Lepe is just "up" from Calshot, and can claim to be windier in a prevailing SW, especially if accelerated by a sea breeze - being more in line with the Needles as the wind funnels down the Solent The big negative is that it is very popular with day trippers, the photos below were taken on a Friday in the Feb half term, and the carpark was nearly full! I've only sailed at Lepe once, but it was fun, quite a few years back. Cowes week was on and the Solent across to the Isle of Wight was full of sail craft of every conceivable size - a good F5 was blowing and went out on the trusty old "Mistral Screamer" - can't for the life of me remember what sail. Buzzing the boats was great fun, though I did appreciate that they were racing, so did not get to much in their way. After a while, whilst sailing out in the middle decided to carry on to the Isle of Wight, did this a couple of times and landed at Gurnard Bay though the wind inshore was very light as the bay is in the lee of the wind. As a location it's great if you have a family or bored partner, at least they can chill out in pleasant surroundings. You won't find many kiters / windsurfers out there purely because of the lack of space for rigging etc - but its' worth a trip if you've been / going to Calshot
