Recent content by alistairedw

Just noticed in our local paper an article about a boat owner getting into serious trouble at Teddington on Monday. According to the paper, whilst making short trip up from Twickenham to the Anglers at Teddington he ran out of fuel and the strong flow then swept the small cruiser into a jetty...

It certainly is a small cruiser! I hope there is room for the dog on board. It must have been quite a fire. I sailed close to the raft a few days after it happened and was shocked how little there was left.

At Twickenham we had our annual Easter dinghy race scheduled for yesterday morning. River flowing fairly fast but a reasonably strong breeze so I launched my dinghy (with a Support Boat in attendance) to see whether it was possible to make any progress upstream. After about 30 minutes of hard...

One blue Croc. Always use the heel straps!

I can offer some recent practical experience. While sailing my national 12 dinghy (loose footed main) earlier this week in F3/F4 the shackle connecting my kicker to the boom came adrift and I was not able to reconnect it. To get back home I had to beat back upriver fighting with a boom that did...

A great day on the water. I provided safety boat cover for the start area. Highly amusing watching nearly 300 rowing boats trying to get onto the water in a short space of time. A really spectacular event. I am seriously tempted to take part next year, although it will be a much harder race...

Conditions below Teddington have been moderating nicely. Level is close to normal now and the flow is not too bad. I went for a sail yesterday afternoon and despite a tricky southerly breeze I had no problems coping with the stream. Fingers crossed that we do not get any more substantial rain...

Don't worry Forbsie. I make it 4 weeks as well.

I will be manning a support boat and hopefully basking in the sunshine.

There appeared to be more sleeping going on than fishing. I don't think they are that bothered about catching fish. It is just a way of avoiding their wives. I noticed that a couple of them had horrific sunburn. Presumably they forgot to apply some sunscreen before entering the 'Stella Artois...

Great film Dylan. Keep them coming!

Just got back from a long weekend to Cherbourg and back on board a Sadler 34 owned by a friend. We left Chichester late on Thursday evening. Once we got clear of the IoW we encountered very lumpy conditions and although the breeze was nice and fresh our speed was restricted by the large waves we...

That sounds a bit more encouraging. The river was flowing very fast at Twickenham yesterday evening. Well after high tide the river was still about 3 feet above the normal maintained level. Lets hope most of the floodwater manages to get downstream before the weekend. Last weekend it was...

The rib did not physically push the cruiser out of the main channel. The owner of the cruiser told me that he moved out of the main channel because the rib escorting the rowers was not prepared to move out of the main channel. The cruiser owner was not familiar with this section of the Thames...

I took part in a Tideway dinghy race yesterday starting at Putney. The river was disgusting. There was a strong smell of sewage and the surface of the river had a disgusting brown oily sheen. There was about an inch of rain while we were towing the dinghies downriver from Twickenham and as...