Each year PYC organise one or two Summer Cruises away from the Solent.  Club members request places week by week.  The destinations are selected based on feedback from Club members.  In addition skippers plan a number of trips away from the Solent.

The destinations from previous years :

2025 UK to the Baltic Sea and South Coast to Isles of Scilly

2024 Southern Ireland and France and the Channel Islands

2023 Scotland

2022 Normandy and Channel Isles

2021 West Country

2020 France and Channel Islands - planned, but cancelled due to Covid Pandemic restrictions

2019 South Brittany

2018 Scotland

2017 Netherlands

2016 South Brittany

The summer cruise in 2026 there will be two Summer Cruises.  We will sail from Gosport/Portsmouth to North and South Brittany Coast , via the Channel Islands and a second cruise to the South West and Scillies.  These will ran from June until early September.

In 2025, we ran two summer cruises.  The first from Gosport to the Baltic Sea and the second to the South West and the Isles of Scilly.

Baltic Cruise - The Riddle of the Sands: a splendid week in the Friesian islands (August 2025)

Shallow seas, drying heights stretching into the North Sea, strong tides and a labyrinth of channels (some marked with just willow branches) kept us on our toes most of the week. 

The week started with an early morning dash to the nearby Kiel canal.We motored for a pleasant 55nm through the Schleswig-Holstein countryside, sharing the canal with super-tankers that we usually have to stay well clear of.

The next day gave us a taste of what was to come for the rest of the week - a good north-westerly wind (F6 at times) which meant we could sail west to our first island, Wangerooge. In the morning, we headed out to the next island- Spiekeroog.  The pattern was similar for each island: From a safe water mark in the North Sea around 1.5 nm from land, red buoys marked the shallow ‘riddles’ of a channel to marinas on the southern protected shoreline, often remote from the island’s main settlement.

That evening we were entertained with a DVD of The Riddle of the Sands. Erskine Childers’ story, set in 1901, is about uncovering a plot to invade Britain from the Friesian islands, and was the first spy fiction, influencing Ian Fleming, John Le Carré, John Buchan and many writers ever since. 

The rest of the week we passed or stayed at all of Erskine’s settings including Baltrum, Norderney (check out the Dine and Dock - the best most unassuming restaurant of the week), Borkum, Schiermonnikoog, Lauwersoog and Oostmahorn. It was a great week to understand wind, tides, and sea state.

In 2024, we ran two Summer Cruises.  One from Gosport to Southern Ireland for 9 weeks, and the second to France and the Channel Islands for 7 weeks.  Crews booked for a week or more.  This allowed a lot of fun sailing in different places around Western Europe.

Give your French a go: a cruise of the North Brittany coast, including a comic encounter with French customs, much seafood and bracing swims (August 2024)

Our first day involved a long passage, over 43 miles. The highlight was a tricky, but extremely well planned and piloted passage past the Île-de-Bréhat into Lezardrieux. Breathtaking views of the Breton countryside, and plenty of marks to highlight the many shallows and treacherous rocks.

We started the next day with a surprise visit from “La douane” (customs). After a few standard questions, and confused looks when I mentioned our home marina, (“Où est Haslar?”), they concluded we hadn’t smuggled anything. The head douanier was reassured that no, he wasn’t going mad.  Yes, he had seen Quartette last week, albeit with a different crew. They left without even checking boat papers or ID documents.

 After a short, well-timed passage, we arrived around high tide to get through the lock and into Paimpol harbour, inaccessible at low tide. We witnessed a vieux gréement (traditionally rigged) boat being towed in. Paimpol is a pretty town which you can easily visit from the harbour. We had dinner at l’Islandais restaurant on the harbour wall.

After a bracing morning swim (for me!), we set off for the last leg of our cruise. A force 3 wind and some excellent sail trimming got us up to 8 knots!  The champagne sailing conditions on our last day were one of the highlights of the week. The coastline is stunning on this short passage. We lined ourselves up for the well-marked approach to St Malo, catching great views of the walled city from the water. We sorted out the boat, and then headed to the nearby La Cale restaurant in Solidor, for a delicious final meal. 

Top tips

• Be aware of tides and call ahead if entering harbours via a lock. Don’t get stranded by the tide even when on foot!
• If you are prepared to speak some French with the douane and Police aux Frontières, you may get a more helpful response.
• While you can fall back on English for calls with ports, lock masters and vessels, if speaking French it’s a good idea to learn some VHF etiquette.

In 2023, we ran a Summer Cruise to North West Scotland from Gosport and via South West, Wales and Ireland.

Here are a couple of reports from two of our crews from this cruise.  

Report 1 - “St Kilda or Bust” was the name of the WhatsApp group the crew created for their summer cruise leg sometime in late spring. The thought that this name might call my judgment as skipper into question only occurred to me later! No guarantees that we would actually make it, but there was certainly a strong desire to try.  See more details here.

Report 2 - Here is a second very brief report from The Sound of Islay.

The Sound of Islay – the Paps of Jura to starboard - 2023

We motored through the Sound of Islay in lovely scenery, followed by a good sail to the moorings at Loch Stoaosnaig on Colonsay – and only one other buoy was occupied overnight.  With tides and weather dictating an early start the following morning it was not worth the trouble of getting the dinghy out to visit the nearby village of Scalasaig – there’s not much there apart from a hotel anyway!