Sailing Conditions at Penarth Yacht Club
General.
The wind is largely unaffected by the land in the
normal sailing area for open events. An
onshore summer thermal breeze occurs occasionally. When it does, it is in the
late afternoon and lasts only about an hour.
The prevailing wind is from the South West.
This produces a belt of disturbed wind reaching out about 200m beyond the
ODM. The slipway is very sheltered, so
there may be more wind than you think.
North Easterly winds are fairly common. There
is little backwind effect from the cliffs behind the slipway, so what you see
is what you get.
The tide at Penarth goes up and down like a lift. Spring tides have a range of about 13metres, neap tides about 9m. In the normal sailing area for open events, the direction changes close to high water time. The flood tide runs towards the North or NE from one to two knots. The ebb runs to the South, and is slightly stronger.
Closer inshore things are more complicated. The ebb sets in about one and a half hours before high water, and the tide line slowly moves out to beyond the ODM, vanishing at high water.
All Commercial traffic entering and leaving
Cardiff dock passes between the Pier and the Outer Wrack. Large vessels usually approach and leave from
the direction of Flatholm. They have priority throughout the sailing
area, and small craft must keep clear at all times.
Please don’t block the slipway while you rig
your boat, and leave room for pedestrians to pass on the promenade.