down to Paglesham Creek, where solo round the world racer Dame Ellen MacArthur got her childhood taste for sailing aboard her Aunt Bea's small yacht.
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On the upper reaches of the River Alde, above Aldeburgh it is possible to reach Snape on the flood tide. You may be able to tie up a stone's throw from the world famous Snape Maltings music complex.
To many visitors, cruising the east coast wouldn't be complete without a visit to Pin Mill on the River Orwell, possibly combined with lunch or dinner at the waterside Butt and Oyster.
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There is something almost mystical about sailing the same seas and rivers the Romans navigated two thousand years ago - up the River Colne to Colchester, for example. The Romans called it Camuldunum, of course. Today the Colne is navigable for yachts not much further than Wivenhoe.
Nearer the mouth of the Colne, Brightlingsea is still a traditional sailing hub. Visiting yachts moor to a pontoon in the middle of the creek. There is a water taxi service to get you ashore to the very welcoming Colne Yacht Club, not to mention one of the east coast's most famous fish and chip shops by the harbour.
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On another historical note I’m sure we all recall from our school days the Battle of Maldon, 991 a.d., at which the Anglo Saxons under King Ethelred the Unready were trounced by the invading Vikings in a muddy and bloody scrap. Our notes will help you make it up the River Blackwater to Maldon quayside. At low water the river is just as muddy but hopefully less bloody than when the Viking Longships sailed in.
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