What is the difference between a harbour and a bay?

Answer 1

Hi
Harbour :

is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. Harbours can be man-made or natural. A man-made harbour will have sea walls or breakwaters and may require dredging. A natural harbour is surrounded on most sides by land.

Harbours and ports are often confused. A port is a man-made coastal or riverine facility where boats and ships can load and unload. It may consist of quays, wharfs, jetties, piers and slipways with cranes or ramps. A port may have magazine buildings or warehouses for storage of goods and a transport system, such as railway, road transport or pipeline transport facilities for relaying goods inland

Bay :
A headland is an area of land adjacent to water on three sides. A bay is the reverse, an area of water bordered by land on three sides. Large headlands may also be called peninsulas; long, narrow and high headlands promontories. When headlands dramatically affect the ocean currents they are often called capes. A bay generally occupies an area wider than a fjord but smaller than a sound or gulf, either of which may include one or more bays

Answer 2

As I have seen it, a harbor is typically used for shipping (or in really desolate areas just COULD be used for shipping). A bay is usually an incove, kind of scooped out area from the shoreline that is ideally surrounded by land on about 75% of it. Coves I suppose are synonymous but seem to be a little more secluded than most bays.

Answer 3

Harbour hosts ships. Bay doesn`t.

Answer 4

A bay is a nutural feature. A harbour is man made.