Ramsgate to St Katherine's Dock

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A2THEK101

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Hi, I was really after some help with some passage planning. Ideally looking to go to London for a night somewhere between 1st and 5th July. I have a 7.5m sports boat and trying to understand when best to catch the right tides so the trip is reasonably economical coming into and out of st kats. Boat can achieve 180nm according to Jeanneau so will stop at Gillingham for petrol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've read the east coast pilot but am really after some human advice. Boat holds 280litres of fuel and at approx 20 knots seems to burn about 25litres per hr. Thanks
 
Suspect that unless the conditions are ideal you would not be undertaking the trip.
Assuming decent weather ie no strong N or NE winds against tides, especially springs, you should be able to keep up a decent speed and a couple of knots of tide either way will not really affect your journey times or fuel consumption.
Personally would try and work my trip out in reverse.
Frequently the worse conditions you will encounter will be outside St Kats lock gate.
Try to time your arrival just before your lock in and note that you probably will/could be travelling at a much reduced speed once past the barrier, you need to factor this in.
You might want to consider about splitting your journey at Gillingham Marina . ?Its going to be rather long day and have you considered daylight ?
After North Foreland couple of choices of route, if around HW the inshore route ( Four Fathom )is more interesting otherwise an offshore route is preferable.
Sure there will be others along soon for more advice.
 
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Thanks for replying - yes I'll be waiting for the right conditions absolutely. I've always seen people talk about going with the tides up the thames but if you don't think that's much of a factor for me that's good. Is it basically just a bit lumpy outside St. Kats? CAn I ask about the opening and closing times at St. Kats if you know.

Around those dates, it is a spring tide.

Thanks
 
I have had another look at the St Kats lock times up to end of June so will see when they publish July. As you said, they suggest arriving 1/2 hr before closing
 
All locking dates/times for the year are published at http://www.skdocks.co.uk/marina ; if you scroll they're listed near the bottom of the page, by month. You can call then anytime to talk through times & procedures - it's recommended.
As you'll only be able to travel at max 12kts from Margretness, but probably less unless you want to run really inefficiently in a 7.5m planing boat, it'll take towards 90 mins to get from there to St Kats. I did the journey, averaging 7.5kts on an incoming tide in 1hr20 a couple of weeks ago in a Sealine S24. If I was against the tide, I'd have only managed 5kts, so would have to altered my eta as appropriate.
Make sure you're also familiar with Thames Barrier procedures; whilst not required on your boat, a VHF tuned to 14 (67, 68 further out) is recommended.
Lots of information available at pla.co.uk, and the subsite, boatingonthethames.co.uk. Recommend joining the navigators club - you get useful docs in the post.
 
If you want to stay in St Kats, suggest you get on to them ASAP.
They can book up months in advance.
Assume you do have a radio and plotter on board with depthsounder.
The ECP is an excellent publication as is the little map that the PLA sends out.
Just out of interest what experience have you regards boating.
Ps. Thats an awful lot of time effort and fuel for single night in St Kats, time you get yourself relaxed n sorted you will be locking out again not much more than 18 hours later with precious little rest..???
 
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Thanks guys. I've got the east coast pilot but it's in the boat. I've owned the boat since March so relatively new but I didn't get the boat to take a train to London when I'm after an adventure ;) It's all about the experience and isn't something I'll do too often. I have know booked St. Kat's and got the correct lock times so that's sorted. Thanks for the ETA from Margretness that's very useful as I'm concerned about timing it correctly to arrive at the right time. I'm aware of the PLA and checked their website a lot so Thames barrier should be fine and look forward to that part also. Just concerned about timing my arrival correctly with tides etc. St. Kat's said no problem if I arrive a bit early so will be sure you give myself plenty of time.
 
"And given the overnight charges there it might be cheaper to get the train and stay in a hotel"
If you can give me the name of the hotel with a view of Tower Bridge for £80.00 a night it would be most useful. :):):)

Plan to get there for around first lock in ?, there is a decent window before the last lock in .
Delays not too much of a problem.
Will you have any crew, can be useful when locking in.
Usually first lock is a bit busy, the idea is to get in ASAP and come to a graceful stop.Whoever is controlling the lock will tell you which side and where in the lock he wants you.
Some skippers are a bit hard of understanding obeying these instructions, usually yacht skippers.
 
There'll be 4 in total so I'll have some assistance along the way. The crew will all be helping so hopefully I'll manage a graceful stop and get all fenders out. When you say first lock, do you mean when it first opens according to their timetable. I hope I'm blessed with good weather for those 2 days and looking forward to the views for a paltry £57 :) I wish the fuel barge did petrol but will stop at Gillingham on the way to be safe
 
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