Clifton Hampton Beware

Chill

Chill

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There is a very shallow area about half a mile downstream of the bridge! We draw 4'1" and was in middle of sream when we hit the botton causing the starboard engine to stalll! We now have a vibration so it has damaged the prop. Made lock keeper aware and he said we were the 4th boat to say this. I telephoned the EA the next day and they had no record of it!

sorry for the typo should be Clifton Hampden..
 
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There is a well known shallow spot about 200m downstream of the Bridge, but the riverbed is rock so it is undredgeable it is marked with a green bouy. Not heard of it being shallow any further down than that though I normally find those bits as its my reach :-(

General warning to everybody don't bother going up the weirstream to the Plough at Long Wittenham above Clifton Hampden, there is a very bad shallow section just past the last moored boats before the bend to the Pub.
 
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On the same theme as shallows, do not attempt to moor alongside Oakley Court in Windsor. We had booked a mooring for overnight to eat in their restaurant but could not get within 10 feet of the bank anywhere along the quarter mile of frontage. Had to go to Bray marina for overnight and get a taxi. We draw 4 feet.
 
Re Oakley Court i am not at all surprised. IMHO it is unwise to assume any depth of water bankside without checking and that includes designated moorings. My experience generally is that most regular mooring spots are safe to about 3 feet - but still with caution.
 
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Oakley Court has only just started welcoming boats to moor, so I guess the moorings have been underused and a bit of an unknown.

The Clifton shoal has stopped most larger boats venturing above Shillingford for years unless they have a well protected prop with a skeg.
 
General warning to everybody don't bother going up the weirstream to the Plough at Long Wittenham above Clifton Hampden, there is a very bad shallow section just past the last moored boats before the bend to the Pub.[/QUOTE]

Went up to the Plough mid July. No problem getting there apart from a fish hook hanging down at head height from the overhead cables by the boats. My draft is about 3 feet. Didn,t stop on the pub mooring as they had not got round to fitting the tyre fenders to the scaffold pole staging.
 
alanch said:
General warning to everybody don't bother going up the weirstream to the Plough at Long Wittenham above Clifton Hampden, there is a very bad shallow section just past the last moored boats before the bend to the Pub.
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Went up to the Plough mid July. No problem getting there apart from a fish hook hanging down at head height from the overhead cables by the boats. My draft is about 3 feet. Didn,t stop on the pub mooring as they had not got round to fitting the tyre fenders to the scaffold pole staging.[/QUOTE]

You were lucky then went up mid July too and stopped dead just before the bend, spent about 5 mins extracting myself with a boat hook and raised outdrives so I didn't damage the props, it was 2/3 feet deep or less in the middle as I prodded the bottom with the hook, could have actually got out and walked!
Think if you stay right you may miss the shoal which is all gravel, but its a very narrow channel maybe only a boats width.
 
Moor directly in front of the Fringila jetty and it's fine. Can't guarantee more than 3 feet though.

Thamesmariner said:
On the same theme as shallows, do not attempt to moor alongside Oakley Court in Windsor. We had booked a mooring for overnight to eat in their restaurant but could not get within 10 feet of the bank anywhere along the quarter mile of frontage. Had to go to Bray marina for overnight and get a taxi. We draw 4 feet.
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A very interesting thread. We took Ex Libris up to Benson a couple of weeks ago. We enjoyed the run in that reach and were just considering going further when we seemed to run out of water. Didn't dare go any further due to the constant beeping of the depth gauge (we draw 4ft). Even though the EA declare 4ft up to Oxford, I get the impression we would have a very nervous time and would probably struggle to moor if we went any further?
 
Gavi said:
Even though the EA declare 4ft up to Oxford, I get the impression we would have a very nervous time and would probably struggle to moor if we went any further?
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We took the Pedro 36 (draft a little over 4feet up to Abingdon several times and although we touched bottom a few times, especially the bedrock both above and below Clifton Hampden it wasnt a big deal taking it slowly. We also had no problems mooring there. On the coast we referred to what was called "local knowledge" - Oldgit is a master of the art !
Mind you, it is reassuring to have a keel deeper than the props!
 
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boatone said:
We took the Pedro 36 (draft a little over 4feet up to Abingdon several times and although we touched bottom a few times, especially the bedrock both above and below Clifton Hampden it wasnt a big deal taking it slowly. We also had no problems mooring there. On the coast we referred to what was called "local knowledge" - Oldgit is a master of the art !
Mind you, it is reassuring to have a keel deeper than the props!
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Boats like your old Pedro and Stevens etc... can touch bottom no problem, its the deep vee hulled twin engined Brooms (not SD ones) and Princess's etc.. that always struggle as the props are really low and exposed. I'd love to see a sonar scan of the bottom at Clifton as I am sure you could pick your way around the worse bits, there are some enormous holes in the bottom there as well.
 
This was at least 1/4 mile downstream of the bridge and on the way back down river looks like there has been some tree felling near where we went aground. kept over to the right and did no have any problems. Mind you coming out of Days lock moved over to the right as we came out of the lock cos a NB was coming up and we klonked the bottom stalling the engine... also upstream of Benson lock just as you entre the cut we went betwen the red and green bouys and slill ran aground. Next year we will be stopping at Wallingford,
 
Chill said:
There is a very shallow area about half a mile downstream of the bridge! We draw 4'1" and was in middle of sream when we hit the botton causing the starboard engine to stalll! We now have a vibration so it has damaged the prop. Made lock keeper aware and he said we were the 4th boat to say this. I telephoned the EA the next day and they had no record of it!
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I have traversed this section many times and find that it is dodgy most of the time. Sometimes it is ok and the depth warnings are absent. Did you check with the lockie about water levels as this seems to be a critical factor. Mind you, a couple of years ago I enquired about levels at Clifton, when travelling downstream, and was told that they were a bit high as the weirs had just been opened a tad. Understatement of the year!!! We nearly wiped our canopy off when passing under the bridge. At least we could proceed normally through the shallows without a peep from the sounder.
 
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