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Pentland Firth Yacht Club

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The Northern Waters of Caithness and North Sutherland are probably the last unspoilt yacht sailing destination around the UK coastline.

Wick Marina is strategically placed for coastal or international passages, and provides safe berthing, toilets and showers, and all the usual town and harbour facilities and services.  Thurso Bay offers a large deep water sheltered sailing area with few restrictions.

The Club was founded in October 1953 and is located in the south east corner of Scrabster Harbour . The aim of the Club is to encourage sailing and seamanship, to foster racing and the social sides of sailing. This is achieved by an active racing program, a well attended sail training programme and excellent socials. See their website to get involved.

Sail North Scotland is an association of marinas in the North of Scotland, including Orkney and Shetland Isles, who are working closely to promote sailing in the Northern waters.

These Northern Waters are probably the last unspoilt sailing destination around the UK coastline. Even the glorious West Coast of Scotland will seem crowded compared to the unspoilt beauty around the Moray Firth, Caithness, Orkney and Shetland.

Wick lies in a strategic position on the northeast tip of the mainland and is ideally situated for passage to or from the Northern Isles and the West coast.  The 80 berth marina, is only a 5-minute stroll from the town centre with plenty of shopping and leisure opportunities and renowned Caithness hospitality. See more here. 

Caithness Chamber of Commerce Naver Business Centre Naver House Naver Road Thurso KW14 7QA

Telephone: 01847 890076 Email: [email protected]

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Scrabster | Caithness, Highlands of Scotland

Scrabster harbour, orkney ferry, marina and sea fishing boat charter, sandy scrabster beach.

Scrabster is a harbour, ferry, fishing port and industrial business centre near Thurso in the far north of Scotland. The port is well known for its recreational sea angling with boat trips fishing off the Caithness coast and Orkney. The Scrabster to Stromness Ferry provides year round access to and from Orkney, weather permitting. Scrabster has an important commercial fishing industry where large boat off load their catch for processing and sale, while local boats fish for crab and lobster.

Scrabster Harbour and Marina

Scrabster also gets visits from the occasional large cruise ship and smaller privately owned boats. The marina has greatly expanded the recreational use of the harbour and has been off great benefit for local users as well as visiting guests to the area. Scrabster has accommodation overlooking the port and in the nearby town of Thurso which is around 3 miles away.

Eye of the Wind Sailing Ship

Pictures of the charter ship Eye of the Wind on 25th August 2019.

Visiting Cruise Ships - The Seabourn Ovation

Pictures of the cruise ship Seabourn Ovation at Scrabster.

Cruise Ship Saga Pearl II

Pictures of The cruise ship Saga Pearl II

Cruise Ship MV Boudicca

Pictures of The cruise ship MV Boudicca at Scrabster in August 2018 - 12 pictures

Scrabster to Orkney Ferry

The Scrabster to Stromness ferry provides a quick way to travel over to Orkney in comfort with the 90 minute ferry journey. During the summer months there is three ferries over from Scrabster to Orkney, Monday to Saturday and two sailings available on a Sunday. Outwith the summer sailing times there is two sailing times available from Scrabster.

For all sailings you need to be at the ferry arrival point at least 30 minutes before sailing, for cars boarding the ferry it is recommended you arrive 1 hour before departure. You need photo id such as a passport or drivers licence to board this ferry with a vehicle.

Scrabster Beach

Scrabster has a lovely sandy beach which can be accessed most days, except for the highest tide times. The Pentland Firth Yacht Club has its club house and car park next to the beach.

The beach extends behond the car park area for the Pentland Firth Yacht club / Facebook

Scrabster Fish

Sea angling fishing trips are available from Scrabster and a number of species can be caught off the Caithness and Orkney including cod, haddock, ling, dog fish, shark, flounder are among the fish species caught off the charter boats operating from Scrabster. Protected species are returned alive.

Scrabster Fishing Charter Boats

Scrabster has tremendous sea angling off the Caithness and Orkney coastline. A number of boat charters are available from Scrabster. The boats Eun Na Mara and Hebridean Warrior are available with an experienced skipper from Chris Bennet who can be contacted on 07989 473204 .

Sunset photographed from charter boat out from Scrabster

Scrabster Harbour

Pictures of Scrabster harbour . A small, yet very important port, marina and business centre near Thurso.

Scrabster Marina

Pictures of Scrabster marina

The marina is open to visiting leisure boats as well as for local boats and yachts. The new pontoon layout makes it safe and easy to board boats throughout the day irrespective of tides. Before this marina development getting on/off boats would often involve using the harbour ladders, not idea when lugging fishing tackle and off loading fish caught on day trips on the local fishing boat charters.

In 2008 Scrabster Harbour Trust started a port infrastructure development with the redevelopment of the Old Fishmarket Pier to create the new Jubilee Quay, was completed in June 2013. The harbour plays an important role in supporting the Oil and Gas offshore industries as well as renewables including offshore wind farms and the new technologies being developed to harness tidal energy in the Pentland Firth.

Fishing and Commercial Boats at Scrabster Harbour

Pictures of Commercial and Local Fishing Boats at Scrabster harbour

The port supports the local fishing industries with a fish off loading facility and market as well as berthing for local fishing boats. The catch of fish, prawn, crab, lobster and shellfish is processed locally and often sold at the Scrabster seafood market before being transported to market in the UK and abroad.

Thurso Lifeboat

Thurso Lifeboat based at Scrabster harbour. Learn more on the official Thurso Lifeboat Station website.

Offshore Support Ships at Scrabster Harbour

Stril Explorer is a multi purpose support vessel (MPSV) for Subsea and Offshore operations - 12 pictures

NS Elida is a Offshore Tug/Supply Ship built in 2014. 15 pictures taken 4th August 2019.

Viking Neptune in the Pentland Firth

Viking Nepture is a state of the art, high capacity subsea construction vessel

Havila Subsea

Scot Trader

Scrabster Location Map

Scrabster is just outside Thurso, it is around 20 minutes walk from the town / train station.

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Pentland Firth Yacht Club

Address The Harbour Scrabster KW14 7UJ

The information contained on this website has been provided by third parties (activity providers) independent of Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) and lead data collection partners in each borough. It is the responsibility of each activity provider to ensure that information relating to their activity / facility remains up to date and accurate. Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) and lead data collection partners in each borough accepts no liability for any illegality arising from error or omissions or inaccuracy in such material and take no responsibility for such material.

Before taking part in any activities listed here, Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) and borough lead partners strongly recommend that you make appropriate checks to ensure high quality provision and a safe environment is provided. Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) and borough lead partners accepts no liability (to the full extent permitted by law) for the quality of the activities provided.

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Pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan - Socio-Economic Baseline Review

This Socio-Economic Baseline Review provides a regional overview of the Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters area for the pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan. It also informs the Sustainability Appraisal for this Plan.

15 Water Sports and Recreational Boating

15.1 Spatial Extent and Intensity of Activity and Interests

15.1.1 The main water sports undertaken in the PFOW area are recreational angling, surfing, windsurfing, sea kayaking, small sail boat activities (such as dinghy sailing) and scuba diving. [72] Orkney has three marinas; Kirkwall, Stromness and Westray, which also cater for larger cruising, sailing and powered recreational craft, along with local piers and visitor moorings throughout the islands.

Table 31 Orkney Marinas -Number of berths [73]

15.1.2 Wick harbour has a 70 berth marina providing a strategic link to enable yachts to sail around the North of Scotland.

15.1.3 Figure 22 shows the locations of various recreational activities that take place in the PFOW area.

Figure 22 Recreation Activities in the PFOW area [74]

15.2 Surfing

15.2.1 Some of the UK 's best surfing breaks are situated along the north coast of Scotland. The region receives strong, powerful swells and provides a number of high quality surfing spots. In particular according to environmental charity Surfers against Sewage ( SAS ), the reefs situated around Brims Ness and Thurso are considered to be world-class. [75] Orkney also has good quality surfing locations although participant numbers are less than on the mainland, primarily due to accessibility.

15.2.2 The Scottish Surfing Federation ( SSF ) conducted a survey on the impact of surfing at a national level [76] . The number of regular surfers is summarised in Table 32 below. The results show a total surfing population of 65 for the PFOW area.

Table 32 Estimate of the number of surfers at regional level [76]

15.2.3 Windsurfing in Orkney is a popular activity at Kirkwall's Scapa Beach and Orphir's Waulkmill Bay. In addition, on the west coast of mainland Orkney, the storm beach of Skaill Bay, in Sandwick, is also popular. [77]

15.3 Sea Angling

15.3.1 The main launch spots for charter based angling are Thurso in North Scotland and Stromness in Orkney. [78] Wreck angling is popular in Scapa Flow and also on other wrecks found offshore from Orkney. Shore angling is undertaken at many locations around Orkney. [79] In Caithness, shore fishing is popular in Thurso Bay and Dunnet Head. Cod, pollack and mackerel are the most popular target species in Caithness and Sutherland. There is also evidence of sport fishing for rarer species such as porbeagle shark becoming more popular. In Orkney, conger eel is found amongst the wrecks of Scapa Flow and is the most popular target species, followed by coley, mackerel and bass.

15.4 Sailing

15.4.1 The Orkney Sailing Club ( OSC ) [80] runs Royal Yachting Association ( RYA ) approved sailing courses and has several RYA instructors and senior instructors in its ranks. The OSC has a number of dinghies such as wayfarers, albacores, 505s and lasers and operates out the port of Kirkwall. There are currently about 200 members. In addition, the Pentland Firth Yacht Club operates out of Scrabster and uses a range of Topper Fleet.

15.5 Scuba Diving

15.5.1 The most popular area for scuba diving in the region is around Scapa Flow in Orkney. This body of water is considered one of the finest wreck diving sites in Europe and has ranked among the top five wreck diving areas of the world. [81] Scapa Flow covers some 190 km² (73 miles) and is completely protected by a ring of islands.

15.5.2 Recreational diving is predominantly charter based with approximately 12 diveboats and an estimated 3,000 visiting divers annually. [82] Diving is also undertaken on the mainland with the Caithness Diving Club operating in the region, which has around 30 members. The Caithness Diving Club has 230 'likes' on their Facebook page - an indicator of the number of affiliated members. Dive locations include offshore from Holborn Head, Portskerra, Scrabster, Dunnet Head, Scarfskerry and Duncansby. [83] Information on the contribution of scuba diving to the economy of Caithness and Sutherland is limited although the intensity of diving in the area is less than around Orkney.

15.6 Kayaking

15.6.1 Kayaking on the sea can involve several different forms. Sea kayaking, river kayaking, surf kayaking, and kayak fishing, with this section focusing specifically on sea and surf kayaking in the PFOW area. Within the PFOW area, the main sea kayaking season takes place between March and November. The majority of sea kayaking is undertaken close inshore, exploring interesting aspects of the coast such as sea caves, inlets and wildlife. Safety issues and a lack of interesting features generally limit kayaking further offshore. However, open crossings (between two points such as a headland and an offshore island) often through strong tidal currents are regularly undertaken by more experienced sea kayakers. The Pentland Firth is an area of particular interest to experienced sea kayakers. The Inner Sound between Stroma and the Scottish Mainland is an area of strong tidal currents which offer challenging conditions, providing a training ground and assessment area for the top kayaking award, the British Canoe Union 5 Star Leader Award.

15.6.2 Surf kayaking takes place at the same locations as surfing on the North Coast of Scotland, given the necessity for waves. The Scottish Surf Kayak Championships have taken place at Thurso since 1984. Various other kayak competitions are held in the area, including International and European events. Kayaking has the potential to be undertaken along all of the PFOW area and is only constrained by the availability of suitable launching spots such as beaches or slipways.

15.6.3 A number of clubs regularly operate sea kayaking in the region. [84] These include:

• The Caithness Kayak Club, Wick
• The Pentland Canoe Club, Thurso
• The Orkney Sea Kayaking Association
• The Kirkwall Kayak Club ( KKC )

15.7 Economic value and employment

15.7.1 Few studies have been undertaken in the PFOW area on the economic contribution of surfing activities. While no estimates of the total value of surfing in Orkney or Caithness/Sutherland exists, the value of Scotland's largest surfing event, the O'Neill Coldwater Classic at Thurso East has been calculated. The annual competition ran between 2006 and 2011, with the 2010 event attracting estimated spectator numbers of 5,500 over the 8-day event. [85] The 2010 event resulted in an estimated expenditure of £440,000 to the local economy. In 2014, Thurso was meant to host the 'Scottish National Surf Championships' but this was cancelled.

Sea Angling

15.7.2 The Economic Impact of Recreational Sea Angling in Scotland study estimated the sea angling activity and economic value in eight regions of Scotland. [86] Two of these regions, 'North Scotland' and 'Orkney and Shetland', fall within the PFOW region. As these areas do not fully align with the PFOW area the values should only be taken as indicative values for comparison between areas.

15.7.3 The total estimated regional sea angling activity and expenditure within these two regions is shown in Table 33.

Table 33 Total estimated expenditure and employment from regional sea angling activity [86]

15.7.4 Given that Orkney's population is approximately half that of Orkney and Shetland an approximation of the expenditure attributable to the PFOW area could be around £2m.

15.7.5 The Economic Impact of Recreational Sea Angling in Scotland report also includes a case study of Orkney which gives the number of local and visitor anglers and the annual sea angler days for Orkney, summarised in Table 34 below.

Table 34 Number of angler days in Orkney [86]

15.7.6 These figures can also be used to determine annual sea angling expenditure for Orkney. Comparing the proportion of angler days in the two tables above gives an estimate of total annual expenditure for sea angling in Orkney of £2.4m, relatively similar to the above £2m approximation.

15.7.7 The Sailing Tourism in Scotland (2010) report [87] by Scottish Enterprise provides estimates for Scotland and regional (North) expenditure generated by resident (home port) and visitor berths. The report suggests that Scotland's sailing tourism sector generates total expenditure in excess of £100 million in Scotland. In this study, The North is defined as Gairloch - Helmsdale, Orkney / Shetland and Helmsdale - Peterhead. Expenditure in the North of Scotland is estimated to be in excess of £10 million.

Scuba Diving

15.7.8 Kenter et al. (2013) [88] reported on the recreational use and non-use values of UK divers and sea anglers for 25 Scottish potential Marine Protected Areas ( pMPA s). 3 of the MPA s fall within the PFOW region: North-west Orkney, Papa Westray and Wyre and Rousay Sounds. The study gives visitor number estimates, travel cost expenditure and a contingent valuation Willingness to Pay ( WTP ) value (see Appendix ). The study has a number of limitations and should therefore be treated with caution when considering the estimates. However, there is a clear message that divers (and anglers) place a high value on the marine environment.

15.8 Historic and future trends

15.8.1 Whilst there is no specific information on future trends, there is no reason to expect that current activity level will not continue, particularly the continued growth of the well-established North Coast surfing scene.

15.9 Data Gaps and Limitations

15.9.1 There is lack of economic information at the PFOW area level. Most data sources that provide regional data have been commissioned on behalf of the sports they pertain to so care must be taken when interpreting these results as methodological issues such as the representativeness of the sample can cause substantial upward bias in the estimates. As mentioned in the tourism section, Marine Scotland have recently commissioned a research project which aims to add greater data coverage to the marine tourism and recreation sector across Scotland, with the PFOW area being used as a case study.

• Tracy McCollin

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Pursuit cup goes to Marjory in first special event of sailing calendar

Sunday saw the first special event of Pentland Firth Yacht Club's sailing calendar for 2022, taking the form of a pursuit race.

In the normal races run by the club, all boats start off together and their times to complete the course are recorded – this allows the eventual race winner to be calculated by allowing for the different boats sailed by a handicap system.

In the pursuit race, the slower boat starts off first, followed by the progressively faster ones, the starting intervals being calculated so that all boats should finish together at the end of the predetermined race time.

A race time of 25 minutes was selected and start times varied by up to six minutes. A total of three such races were run, meaning that all was not lost if a sailor had a bad race early on.

Dave Lord and Kyle Oag were in the club rescue boat and set a course in the gentle south-easterly breeze under a cloudy sky.

For the first race there were four boats. The slowest and first to start was the Mirror with Donald McKenzie and Thomas McAlonan on board. Second was the Topper of Ian Grant, third the Laser 4.7 of Marjory Lord and finally the Laser of Martin Lord.

For the first half of the race the order remained the same but the gaps between the boats steadily decreased. The second half saw Ian Grant briefly take the lead before being overhauled by the Lasers, with Marjory eventually taking the lead by the time the race ended.

For the second race the four sailors were joined by Ian and Lily Carlisle in their Bosun. The wind dropped during the race and the Carlisle pairing showed their skills in the fickle conditions to come up with a win with Martin Lord second, Marjory Lord third, Donald and Thomas fourth and Ian Grant bringing up the rear.

This meant the overall result would depend on the third and final race. The wind picked up for this and Marjory Lord quickly made her way past the boats starting before her and led to the finish.

Martin was again second with Ian Grant third, the Carlisle pairing fourth and this time Donald and Thomas having to settle for last place. This meant it was Marjory who won the day and the Phimster Pursuit Cup.

The club is always looking for new members. Anyone with an interest in sailing, or who would like to become involved, should email [email protected]

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