Isle of Man-Port St. Mary
At a Glance
Harbour Keeper VHF 12 tel no +44 (0) 1624 833205
Mobile (Southern Duty
Officer) (0)7624 451503
Marine Operations Centre VHF#12 01624 687543
Port St Mary is a pretty little harbour on the West side of the
Bay ny Carrickey at the Southern end of The Isle of Man. It owes
existence (as do most of the harbours you and I visit) to fishing
and years ago had a vibrant fishing fleet and fish processing
plant.
That's all gone now and we yachtsmen have inherited the harbour. It
consists of an outer harbour and a drying inner harbour contained
by piers, the ends of both of which are lit at night with the end
of the inner pier being marked by an 8 meter red and white striped
tower. The edges of the bay and the headlands are laced with rocky
outcrops up to 2 cables off shore and there is a large outcrop
right in the middle of the bay called The Carrick which dries to 2
meters and is marked by a lit, black & red striped perch.
Gansey Point just to the North of the harbour has an off lying rock
which carries a green SH perch with an unlit, triangular top; there
is a further unlit SH perch inside the harbour marking the middle
of an outcrop of rocks which runs parallel and close to the inside
of the outer pier (Alfred Pier). There are other rocks inside the
outer harbour (Pot Rock & the Little Carrick) which cover at HW
so must be born in mind if tying up on the outer pier.
There is a small number of fishing boats based here but the main
traffic is leisure boats with trips for divers and anglers or just
plain sightseers pottering in and out all day. The village itself
is quite small, the main shops being located overlooking Chapel
Bay. If you are in need of a walk there's a path along the cliffs
to the SW leading to a spot overlooking the Calf Sound which is
worth a stroll especially if you are contemplating passage around
or through there!
The harbour and anchorages are open to winds from the E and SE; if
you don't believe me have a look at the photos; strong seas from
the SE will break over Alfred Pier and they set up a nasty send
else where in this corner of the bay.
There is an IOM harbour information website which lists all the
IOM harbours and a whole raft of downloadable docs (most of which
do not apply to cruising skippers) at:-
Isle of Man Government - Harbours
Information
Isle of Man-Port St. Mary
Approach
The tidal streams close in around the IOM do
not follow those depicted in the UKHO tidal Atlas; there are often
counter currents. For close-in information you can access the
IOM's own tidal streams info at
tidal_streams.pdf
(gov.im)
tidal_streams_2.pdf (gov.im)
We suggest that if you are spending any time in the Irish sea with regular visits to the IOM you visit those two internet pages, print and add them to your Pilot Book.
The Initial Fix is set up using the ends of the piers as lead-in marks on 295°T;
The red and white tower on the inner harbour wall is very
conspicuous.
A run in on 295°T will lead clear of The Carrick Rock which is well
marked and will be awash from half tide as well. Coming from the
East if you are tacking in against a NW and are completely happy
with your navigation there is no reason why you shouldn't leave The
Carrick to port on the port tack and then run down on the harbour
on the starboard tack still keeping the rock to port; otherwise a
straight run at the harbour from the vicinity of Dreswick Point is
clear of danger.
If you have chosen well and weather Dreswick point on the turn of
the tide (HW Liverpool) you can miss the overfalls and, provided
you can see the rocks skirting that point, you can pass a cable off
Dreswick point in deep water. It's basically a judgement call, if
conditions are right go inside the overfalls, in bad conditions
it's the long way round, two and a half miles off the point.
Approaching from the West whether you have come through Calf Sound
or around the lot you just make your way up the coast, stay a good
cable and a bit off the shore as you approach Alfred Pier and then
turn in for the harbour as soon as the Inner pier red & white
Lighthouse opens around the outer pierhead.
£ GMT
Waypoint
Charts
Rules & Regs
Hazards
Tides
Berthing
On offer are drying, alongside berths in the inner harbour,
......... floating, alongside berths against Alfred Pier (in
both cases you should expect to have to raft), a visitors buoy (of
which there are four, bright yellow to the NW of Alfred pierhead)
or anchoring somewhere in the bay. They are very accommodating
here and you should find somewhere to your liking.
If you do choose to tie up on Alfred Pier be very careful of the
marked reef alongside it; there really is not much room and you
can't afford to take a wide sweep round to come alongside starboard
side to. They've basically dredged a trench parallel to the
pier and erected a SH perch to indicate the width available. NB the
perch does NOT mark the end of the rocks.There is a photo in the
gallery in which you can see that perch to give you some idea of
the available space inside it, although the more observant of you
will notice the furled genny on the left of that photo; someone
managed it! (Ed note - my mistake he's moored port side
to)
An alongside berth (2021) will cost a 10m boat £16.32 a
night.
NB the sound advice here is that if the forecast suggests that the
wind might pick up from ESE, get out of there and make for Port
Erin or Peel through Calf Sound which is dealt with, along with
Port Erin, in another article; but basically, as long as you pick
the time right, even though it might be rough along the coast the
Sound itself is quite sheltered and you are shot through on very
rapid but flat water!
Facilities
There's water on the piers and if you have a long enough shore cable there's shore power to some alongside berths but this is charged on a card from the HM. Showers and toilets are available ashore both in the Harbour Office and the Isle of Man Yacht Club (their website is below). Most people here do their shopping in Douglas or Castletown so there's not much available although, surprisingly, there is a chandler up in the village. You can catch a bus here to Douglas or trot out to the railway station and use the narrow gauge railway which might be fun.
One point to note is that there is no fuel here; the nearest is at the petrol station at Port Erin.
The shops are a "fair walk" up from the harbour and the Harbour
Keeper says that of you need to do substantial shopping
it's worth berthing in Castletown instead where the shops
are very much more handy by the swing bridge.
Isle of Man Yacht Club http://www.iomyc.com/
Bus time tables https://www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/bus-and-rail
What to Do
Not much; there's the hotel on the Quay and a restaurant round the corner and a few pubs up in the village. Your best bet would be to hop a bus into Castletown; they are fairly regular and there's a late bus back. As has been said there's the narrow gauge steam railway for an afternoon trip and there are about four runs a day in each direction on a first come, first served basis. There's a link to train times on the bus timetable website in the section above this.
History
Local Business
Marine-Electrics
Bevan Ltd
Unit 2 Brickworks
Mill Road
Peel
Isle of Man
IM5 1TB
Outboard-Sales-and-Service
Bottom Line Ltd Unit 8
Side Road
Middle River Industrial Estate
Douglas
Isle of Man
IM2 1AL
MJS Mobile Marine Services
Balthane Industrial Estate
Ballasalla
Isle of Man
IM9 2AL
Uncategorised
Bottom Line Ltd Unit 8
Side Road
Middle River Industrial Estate
Douglas
Isle of Man
IM2 1AL
Bevan Ltd
Unit 2 Brickworks
Mill Road
Peel
Isle of Man
IM5 1TB
MJS Mobile Marine Services
Balthane Industrial Estate
Ballasalla
Isle of Man
IM9 2AL
Tide Information for iom-port-st-mary
Tidal Information