Teddington to St Kats - Question

[alpha]

So, we're off on hollybongs next week. Now, to avoid the need for Mrs alpha to lean over the bow and pick up a bouy outside St Kats, how do we get from Teddington to St Kats without either motoring up and down for hours or taking a bouy? Are there any pontoons we can wait on? Any clever sums about tides and things to allow us to do the whole thing in one high tide? Draft 3ft, speed not a problem....

 

[syd]

Hiya Tim
Have a look at www.stkaths.co.uk. All the lock times are there. I left Teddington two hours before high water at London Bridge and had a steady poodle, about 8 knots, taking in the scenery and arrived at St Kats around high water. We called up Ronnie(call sign "St Katherines") on channel 80 who told us we only had twenty minutes to wait so we just hovered about outside.
Have a safe trip.
Syd
I've left a pm for you concerning the crossing.

 

[PGD]

there is a pontoon for hold vessels waiting to lock in but it can get a bit bouncy. If you go for a run about don't go much past Limehouse I think it is unless you are going throught the barrier - PLA ask you not to - that;s what their blerb says anyway - might only apply to big ships .

Have a good trip

 

[tcm]

TCM special passage planning method

Normally you would have to work this out yourself. Hence your post, I suppose. We can't work it out cos dunno when yer going.

So, it's time to use the patented tcm special passage planning method.

Get down early to the boat, praps the night before and make sure that you are seen by others leafing thru books, unfolding or folding charts and so on. Almost certainly someone will pass by and if you know they have a boat, you can hail them and announce your plans for the upcoming trip. If nobody goes past you'll have to take charts to yot club/boozer or whatever and hail them there. Say something like "yes, we're off to St Kats! By my reckoning we should go at 11am to catch the tide and make the lock before it closes at 4.30" or whatever. The important info to transmit to them is the day (for complicated tide stuff), the target destination, departure time and arrival time. You can just make up the last two (departure and arrival time).

Now, most boaties over about age 40 simply cannot resist this: instead of them doing more boat cleaning or fixing, they will beetle off and work out your route themselves. They'll come back inside 20 minutes and say ooh no, sorry to butt in again but I've just had a look at your route and really, you shouldn't set off at 11, you should set off at ..... because HW dover is ....plus allowing for secondary port wotsit, see.. and I've called st kats to check their lock times... and so on and so forth.

You must now look quite alarmed and make is if you are urgently re-checking your "workings", but qucikly agree that yes indeed, they're quite right! And thank you for your help! If you actually haven't done any planning work at all, it'll be best if you get a few of them working on it, for cross checking. Then everyone feels very pleased with themselves and you have a nice plan without very much work other than unfolding/folding charts.

Of course, you had nearly gotten all this worked out with your original post, alpha, but hadn't mentioned the date for them to look up tides and lock openings and so on....and now I've gorn and wrecked it with this post so mebbe nobody will help! Sorry!

 

[ccscott49]

Re: TCM special passage planning method

Unbelievably brilliant! Now I can see why you are well off and retired!! or semi anyway!!

 

[boatone]

A better way........

On 9th July I went downriver with one cneigbour from hereabouts on his Broom 37. The following info is extracted from a very thorough passage plan and electronic log from the Tsunamis Navigator package. From Richmond Half Tide Lock (2.5 miles down from Teddington) to Tower Bridge is 14.5 miles. We logged Richmond at 12:37 just as they opened for free passage and we logged Tower Bridge at 14:38 - almost exactly 2 hours.
For 9th July St. Kats shows locking from 1205 to 1535 so certainly well possible within the single tide. If youy want to know if it was spring or neap tide you''ll have to find out!
I suspect the real issue is whether or not you have to wait for locking but as I dont know the detail of locking at St Kats - how many boats can they handle etc afraid I can't help with that bit - maybe others can 'cos I'd also like to know.


<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com> My P32 and Boaters Picture Gallery</A>

 

[tcm]

Re: see!! it works!

Pity alpha didn't give the deprature date otherwise I bet b1 wd've worked out exackerly the plan for him.

 

[boatone]

Re: see!! it works!

Im very good at history but pretty sh*t at forecasts - although I would have put money on you responding as you did !!!!

I might actually get round to doing the trip in my own boat one of these days - anyone fancy keeping me company?

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com> My P32 and Boaters Picture Gallery</A>

 

[tcm]

Re: Ouch

And after all that nice grammar work I did! Dang.

 

[boatone]

Re: Ouch

exakerly !

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com> My P32 and Boaters Picture Gallery</A>

 

[PGD]

Re: see!! it works!

count me in , did the trip with friends, my diesel engine needs a clear out so keep me posted

peter

 

[alpha]

Re: see!! it works!

Thanks for all the help, especially you, tcm! We were put in a similar position by the crew of a small powerboat on our trip up the Thames. Naturally, we got our charts out and went through the whole plan for their race the following weekend. The following Sunday, they won their race! (Well done, King of Shaves, if you read this).

We'll be going somewhere between Friday and Sunday. Any takers for joining in? We're quite flexible!

 

[syd]

Re: Sooooo....

Sooooo..... The simple version I gave you of the trip should suffice then?


Have a good trip Tim.

Syd