Pilotage information.. on your phone
Contacts
Harbour Keeper VHF 12 tel no +44 (0)1624 842338 mob 07624 495036
Marine Ops Centre VHF 12 tel no 01624 686612
Peel Sailing & Cruising Club tel no +44 (0)1624 842390
Peel is the main port on the West coast of the Isle of Man and has undergone radical changes in recent years; the old tidal harbour of yesteryear has been replaced by a fully serviced marina behind a flap gate and pedestrian bridge. The marina had a maintained depth of 2.5 meters (for an update on depths see the link below) but the approaches are still tidal so it can only be entered 2.5 hours either side of HW. The old alongside drying berths immediately outside the flap gate have been preserved as are the fishing boat moorings alongside the north breakwater. As before the berths alongside the North wall are available for very large yachts with the continued proviso that the commercial fleet has first call on them. We are told (2018) that there are problems with silting within the marina and there is a depth survey at
NTM no 02 of 2021.docx (gov.im)
They have had trouble with the bearings on the swing bridge which did limit the entry times but those problems have been resolved and there should be no restrictions now.
The harbour is still limited by winds from the NW through North to North East and you should not attempt entrance in strong winds in that quadrant. Before the marina Peel was not that attractive as a port of call in the Irish Sea; now it is an ideal jumping off or arrival port for Ireland, the Mull of Galloway or North Wales or as a place to split one’s passage through the Irish Sea, especially if short handed.
The town of Peel is a maze of small streets each of which hold a variable mix of residential buildings and shops. There is a narrow pedestrian precinct off Douglas Street behind the church where you will find a small Co-op supermarket and at the landward end of Douglas Street is where you will find the filling station. The best advice would be to make a recce before getting your shopping trolley out of the locker, find out where things are and then plan your provisioning trip; oh, and take a compass with you!!
If you plan to use Peel as a base for exploring the Isle of Man you should look at the Manx Motor Racing Club website during the planning phase of your trip back on the mainland to make sure your exploration will not clash with any of their closed road events.
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
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.
You should call the Harbour Keeper on channel 12 at least
........ an hour before arrival so that they can sort out a berth for you. (hint; there’s only one gate and it’s at the inner end of the marina so you’d like a berth nearer E than A; that is unless you are offered a berth on the outside walkway when you want to go as far in as possible, please!!)
https://www.gov.im/categories/travel-traffic-and-motoring/harbours/peel/
There are three options for alongside berths.
The most obvious one is in the marina which (in 2022) will cost a 10m boat £32.16 per night which includes shore power and showers and includes VAT. You will probably be located on the West side of the long walkway connecting the fingers.
Shore access to the marina is by coded lock. Outside their office hours you can obtain the code from Douglas using a freephone just outside the marina gate. They will not give out the code over VHF so one would suggest that, if you are arriving out of hours you phone ahead and get the code at the same time as you make your other arrangements.
If there is room you can still tie up alongside the SE wall inside the outer harbour which although drying, especially if you are shallow draft, may give you the march on departure instead of having to wait inside the marina. The other place, which will in all probability not be offered, is on the outer wall amongst the fishing boats, but it should be kept in mind if you are deep draft and want to depart at low water; you should be able to come to some sort of arrangement with the Harbour Keeper under those circumstances.
The alternative is to pick up one of the visitors yellow moorings off the groin (for which there is a charge if the HM happens to come out); there are steps down to the beach outside the Peel Sailing and Cruising Club or you might land at the root of the groin (not recommended), but your dinghy will be at the mercy of the holiday makers on the beach. Now that there’s a bridge across the harbour your best bet for landing a dinghy is at the lifeboat slip at the root of the outer wall.
If none of those is suitable you can always anchor at the end of the visitors buoys but that is a little exposed and you should expect quite a bit of movement.
As has been said all the marina berths are supplied with free electricity and water. Ashore there are showers and toilets for the exclusive use of the marina.
Diesel and petrol is by cans. For details of this see the notes left by members in the comments section below (Many thanks to them for those notes) It may be that the card arrangement for diesel has changed and that you may have to wait for a man to come and operate the pump; check on this with the harbour keeper in advance.
Most repair facilities are available and they do have a slip. There are small shops and further away in Douglas there is a large Tescos near the harbour which can be accessed by bus.
There are numerous pubs and eateries ashore a few of which are mentioned in the website below
Peel pubs and bars; pubs in Peel, Isle of Man # beerintheevening.com
There’s also the castle to explore for their times and prices see
http://www.iomguide.com/peelcastle.php
If you wish, the kipper factory does tours every afternoon at 1530 see their website for details at
http://www.manxkippers.com/tours%20
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