Located deep within England’s most extensive natural harbour the moorings offer good protection and complete shelter within the marina itself. Safe access is available in almost all reasonable conditions, night or day, and at all states of the tide.
Keyfacts for Lake Yard Marina
Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Protected sectors
Approaches
Shelter
Last modified
July 18th 2018 Summary
A good location with safe access.Facilities
Nature
Considerations
Position and approaches
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Haven position
50° 42.690' N, 002° 1.235' WThis is the head of the western breakwater, at the entrance, that exhibits a light 2FR (vert).
What are the key points of the approach?
Offshore details are available in the westbound or eastbound sequenced 'Selsey Bill to Start Point' coastal description. Entry into Poole Harbour and the run up to Poole are covered in the Poole Town Quay entry.
- Continue past the Port of Pool Ferry Terminals and Poole Yacht Club Marina following the marked channel 1¼ miles westward.
- Lake Yard Marina will be found on the north shore, immediately behind the private Moriconium Quay.
Not what you need?
Click the 'Next' and 'Previous' buttons to progress through neighbouring havens in a coastal 'clockwise' or 'anti-clockwise' sequence. Below are the ten nearest havens to Lake Yard Marina for your convenience.
Ten nearest havens by straight line charted distance and bearing:
- Poole Yacht Club - 0.9 nautical miles ESE
- Cobb's Quay - 1 nautical miles NE
- Shipstal Point - 1 nautical miles S
- Poole Town Quay - 1.3 nautical miles E
- Port of Poole Marina - 1.3 nautical miles E
- Poole Quay Boat Haven - 1.3 nautical miles E
- Brownsea Island - 1.6 nautical miles SE
- Parkstone Yacht Club - 2.3 nautical miles E
- Goathorn Point - 2.4 nautical miles SE
- Salterns Marina - 2.7 nautical miles E
These havens are ordered by straight line charted distance and bearing, and can be reordered by compass direction or coastal sequence:
- Poole Yacht Club - 0.9 miles ESE
- Cobb's Quay - 1 miles NE
- Shipstal Point - 1 miles S
- Poole Town Quay - 1.3 miles E
- Port of Poole Marina - 1.3 miles E
- Poole Quay Boat Haven - 1.3 miles E
- Brownsea Island - 1.6 miles SE
- Parkstone Yacht Club - 2.3 miles E
- Goathorn Point - 2.4 miles SE
- Salterns Marina - 2.7 miles E
Chart
How to get in?
Lake Yard Marina is located on the Hamworthy shoreline 1¼ miles westward of the Port of Poole. It has 44 berths including its moorings, and can accommodate yachts of up to 15 metres in length with prior arrangement, and supports draughts of from 1.9 metres. Approaches through Poole Bay and Harbour provide drafts of not less than 6 metres CD up to Port of Poole and the final run up to the moorings and marina has not less than 2.4 metres.
The marina has visitor swinging moorings with a launch service to and from the club. Daily and weekly visitor rates are available. Lake Yard Marina holds no specific visitor berths but does accommodate visiting yachts in the berths of resident holders that are away. Berthing arrangements should be made in advance by contacting the marina from Monday to Friday during office hours P: +44 1202 674531 or E: office@lakeyard.com The club should be contacted after 5pm and on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays P: +44 1202 676953.
Entry into Poole Harbour and the run up to Poole are covered in the Poole Town Quay entry. Continue past the Port of Pool Ferry Terminals and Poole Yacht Club Marina following the marked channel 1¼ miles westward. The continuation up the west side of the harbour is covered in the Wareham entry.
Moriconium Quay, made conspicuous by its high rise buildings, will be seen on the north shore opposite the head of the Arne Peninsula, that encroaches into the harbour from the south as the marina is approached. Lake Yard Marina is the second marina, immediately behind and attached to Moriconium Quay.
Berth as directed by the marina office.
The entrance to Lake Yard opens southward and is marked by 2FR (vert) and 2FG (vert). Those intending to come alongside will find the entrance and outer pontoons exposed to very strong tidal currents so a great measure of care is required to deal with cross currents. This is especially the case on Springs when the ebb tide whistles out past the entrance and under the outer pontoons making berthing challenging to the extreme. It is more than advisable for newcomers taking a marina berth to plan an arrival that makes use of one of Poole Harbour’s long stands or wait on moorings until the slack water arrives.
Lake Yard Marina's moorings are laid in the deepwater between the Arne Peninsula on the south and Hamworthy on the north shore. They are laid out in four blocks, A - D, with individual mooring numbers indicted on their yellow hand pull buoys, attached by rope to the mooring buoys.
'A' block is the nearest to the shoreline and closest to the slipway at Lake Road. They are situated on the Hamworthy side of the Wareham Channel close to the WH 3 starboard buoy. These are the most sheltered moorings and the most convenient, which makes landing from a dinghy by oar possible.
'B' block comprises the main body of their deepwater moorings. They are located at the Arne side of the Channel and are ideal for deep keel boats.
'C' block is located midway between 'A' and 'B' blocks. These moorings are intended for deep keel boats of 12 metres LOA and larger.
'D' block is the furthest away from the marina and shoreline.
Lake Yard’s Launch working times are, Friday's 4 until Dusk, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays 9 - 7pm. The bosun can be reached on VHF Channel 37, or by mobile Pete Fricker +44 7791 836 524 during these hours.
Why visit here?
Hamworthy was first noted in 1236 as Hamme, meaning enclosure, which is thought to have referred to its peninsular location. In 1463 it was recorded by its present name of Hamworthy, having worthig added which also means enclosure, that possibly referred to its ancient fortification meaning ‘peninsula of the enclosure’. This would be fitting as the Hamworthy’ history runs much deeper than that of the town of Poole.Discoveries of flint work indicate that Hamworthy was inhabited during the Mesolithic and Late Neolithic periods. A range of Late Iron Age materials found here show that it had a significant settlement with a salting. Evidence also indicates that it participated in trading along the southern coast of Britain and across the channel. This settlement was taken over by the Romans in AD43 when Hamworthy was used as a supply port for Vespasian's 2nd Legion. The Romans named the area Moriconium and built a fort to secure their holding from the attack by the local Durotriges tribes. They built a temple, immediately west of the fort, and a road to the Iron Age hill fort of Badbury Rings in east Dorset. When the Roman army moved out, in AD 65, Hamworthy became a civilian port, largely due to its connection to the Roman Road system, that traded in salt, oysters and local Black Burnished pottery.
Little is known of the nature of activity in Hamworthy thru the Saxon period. During this time, the site of a royal palace, and the important port town of Wareham, on the River Frome, became the harbour’s main focus of activity. Domesday has no record of a settlement at Hamworthy but extensive shell middens, on either side of the Little Channel, dating to the 10th-12th century indicate the area was used for the gathering and processing of oysters. Wareham continued to be the main port after the Norman invasion and this continued to be so up until the 13th century. Then the silting of the harbour’s western reaches gradually reduced access and, when the Lord of the Manor of Canford decided he wanted a prosperous seaport of his own, Wareham’s port declined and Poole’s ascent begun.
Hamworthy remained relatively undeveloped as a port facility between the 16-18th centuries but a few shipyards developed along the edge of the channel and it was used as a ballast quay by ships. A ferry boat service was established to cross the Little Channel, separating Pool from Hamworthy, so that passengers and goods could move freely to and from the thriving Poole Town Quay. This was hauled across by a rope that stretched across the channel. The first wooden toll bridge was constructed across the harbour in 1834. However, the bridge had a steep gradient that caused problems for horses and it was replaced in 1885 by an iron swing bridge with gentler approach gradients - the current bascule bridge was constructed in 1927.
The clay discoveries of the 19th century stimulated the growth of pottery and tile industries at Hamworthy as well as Poole, Parkway and on Brownsea Island. Many pottery associated quays then developed along the south side of the Harbour. The coming of the railway, in 1847, spurned on development of shipyards along the edge of the Hamworthy side of the Little Channel and within the peninsula. Continued expansion in Hamworthy brought about extensive land reclamation between 1925 and 1933 to enable construction of further port and quay capacity. These quays were built out southwards from the tip of the peninsula commencing with New Quay. From the middle of the 20th century larger draught vessels caused Poole’s Town Quay to go into decline. In the 1970s the land adjoining New Quay was reclaimed to accommodate a new Ro/Ro berth with eight acres of terminal. Commercial traffic then gradually moved away from the Town Quay to Hamworthy.
Lake Yard was born out of the family owned and operated Dorset Yacht Co Ltd who established their boatyard facilities at Lake in 1938. The Dorset Yacht Co. operated as a yacht and commercial boat builder up until 1972 when it became the sole distributor for the US boat builder Boston Whaler which it retains to the present day. Squadron Marine Ltd was formed in 1995 to construct a dock with pontoon berths and to provide new yard facilities including launching and recovery services. Dorset Lake Shipyard began operating alongside this as a commercial ship and boat repairer.
Set on the shoreline of Hamworthy overlooking the Arne Peninsula, a nature reserve and area of outstanding natural beauty, Lake Yard offers a relaxed berth in a natural setting of what can be a very busy harbour. The marina provides a good arm’s-length base from which to explore the historic town of Poole, detailed in the Poole Town Quay entry and all its lively cafés, bars and restaurants. It also makes for an ideal base from which to explore the hidden recesses of Poole Harbour by dinghy.
What facilities are available?
All pontoons have power and water and the club has toilet and showers. Lake Yard has a 50 tonne travelling hoist, a HIAB and a Mobile Crane. They offer pressure washing, blocking off ashore and storage in a working boatyard with electricity and water, together with full boatyard facilities & friendly service. An onsite engineer caters for Mercury & Yamaha outboards. With Poole Harbour hosting an annual fleet of 5,000 leisure craft, and having a world class boat builder, the area in general can cater for almost any conceivable marine service or facility a vessel could require.Poole’s town centre, stretching from the water’s edge at Poole Town Quay up to the Dolphin Shopping Centre, is 30 minutes by bus or 10 minutes by taxi. It is also possible to catch a train from Hamworthy which takes about 20 minutes with the station being about a 15 minute's walk. The Quay and Old Town provide a range of small, independent shops, including a well-stocked and capable chandlery, a host of pubs, take away outlets, a mini supermarket and good restaurants. Dorset's largest indoor shopping centre, ‘The Dolphin Shopping Centre’ that has 110 stores covering all items is a 15 minute walk along the high street.
Poole railway station is located in the town and is served by London Waterloo to Weymouth express and semi-fast services. From east to west these call at Branksome near the border with Bournemouth, Parkstone, Poole railway station in the town centre and Hamworthy. Most local bus services are run by ‘More Bus’ who are based at the town's bus station. It operates networks across Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Salisbury, in addition to operations on the Isle of Purbeck and to the the New Forest. Poole is also a calling point for National Express Coaches, which have frequent departures to London Victoria Coach Station. Direct services to the Midlands, the North of England and to Heathrow and Gatwick airports can also be found in the town.
Bournemouth International Airport on the periphery of Bournemouth is only 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from Poole Town Quay. Ferry services from Poole Harbour to Cherbourg are provided by Brittany Ferries who operate one round trip per day.
With thanks to:
Michael Harpur founder. Photography Michael Harpur.
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