The harbour contains some world class sailing boats, the famousspinnaker tower and is home to many British destroyers and aircraftcarriers.
The tour boats are a cheap way of getting around the harbour butthey have to stick to a set route. They offer fixed prices per personwith reduced rates for children. These trips generally take about anhour and cover the main areas of the harbour.
Another option is to charter a RIB (RIB Charter)– (rigid inflatable boat) for the day. If you take some friends orfamily this actually works out great value for money and gives you thefreedom to chose which parts of the harbour you visit. The Rib can beat your disposal all day and some are capable of over 50mph so you canbe anywhere in the Solent in no time. Portsmouth harbour actually has aspeed limit of 10 knots so if you hire a Rib and fancy doing some wave jumping and high speed turns you have to venture out of the harbour.
You can also tour the harbour in style on a Thames sailing barge.Thames sailing barges were initially used for carrying cargo up anddown the Thames and from 60 to 100ft. Due to there shape, they havehuge deck space and large areas beneath deck. As with the Rib you canchose where you visit and you are not restricted to Portsmouth harbouralone. Despite there large size the lack of a keel means that you arenot restricted by shallow water which is handy as Portsmouth harbour isvery tidal. Most of the sailing barges also have plenty of berths downbelow so you can even sleep on the boat and continue sailing the nextmorning.
What ever method you chose to explore the harbour you can almostguarantee a great day out with plenty to see and do. Rib and Thamesbarge charters give you more freedom and add another angle to the day’sfun but the tour boats offer a very cost effective method of exploringPortsmouth harbour.
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, they havehuge deck space and large areas beneath deck. As with the Rib you canchose where you visit and you are not restricted to Portsmouth harbouralone. Despite there large size the lack of a keel means that you arenot restricted by shallow water which is handy as Portsmouth harbour isvery tidal. Most of the sailing barges also have plenty of berths downbelow so you can even sleep on the boat and continue sailing the nextmorning.
