Hampshire, England

Stamshaw put-in (Portsmouth)

Launch — A slipway on Portsmouth City Council's public foreshore, part of a stretch rebuilt under the North Portsea Coastal Scheme; no surface, width or gradient is published for this specific ramp.

Parking — The nearest car park is the Mountbatten Centre (283 spaces, 15 accessible, free for customers), about 1.3km along the foreshore; Twyford Avenue and nearby streets fall within the council's resident permit zone FH.

Access — Reached via the public Stamshaw Foreshore Coastal Path; no landowner or fee restricts launching unpowered craft here, though small craft entering or leaving the harbour must use the designated Small Boat Channel.

Season — Coastal defence works along this frontage pause each October to protect overwintering birds; no fixed seasonal closure of the slipway itself is published.

Regulations — The King's Harbour Master Portsmouth regulates the Dockyard Port under the Dockyard Port of Portsmouth Order 2005 and publishes dedicated paddlesport guidance; a 10-knot speed limit applies within half a nautical mile of shore. No licence is required for unpowered craft, unlike personal watercraft, which must be licensed by KHM.

A slipway on the Portsmouth Harbour foreshore at Stamshaw, on the north-west corner of Portsea Island near Portsmouth International Port.

Portsmouth Harbour's north-west shore

Portsmouth Harbour is a large, near-enclosed tidal inlet joined to the Solent by a narrow entrance; at low water it exposes one of the four largest expanses of intertidal mudflat on the south coast of Britain, and holds around 77 hectares of seagrass beds, mostly in the north-west of the harbour near this shore. The beds are a key food source for wintering dark-bellied brent geese, alongside nationally important grey plover, dunlin and black-tailed godwit, and the harbour carries SSSI, Special Protection Area and Ramsar designations.

The put-in looks across to Whale Island, an active naval establishment whose land area was increased by about 125% using spoil dredged from the harbour during the 19th century. Stamshaw itself once held a Royal Powder Works, established in 1804 in connection with the gunpowder magazine at Tipner.

Nearby

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Ceanos Cafe

Coffee shop on Wharf Road, about 800 metres from the slipway.

Southsea Leisure Park

Holiday park with touring pitches for tents, caravans and motorhomes plus static homes, open to individual public bookings; about 5km from the slipway.

Website

Conditions to check

Tidal flow

Portsmouth Harbour has a mean spring tidal range of about 3.9 metres and a neap range of about 1.9 metres; streams in the north-west harbour off Stamshaw are comparatively weak, reaching around 1.7 knots at springs in mid-channel and easing further toward Whale Island.

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Boat traffic

This is a major working harbour, with around 130,000 significant vessel movements a year and about 5,000 resident recreational craft; Portsmouth International Port lies immediately south of this shore.

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Shallow or rocky

The north-west harbour is extensive intertidal mudflat, among the largest expanses on the south coast of Britain, and dries out at low water.

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