Not having done Salcombe Week before, I am confused....................

Asking around I am getting conflicting advice; should I tick the Millbay box on the entry form or should I book a space on  the hard standing at Batson?

Which is the best place to be?

Personally speaking I will always stay on Millbay. I think it is half the fun of Salcombe week being able to stay on the beach. Launching is easier of the beach too and you are straight on to the race course. There does appear to be a number of people now staying at Batsons since 2008 when we could not get accross to Millbay due to the weather.

Gotta be Mill Bay every time, a much more social option, it helps to make Salcombe special, much nicer to launch off a beach than a car park!

I know that there were a number of people last year who were pleading with the people who had gone to Batson to get back to Millbay in future, William Warren actually made a plea to that effect at the briefing.

Personally I think that keeping boats on the beach adds to the flavour of the Week and if I had been able to sail again next year would have moved my boat from the residents compound at Batson where it lived for the rest of the year to the beach for the week.

Are you not joining us next year then John? Who is going to be using your lovely lady?

There appear to be a growing number sailing from Batson, personally I couldn't think of anything worse. 
The beach is the place to be...

From a cost point of view there's not a lot in it - expensive car park versus expensive ferry.  If you're allergic to sand in/ on your boat or you're in need of frequent trips to the chandlers then Batson it is.  If you want the true Salcombe experience then its got to be Mill Bay.

Expensive ferry???? No merlin competitor should ever need to catch the ferry just wait around the town quay and there is always someone willing to give you a lift.

The beach kicks ass, especially when it is raining....

I've done one of each; Batson's more practical, but Millbay's more scenic. If coming for the first time there's something to be said for going to Batson; then once you've found your way around and know how Merlin week works, you can try the beach.

Millbay all the way. it is an awesome setting to launch from and there is alwasy someone around help you on the beach and to get you there and back.

plus you get to build sand castle when your not racing.

Been there twice and Mill Bay has been great, the ferry is not that bad and as has been said above one can nearly always bag a lift, so many helpful people espcialy the top crews who seem to delight in looking after those of lesser ability.
Mill bay box ticked and the tenner added to next years form when it went in.

Lets face it guys the two or three years have hardly been beach weather! Also I've not done the week but going from Mill Bay must involve significatly more organisation on the part of the competitor than a berth in Batson. You need to get the boat across, then the trolley, then organise either hiring or being in the syndicate of a boat to get across everyday and organise/bribe the flight organser accordingly. You need to arrange a rendez-vous everyday to get across and make sure that you make it in time. Then you need to brig the boat either quickly on the Friday night or with a steaming hangover on Saturday morning.

In many ways it's actually suprising it's taken this long for people to start moving to Batson!

At least moving to Batson avoids being implicated with the annual predictable and boring belly ache which appears as regularly as the sun from the local 
Mill Bay  residents about boat trailers  etc, not trying to drive down to/from  Mill Bay with a boat in day light hours, wingeing about things being left on the beach, boats not being parked in lines  etc, etc etc, which the Club have been obliged to pass on to competitors for the last 50 years at least. Now they want a tenner for nothing. Anyone would think Salcombe Week lasted 52 weeks annually instead of 7 days. Mill Bay residents do not like the rest of the human rac!

well in many cases they have paid a great deal for opting out of the human race though almost all of them will have been aware of ud yotties when they bought, a bit like buying a house in the Heathrow Flight Path and complaining about plane noise!

I was extremely surprised to read Chris M's observations.
I've done Salcombe Merlin week 20 years (without a break) and have always used Mill Bay.
For the last 3 years I have also done the Yacht Club Regatta and sailed from Batson.
I prefer to sail off Mill Bay because of the return after the race. - To sail up to the slipway at Batson can be very difficult if wind is wrong and the slipway crowded with other users - especially powered boats on 'large' road trailers.
So why not Mill Bay for the Regatta week?  -  because of the large number of children playing in the water - as well as the fleet of small boats moored just off the shore line. (school holidays)

You sail the boat across from Batson at the start and end of the week - so there is no need to tow it round the lanes and then drag the trolley across 100 yds of very soft sand.
Getting the trailer across on Saturday at the start of the week is reasonably well organised and the return on Friday is easy because of all the friends you have made in the week whilst you have been on the beach.

At least I goaded a response!

The thing is what I said earlier is what anyone who hasn't been before is going to be thinking about. I certainly would be. I think established Salcombeers have turned to Batson after the year the fleet never made it across and they found that it's a simpler and a more practical prososition as well as a faster turnaround back the clubhouse after racing.

I think if you want the whole fleet back over there you need an incentive and I really don't know what the answer is. A free barrel of Doom on the beach after racing maybe?

I like that idea Chris!!

I will always use Millbay. I first came to Salcombe 4 years ago and found organising a lift to and from the beach with trolleys was fairly easy. There is allot of people going accross who would not mind taking an extra trolley. It has to be said that I also got a lift every day from Whitestrand with a different person. There are so many like minded people in Salcombe nothing is a problem, it is just a matter of asking!

As for £10 for Millbay, it is a small price to pay to allow us continued use of such a wonderfull PRIVATE beach.

I will always use Batson, I can go out when I want without relying on anyone else, the town, club, chandlery, Ferry steps and car are to hand, and I hate getting sand in my boat. It's not, lets face it, Miami Beach.

Which is Wonderful (but with just one 'l').

As said previously, no one has ever won the week sailing out of Batson...

Not sure what the issue is about Mill Bay.  I do sometimes use the ferry across - if the price of the ferry is a problem then so is everything else in Salcombe!  Which do you prefer after a taxing race round the estuary, a sail down a rather tricky creek avoiding the yawl moorings and the fishing boats then a crowded slipway with nowhere to wait and a pile of mud 20 feet away and the all-pervading smell of the fishermans' quay OR a sandy beach where your support crew can meet you with lunch before walking back down the beach admiring the unrivalled view.

Millbay:
Social
Family-friendly
Need to convince someone to take your trolley over there
Low tide means you walk 300m further
You need to get the ferry across (£1 each, each way) and then walk
Or take your own rowing/motor boat (and pay for a mooring)

Batson:
Walk to it from town
Park car next door
Low tide makes no difference on the slipway 
Handy to pop down with your tools to mend something
Costs £50+ I think (compare this to £4 a day on the ferry)
No social aspect
Takes longer to reach the startline once you launch

Only other piece of advice is to make sure you get your boat rigged and ready to go across by the early afternoon of Saturday for peace of mind, there are usually plenty of people who will take an extra trolley for the price of a pint of beer later.  If you leave it too late you may end up on Batson till the Sunday race, not a disaster, but last year it was wet and windy and faffing about getting a trolley and cover over to the other side after the sailing isn't ideal.

SYC is planning to provide some form of Trolley service from Batson to Millbay on Saturday and Friday.  If the weather is good Mill Bay everytime, but you would not wan't to be there today, although it is probably more exciting than an office!

The big interflight rounders tournament will be back for 2011.... and that's not at Batson.

Surely that's the deciding factor.... ferry prices, sand, muddly creeks, all minor when you consider that there is rounders and french cricket to be played.... on Millbay.

Fran

Bring back Salcombe week on spring tide and slightly later.
I'd pay money to see them trying to launch at dead low tide with 50 motor boats also trying to land / launch..........

When have there EVER been 50 motor boats trying to land/launch at Mill bay at the same time? 5, perhaps and even then its not a problem.

Mill Bay all the way:

- The rounders is amazing. 
- You've got sand instead of mud, Mill Bay hotties instead of fishermen. 
- And if you can't pull a boat up a beach, should you be sailing a Merlin...? 

Don't be a Baston Creek geek.

If you sail from Batson, you need to be able to sail without a rudder, and there are lots of wind shadows.

Mill Bay Everytime? Adrenalin starts with noise from sails being hoisted then gentle sail to start line to make sure kite rigged right (Can't do from Batson) to engage in the wonderful Mellee the start line?

Never from Mill Bay but Batson however.........try a Sat or Sun in the school holidays....

If we get a very light week you may never get to the start from Batson........

Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay Mill Bay 

You can't build sand castles at Batson.

A couple of years ago, we had the boat over to Mill Bay on the Friday,  but missed Sunday becaused we couldnt get over there because of the weather, whereas most of the rest of the fleet had been held at Batson where able to sail.

You were too keen. Simples.

Why not move the whole thing to QMSC, no sand and just as Flukey. Launching from Batson is just another nail in the coffin of what used to be a great week...

So to broaden this out just a bit, if you're sailing from Mill Bay, where's the best place to stay, and is camping somewhere an option?

Camping at Higher Rew(Salcome side) nice energetic bike ride to the club & ferry steps.

Personal experience of the difficulties in getting in and out of Batson each day make me prefer Millbay.  The year we weren't able to get over to Millbay I had two or three close encounters with the mud at the side of the channel up to the slip at Batson, though this may say something about my pilotage and boat handling!. 

When you get to the slip the new longer pontoon alongside can mean an approach directly onto the slip with little room to manoeuvre.  This is particularly difficult with a following wind and when there are 4 or 5 other boats all trying to do the same - could be a recipe for boat damage.

No, it's Millbay for me, but everyone to his own.

Having ripped the transom out of an old boat on that slipway, I have to agree with Mike!!