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Home  Venues UK Sailing Venues Loch Ness
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Written by Iain Overington
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Monday, 17 February 2003 |
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Loch Ness is located to the SW of Inverness and can provide some awesome sailing conditions when the
rest of NE Scotland is beset by offshore SW winds.
The best place to launch is on the South coast, anywhere from Dores along the B862 for 6 miles there are parking slots with paths down to the Loch. Dores has a good pub on the waters edge with good food.
Check out a map and you will notice that Loch ness is a narrow Loch running SW/NE and, along with the Caledonian Canal and Loch Linnhe, splits Scotland from the Atlantic to the Moray Firth. All this results in the strong SW winds that hit Tiree funnel straight up this valley resulting in regular F7 winds in a F3 SW forcast with big rollling swell.
Launching is from a rocky shore which drops away rapidly to become very deep. The water temperature is mild in the summer but the cold is noticeable under the surface after a wipe out. Waterstarts can be quite rapid if you believe in legends, as you can be lured into sailing quite far out by the optical illusion of the opposite bank appearing quite close (it's 2-3 miles away).
The sailing is similar to the Gorge in the USA (judging by the videos) but it must be stressed that the funnelling only works in a SW. The ramps are very much into wind but there is possibility for big jumps to be bagged.
As with the Lossie revue I would advise you to take your kit if you go on holiday up there. There are several times that I've been out sailing at Loch Ness on a 5m only to chat to a frustrated windsurfer on holiday who left their kit at home.
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