About

North Haven Yacht Club is ideally situated close to the entrance to Poole Harbour in Dorset, England.
We pride ourselves as being the friendliest sailing, fishing, and boating club in Dorset, and we positively welcome new members.

The Club is a “broad church”. We welcome any type or class of boat up to a maximum of around 34′ and the club hosts a full range of both power and sailing craft. We have an active and enthusiastic group of fishermen along with a keen group of sailing enthusiasts. Many other members just simply enjoy their boating in Poole Harbour and along the magnificent Dorset coast. We have a membership of around 280 people and many of our members have more years boating experience than they care to own up to! Others are new to the water and are actively helped by the old hands.

To keep costs and fees as low as possible, North Haven is a self-help club. The running and most of the maintenance of the club and its moorings is done by the members. All are expected to participate and the club uses the DutyMan system to run the voluntary duties. This allows members to swap duties and receive reminder emails in advance of their own duty.

The Clubhouse itself was completely rebuilt in 2008 from the ground up and has an excellent panoramic view of Poole Harbour both from the window wall at the front of the clubhouse and the viewing deck which has tables and seating.  The clubhouse has a fully equipped kitchen area that members can use to cook their own food along with the facility to have hot or cold drinks etc. The canteen is manned by volunteers at the weekend during the season and runs on other days on an honesty box basis.

The club has some sailing dinghies available that can be used by suitably qualified club members along with a small number of sit on kayaks which are ideal for children to use.  It is a requirement that a flotation aid is used when taking out any of the club vessels.

In the season, a water taxi service ferries members to and from their boats between 8am and 6pm, tide and weather permitting, and volunteers receive boat-handling training.  The water taxi also runs during weekdays for most of the summer depending on volunteer availability.  In addition, there is the Club / Boat Watch scheme, which operates on weekdays.

An electronic key will be required to gain access to the pier and the Clubhouse. It is very important that the gate to the jetty is kept closed at all times the ensure the safety and security of the clubhouse and also equipment left on site by members.

About half of North Haven’s boat-owning members have motorboats, and the other half have sailing boats. Some of the sailing boats take part in very informal races organised at the Club and for the fishermen there are fishing competitions throughout the season. There are regular social events throughout the year including a Big Breakfast which is held at the Clubhouse on the first Sunday of each month during the winter. All events are advertised in the Club and on the Club website and members are urged to participate.

The Club has around 160 main moorings, 140 of which are swinging moorings that dry out or have limited depth for 90 minutes either side of low water. The maximum size of boat allowed for these moorings is 7.9m (26ft) LOA with a draft of up to 1m (3ft 3ins). There are 11 mid-water moorings situated on the shore side of the North Channel and these can take boats up to 9.1m (30ft). On the other side of the North Channel there are 11 Deep Water main moorings which can take boats up to 10.7m (35ft) LOA. There are also moorings for members’ tenders, 30 on the jetty and the rest are swinging moorings.  In addition, we also have three Club tenders for members’ use accessible via a floating pontoon.

There are also a number of fore and aft moorings for catamarans and larger dinghies near the club.

Club swinging moorings are allocated from 1st April – October 31st each year.

The availability of moorings varies, and new members may have to go on a waiting list. All Club moorings are issued through the Mooring Officer. The Club provides and maintains the bulk of the swinging moorings with contractors carrying out maintenance on the deep water and mid-water moorings.  All moorings are checked and renewed each winter as necessary, but the club accepts no liability for their condition. Therefore, members are required to check and confirm the sound condition of their mooring before starting to use it and to check its condition regularly. The Club will rectify any defect found.

The above information is given as an insight into North Haven Yacht Club and confers no rights.