Moorings in Chichester Harbour

Chichester Harbour is a large natural harbour straddling the Hampshire and West Sussex border, south-west of Chichester and just east of the eastern Solent. Inside the entrance the water divides into three main channels: the Emsworth Channel, the Thorney Channel and the Chichester Channel, which splits again into Bosham Lake and Itchenor Reach. Harbourside villages include Emsworth, Bosham, Itchenor, Birdham and West Wittering, with Hayling Island forming the western shore.

The whole harbour is looked after by Chichester Harbour Conservancy, the statutory harbour authority created by the Chichester Harbour Conservancy Act 1971. The harbour is also a National Landscape, formerly an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with wide mudflats and saltmarsh that are important feeding grounds for wading birds and Brent geese. Boats entering cross Chichester Bar, a shifting shingle bar, with a gravel bank called The Winner near the entrance.

Swinging moorings are the backbone of moorings in Chichester Harbour. The Conservancy maintains more than 600 of them at Itchenor Reach, Sweare Deep, Church Rithe, Emsworth and Nutbourne, graded by depth and boat length. Bosham Quay has drying berths on soft mud under a quaymaster.

Marina berths are spread around the shore. Chichester Marina at Birdham, run by Premier Marinas, is entered through a lock, and nearby Birdham Pool is a locked marina on the site of an old tide mill pond. Emsworth Yacht Harbour holds water behind a sill and is reached only around high water. Thornham Marina at Prinsted suits shallow boats that can take the ground, and Northney and Sparkes marinas are on Hayling Island. The Conservancy also has visitor pontoons at Itchenor and in the Emsworth Channel.