Contacts:  Courtown Sailing Club   +353 (0)5525307

Pollduff exists only as a pier jutting out into the Irish Sea just under Cahore Point and Courtown is a small harbour with a very narrow entrance about five miles North of that.  They are included because they can be very useful for the cruiser who is happy to cover about 30nms a day and they are roughly that sort of range from Rosslare; with a good tide you would be in this area in about five or six hours after leaving Rosslare and, advantageously, would be arriving around the top of the tide.

Courtown is also a very good place to head to from UK; it lies opposite a wide gap in the coastal sandbanks which stretch from the SE corner of Ireland all the way to Dublin and if you look at the chart you can see that the rhumb line from Fishguard to here clears the lot and avoids the TSS round the SE of Ireland. You’re looking at a distance of about 60nms which is a fair old hop for a small boat (about 15hrs?) but if you’ve got a boat which can average 5kts you’re down to about a 12 hour crossing which you could do on the spring tides in early May in daylight.  Mind you, it might be better to do the crossing overnight so as to have the rest of the day to find Courtown in daylight.

There is also the added advantage that an alongside berth here is free.

The entrance at Courtown is only 10 metres wide leading into a North/South orientated harbour most of which is occupied by local boat moorings whilst Pollduff  (sometimes called Cahore) is a pier giving shelter on its North side which has 1m depth at its outer end at LW. ... read more

The approach to Courtown is simple and free of dangers; once you have identified both sides of the entrance it’s just a case of keeping the narrow channel “open” and proceeding in at a cautious speed. 

As you approach the harbour its aspect will change as the effect of the tide up and down the coast looses lessens; it’ll start off being on either the port or starboard bow and you will be stemming the tidal stream until you straighten for the harbour itself.  Once inside you should be able to find somewhere to tie up alongside the wall or you may find that one of the sailing club members is away and you can use his mooring (with, of course, permission)

Pollduff should pose no problems, just bear in mind the bank of rocks (Nell’s Patch) close north to the end of the pier; run in from about 500m due east of the pierhead between the PHM & SHM buoys and on departure hold out from the shore by the same distance before setting course. ... read more