Moorings in Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary

The Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary runs about five miles from Kingsbridge south to the sea at Salcombe, where it opens between Bolt Head and Portlemouth Down. It is a ria, a river valley drowned by rising sea levels, and is far larger than the small streams that feed it. Side creeks including Batson, Frogmore, Southpool and Blanksmill branch off the main channel, and most of the estuary is intertidal.

South Hams District Council is the statutory harbour authority for the whole estuary, working through its Salcombe Harbour Board as Salcombe Harbour Authority. Most of the estuary bed belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall and is leased to the harbour authority, which lays moorings on it and charges for them. Some areas fall outside that lease, such as the foreshore at East Portlemouth and parts of the Salcombe shore, and moorings there still need a licence from the harbour authority.

The authority's deep-water moorings are spread through several reaches, including The Bag, between Snapes Point and Halwell Point, which also holds the visitors' pontoon. Shore-connected pontoon berths are found at Victoria Quay, Batson and Shadycombe in Salcombe and at Kingsbridge, and drying foreshore moorings run through much of the estuary up to Kingsbridge. Two boatyards run their own moorings: Winters Boatyard, with pontoon berths in Lincombe Bay, and Yeoward Boatyard, at Yalton in Southpool Creek. Harbour moorings are allocated from a waiting list.

The entrance is crossed by a sand bar with as little as half a metre of water over it at the lowest tides, and it should not be crossed on an ebb tide in strong onshore winds or swell. At the head of the estuary, Kingsbridge has a landing and visitors' pontoon alongside its resident pontoon berths.