St. Kats re-opening at last

[alldownwind]

Just seen on the East Coast pilot website www.eastcoastpilot.com/news.htm that St. Kats is supposed to be reopening this coming Saturday. Incredible, closing the place for repairs in the middle of the sailing season (it's been closed for nearly 2 months I think). Dutch friends of ours were incredulous and reckon the place is doomed to be redeveloped and closed for ever, eventually.

 

[FullCircle]

Well thats good news anyway.
I also note that the All Tide Landing at Queenborough is open too.

 

[thalassa]

Well, I think your friends will see that more of their countrymen and -women have been disappointed. Not only "Sailing today", but also the popular Dutch "Zeilen" magazine -arriving May- spend a large part of the issue on "Coastal hopping to London", only mentioning St Katts as a useable marina, and nowhere mentioning that pre-booking is required at any London port.
We had the sense of checking again by phone at Queenborough, and subsequently to find that the other locations like South Dock had no space left...

 

[alldownwind]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, I think your friends will see that more of their countrymen and -women have been disappointed. Not only "Sailing today", but also the popular Dutch "Zeilen" magazine -arriving May- spend a large part of the issue on "Coastal hopping to London", only mentioning St Katts as a useable marina, and nowhere mentioning that pre-booking is required at any London port.
We had the sense of checking again by phone at Queenborough, and subsequently to find that the other locations like South Dock had no space left...

[/ QUOTE ]
That's strange, I just checked the June (published early May) issue of Sailing Today, at the start of the feature about London marinas, and it says "The five London marinas - Gallions Point, West India, South Dock, Limehouse, and St. Katharine Haven - usually only accept visitors who have pre-booked".
And let's remember that St. Kat's was closed in early June at about 2 days' notice, when the magazines will have been printed long in advance.

 

[Roxby]

Not too sure about the two days notice - we had a letter at home and a copy left on the boat about four weeks before the work began - although they did originally say it would be two weeks, not two months...
We're pretty uneasy about the future of the dock. It's obviously pointless asking the new owners what they have in mind (making lots of money perhaps?), but the signs aren't too good.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

I'd hope the have no choice vut to keep St Kats as a dock.marina as EH ought not to allow anything else. Mind you, right palms greased and cash for somewhere else and who knows.

 

[thalassa]

[ QUOTE ]
That's strange, I just checked the June (published early May) issue of Sailing Today, at the start of the feature about London marinas, and it says "The five London marinas - Gallions Point, West India, South Dock, Limehouse, and St. Katharine Haven - usually only accept visitors who have pre-booked".

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed, had the magazine myself before setting off. Perhaps my text was not too clear, I just meant there wasn't a word about pre-booking in the Dutch "Zeilen" magazine. And the only marina mentioned was St Kats.