People Sailing North of Spain

[Mac29]

I would like to know the amount of people sailing along the north west coast of Spain per year. Where can I get that kind os statistic?

[psk125]

The Bay of Biscay does have sailboats, (been there) but a lot of people avoid it because the weather tends to make it a huge lee shore. The land formations funnel the wind and waves so that they can quickly turn quite nasty. The the European surfing and windsurfing championships are often held in Biarritz (France) because of this. The Bay's west side (France) has few ports, and those can be tricky with bars at the entrances that have shifting sands. The south side (Spain) may have more harbors, but they will be steep-to, and rocky, due to the Pyrenees arriving at the coast. Though sometimes the weather can be nice, it is not a place for the faint of heart.

To determine the number of sailboats you could try looking for harbor statistics on numbers of slips, but that would include fishing boats and powerboats too.

[goboatingnow]

The Marina managers of common yacht marinas in Bilbao, Gijón, A Coruña ( Coruna), and Baiona would probably be the best best. These are significant yacht cruising grounds, certainly from the size of the marinas there.

Dave

[idpnd]

The eastern Rias (as in north coast of Spain) are pretty and considered an undiscovered paradise by some. Even though the weather is really only good enough for a few weeks every year

Superb guide here:

Spain cruising guide - JimB