Moorings in West Cornwall

West Cornwall takes in the far end of the county: Mount's Bay on the south coast, with Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole and Porthleven, St Ives Bay on the north coast, with St Ives and the Hayle estuary, and the Isles of Scilly offshore. Most of these harbours were built for fishing and trade and are still working ports, so leisure boats share them with fishing fleets and trip boats.

There is no single harbour authority. Cornwall Council's harbours service runs Penzance and St Ives, the Newlyn Pier and Harbour Commissioners run Newlyn, and Mousehole, Porthleven and Hayle each have their own harbour body. St Mary's Harbour on Scilly is a private harbour operated by the Duchy of Cornwall.

Penzance has a wet dock behind a tidal gate that opens from two hours before high water until an hour after, where visiting boats lie afloat with water and power on each berth, and a drying harbour of year-round fore and aft tidal moorings, which has a waiting list. Next door, Newlyn is a busy fishing port that can be entered at all states of the tide, with pontoon berths for visiting yachts, though it is not a harbour for long stays. Mousehole is a small drying harbour whose permanent moorings are kept for residents of the village and its surrounds, and oak baulks close its entrance from mid November to mid March. At Porthleven, the Porthleven Harbour and Dock Company, which has owned the harbour since 1977, allocates tiered and walled moorings.

On the north coast, St Ives is a tidal harbour whose moorings are used from April to October, for boats up to 6.7 metres, with a waiting list. Hayle is a drying harbour with pontoon and wall berths and moorings for boats up to about 15 metres, and the harbour itself says it may not suit fin keel yachts. On Scilly, St Mary's Harbour has deep water swinging moorings for visiting boats.

Moorings in West Cornwall are therefore mostly drying or tidal berths in small harbours, often with waiting lists, with the Penzance wet dock the main place to lie afloat and Newlyn the harbour that can be entered at any state of the tide.