Visit report: Lochgoilhead

[ubergeekian]

Hello everybody.

I'm writing this on board Jumblie at Lochgoilhead, where I came to revisit haunts of childhood. It was here that, thanks to the Sea Scouts, I gained the RYA Elementary Dayboat Certificate (with Tidal Endorsement, thank you very much) which remains my highest practical sailing qualification.

Getting here was straightforward enough. The naval testing stuff is easy to see and most of it is currently over to one side of the loch. No sign of any lights, thought, so I'd be a bit leery about getting here in the dark.

Welcome Anchorages lists ten visitors' moorings here. Of these, two are ashore and three have lost their pickups, so unless one wishes to engage in the dubious practice of lassooing, which seems to pass for seamanship in the mags, there are effectively only five available. They are scattered in a fairly random way among local moorings, but are easy to spot, as they are all yellow buoys with VISITORS on them. I'm very happy to use and pay for one, as the sea bed is very steep-to here. I'm perhaps 100' from the shore and in 60' of water. The suggested donation (I like that) is £10 for the first night and £5 for subsequent nights, which seems very reasonable for a mooring and use of a dinghy pontoon.

Perhaps because of the relatively narrow band of water suitable for laying moorings, they are very close together. No problem when you're on them, but it made the approach (under sail, of course) very tricky. Perhaps not an issue for you boys in the fin keelers, but Jumblie has a long keel and likes to have a bit of room to do these things.

There is supposedly free wifi on the moorings, but although I'm one of the nearest to the pontoon the signal is too weak to be any use. I get BT Openzone occasionally, but have shelled out £4 for a day's worth of access to commercial wifi, which is working fine.

There's a small shop here and a Costcutter, which I haven't seen, in the holiday park on the other side of the loch. The Loch Goil hotel (run by the holiday park people) did me a perfectly good dinner last night and lunch today, and have free wifi. The Drimsynie Leisure Park has a surprisingly big (25m) swimming pool which wasn't too busy for lengths and cost £7-ish including a £4 coffee shop voucher

All in all a pleasant spot, though with the seabed profile here I don't think I would try to anchor if there were no visitors' moorings available.

[ash]

I couldn't lock onto their free WiFi either.

From this thread - viewtopic.php?t=7179

Last night (Thurs, 19 July) on Lochgoilhead Jetty Trust VB. Big, round, yellow, rope riser, clearly marked, and with pick up buoy. Supposed to be 10, but could see 2 lying on the shore (big claw style anchor) so maybe only 8 available. Suggested donation, £10 for first night, then £5 per night. Substantial jetty for leaving dinghy or could be used for drop off / pick up by mother ship. Strong wifi signal by inkspot something or other but they wanted £4 per day. Couldn't lock on to the wifi by the LJT, then I lost all wifi. Only found out today that I had managed to disable my wifi device.

Ash - sitting in the sunshine in Port Bannatyne

[Aja]

Hello everybody.

I'm writing this on board Jumblie at Lochgoilhead, where I came to revisit haunts of childhood. It was here that, thanks to the Sea Scouts, I gained the RYA Elementary Dayboat Certificate (with Tidal Endorsement, thank you very much) which remains my highest practical sailing qualification.

All run by the excellent Captain Pound - whose father I believe was Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943

Anyway I won the Scottish Sea-Scout Championship (Dinghy) in 1969 there....

The midgies were hell.

Regards

Donald

[ubergeekian]

Anyway I won the Scottish Sea-Scout Championship (Dinghy) in 1969 there....

The midgies were hell.

It's the only place I have ever taken part in a sailing race. It was practically calm and four boats drifted round the course only to find out that we'd all been disqualified for crossing the start line too soon. Perhaps if we'd had the rules explained to us we might not have sinned. The dinghies were supposedly "Home Counties", but that actually was teh name of a Scout rowing class, so I suspect someone had got confused at some time. They were 12'-ish, cold moulded boats, maybe by Fairey.

I remember those midgies. Wee bastards, they were.

[Lotusman]

My first memory of Loch Goilhead is also a sea scout camp - 9th Stafford in August 1972. Great fun, seemingly unsupervised in a pair of mirror dinghies, a cruise to the Clyde in an international Dragon (I had recently built the Billing model - still with me, sitting here on its stand in my study as I write), the aforementioned Captain Pound observing in his Dell Quay dory. Torture was to be dragged from the water and marched on very hot day over endless mountainous terrain in search a wartime crashed bomber.

I visited again last year, almost 40 years later, some film here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Komug888GoY&feature=plcp

[Aja]

Welcome Lotusman. I have fond memories, but the campsite filled me with drear - especially if were mad enough to pitch you tent too close to the trees. You got eaten alive. I heard that later a kitchen was built - modern rubbish - we cooked outside in the rain and starved.

The Home Counties needed half a gale to get them moving - they were so heavily laid up I'm surprised they floated! I do remember there was a YW Dayboat which provided some entertainment. Pressed too hard and you could get the water spouting through the planks.....

Donald
159 Glasgow