Kennet / Thames help

[Edharris]

Hi can some one help me with some info please.
We are looking at keep our boat (what ever it maybe we don’t know yet) near Aldermaston and looking to head to the Thames now and again. As we will be on the Kennet Is going through the oracle reading the only way to get to that Thames?
Also what is the lowest bridge between Aldermaston and the the Thames? Basically trying to work out the max size boat we can get that we can take between Aldermaston and then down to the Thames. Any sort of narrow boat is out of the question

 

[Gibeltarik]

Yes - only through the Oracle shopping centre.
Nicholsons suggests 70ft x 14ft 7ft 9in - but remember that this is the River Kennet and levels are variable - rising after heavy rain and reducing headroom

 

[Edharris]

Thanks, is this for the whole stretch of the Kennet? I only need from Aldermaston to the Thames. I did read somewhere lowest bridge was in newbury at 2.4m high

Yes - only through the Oracle shopping centre.
Nicholsons suggests 70ft x 14ft 7ft 9in - but remember that this is the River Kennet and levels are variable - rising after heavy rain and reducing headroom

 

[DWT]

I'm not sure what the bridge heights are. There a couple of quite low bridges around the Oracle shopping centre in Reading, but most small cruisers should be able to navigate them with the canopy down. It's a wide beam canal so feasible for vessels other than narrow boats. The bigger issue is that there are 12 locks between Aldermaston and Reading so you are probably looking at a full days cruising to make the trip.

Many years ago when we bought our first boat, a 27 foot Viking built from the old Seamaster 813 moulds, I liked the idea of being able to explore both the Thames and the canal and we did venture down the K&A a short way through Reading and a couple of locks. We found it a pretty miserable experience to be honest, slow, narrow, quite shallow in places and in general not particularly attractive. A cruiser with a small diesel engine which is happy to potter along at 4mph is ok, but anything bigger will not really work in my view.

Sorry to be negative, just a personal view. If you find the right vessel and are happy with the very slow pace of the canal then it may work for you, but you do need to consider what sort of cruising you want to do.

 

[Chris_d]

I used to have a 25ft sports cruiser (Cruiser Int'l 224) and I took this up the K&A from Reading as far as Newbury once, the footbridge over the park was the limit then at about 6'6" but this has since been raised. With everything folded down we were about 7'4" and just squeezed under the bridges in central Reading. You need a Thames cruiser that can operate above Osney Bridge Oxford basically or a narrow/widebeam steel boat.
Draft was an issue we had about 1m and dragged or hit the bottom in numerous places, the design of barges with skegs and protected props is why they are on the K&A an there aren't many cruisers. Any cruiser will soon look a bit battered after even a short time on the K&A.
Reading to Newbury took about a one and half days, so anybody who told you it would be two hours to the Thames from Aldermaston is talking out of their rectal passage, it is slow going and you won't be doing day trips to the Thames.
Difficult to recommend anything really as where you are you need a canal boat or a small day boat, if you can find a Thames mooring then anything is possible. Again sorry to be negative.

 

[rotrax]

You are not being negative, you are telling it how it is. The Canal system soon makes a posh motorboat look tatty and the bottom is often far too near the top.

A few years ago First Mate and I took a 65 foot narrowboat on the K&A. It was in flood conditions and only the fact that the yard was aware we are very experienced did they let us leave. At two points we stopped for a day because the water was running so fast the boat was unmanageable downstream.

Tom Rolt, the author of 'Narrow Boat' had a similar experience. He took a trans Atlantic sailor as crew. Entering a lock going down the water was cascading over the top gate, into the chamber and then over the bottom gate. Rolts crew took the 20 foot ash pole from the roof and put it against the top gate timberwork. It slid under his arm, hit the cabin top, bent in the middle, lifted him off his feet, snapped and dumped him back on the deck, breaking an ankle.
He said crossing the Atlantic on a sailboat was a doddle by comparison!
Rolt meanwhile had spepped off the back of the boat and checked its way with a stern warp.

The reason Narrowboats are the right tool for canal travel is clear.