Moorings in Tay and Angus coast

This coastal area covers the Firth of Tay and the Angus coast north to Arbroath and Montrose. The Firth of Tay is the estuary of Scotland's largest river by flow, up to about three miles wide at Invergowrie and crossed by the Tay Road Bridge and the Tay Rail Bridge. It is known for extensive sand and mudflats, harbour seals and wintering birds, and Dundee, Broughty Ferry, Tayport and Newport-on-Tay sit on its shores.

Tayport harbour, on the Fife shore about seven miles up the estuary, has been given over almost entirely to leisure craft since the Tay Road Bridge opened in 1966. It has pontoon and wall berths with access about three and a half hours either side of high water, and boats approaching need to allow for cross currents of three knots or more near the entrance.

Arbroath harbour has pontoon berths in an inner basin behind dock gates, which usually open around three hours either side of high water during the day, and wall berths in the outer harbour. The approach is narrow and rocky and needs care around lobster pot markers near the leading line. Further north, Montrose is a working commercial port where the South Esk runs out of Montrose Basin, a nearly circular tidal basin that is a nature reserve, and the town has its own sailing club.

Moorings on the Tay and Angus coast are mostly tide-limited pontoon and harbour berths reached around high water, while the estuary itself has strong tidal streams and extensive sand and mudflats, so local knowledge counts for a lot here.