Thames, Queenborough & St Kats

phatcat1

phatcat1

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 Apr 2005
Messages
1,185
Location
High Norfolk
Visit site
We are planning an Easter trip from the Orwell, up the Thames to St Kats, and want to use Queenborough for a stop-off both on the up and down legs.

Any hints and tips from the forum regarding Queenborough and mooring, or any useful hints on the Thames?
 
Well...if you must go to Queenborough you can usually pic up a free mooring. I found a few to choose from when I was there a couple of years ago. Not my favourite place. Alternatively, consider a quiet night at anchor in Stangate Creek.
 
Re: St Kats, be prepared to spend a while bobbing around in the tideway while they eat lunch drink tea and muster enough boats wanting to leave --

Spent the best part of 50 mins entertaining the tourists and fending off a narrow boat that refused to lie like we four sailboats in wind and tide. Great fun.... Nice for us we had a motordailer so sat inside nice and warm while everyone else was turning blue -- this was March last year and wind was horrendous.

Good luck
Nick..
 
Check out the berthing at Limehouse.Much quieter,no tourists or boat gazers looking through your hatches and no fag ends thrown onto the boats.Only a few hundred yards from Limehouse DLR Station.
 
Re: Thames, Queenborough & St Kats

I Did the trip Hamble - St Kats for the 2006 boat show.
Did stop at Queensborough, very bleak. There is a very long pontoon with a pay to get back gate at the far end. Remember to get your tokens from the pub before you come back.
Once in the Thames do remember to call and report your passage.
There are some quite strange sights as you come up the river.
Agree about locking in at St Kats, very slow, took us over an hour to get in. Marina is not very secure.
Hope that helps
 
Queenborough is not my favourite place but is a very convenient stop-off. Therer are a few visitors bouys but they can get busy. Usually plenty of unused moorings especially at Easter. The two
downsides for me are:

1. If the wind is Northerly (and to a lesser extent Southerly) then it gets pretty uncomfortable in there. We have found the boat banging into the visitors bouy with wind over tide.

2. When we were last in there on a hot June day we left our dinghy tied to the pontoon whilst enjoying a good meal at the Flying Dutchman. When we got back it was tied up elsewhere and covered in mud where the local lads had be messing about with it. There pontoon has a gate but they just walk round it on the mud. The pontoon is now managed by the yacht Club and not the council but I don't know if that has improved things. I don't suppose that there will be too many evening swimmers at Easter.

Don't forget to buy a token at the pub.

Limehouse basin is an alternative if St Kat's is too busy. There's a DLR station right next to it.

Have a good trip.
 
Club members reported that in 2005 on the annual St. Kat's trip that the tide required locking-out at around 0500. The people who operate the site didn't want their night spoiled so they insisted that all those interested had to lock-in by midnight, so that they simply had to pitch up at 0500 and open the gates.

Those boats who did lock-in spent a restless night not least due to the worry of being asleep or unready for the exodus
 
If its vacant the concrete lighter as Queenborough is better than a buoy. Rumour has it that you are supposed to pay/book but I've done neither, nor been asked to by HM who popped over last time as we had not been there when it got dark the previous evening.

Otherwise Queenborough appears to have been made by bits left over after the Creation, probably a Friday afternoon job:-)
 
In addition to the previous Queenborough comments - you also have the pleasure of a nice background drone from Abbots Chemicals plant located adjacent to the moorings (24/7). Anchor towards the head of Stangate Creek for a much quieter night
 
Yes, we have booked, but they are short of pontoons as some got damaged in a storm apparently!!???!?!?!?!?!?!

Therefore rafting only! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Yep, Stangate gets my vote, though Queenborough is perfect in the right conditions (my 'desktop background' is a shot of the view towards the power station, and is really pretty!).
 
Friday in August 2006, 2hours stooging around outside St Kats waiting. The concrete lighter at Queenborogh (the side away from the channel) is not bad. According to weather and your hull shape you can expect a slap slap on the hull all night. For an overnight buoy you might want to practice your pick up, The eye on the buoys are quite small (lasso the whole thing temporarily). there is a harbourmaster there (according to time/ tide) & there is a charge for visitors. (he comes alongside). If you get pee'd of with St kats wait .. you can go back a mile and get into South Dock Marina, give 'em a bell and they'll have the gates open for you, staff on duty there 24 hours.
 
Another vote against Queenborough, especially in a Northerly. As others have suggested, anchor in Stangate Creek, or in a Northerly, Sharfleet Creek. But on the other hand, you can get ashore to the pub at Queenborough, which is a Good Thing.

Depending on speed/progress, have you considered Holehaven? Takes you further upstream, and a nice sheltered creek to either pick up a buoy or drop your hook. You *can* get ashore to the Lobster Smack but you might do just as well to stay aboard for a FB....
 
Being fair, its not all bad.

Last October half term:
Queenborough Dawn.jpg


followed slightly later by:
Queenborough Sunrise.jpg


Reality may have been sharper, but I was hungover that early. Both while moored on the concrete barge.
 
Be sure to take a padlock and chain for the tender as locals enjoy a play. 2 t.ssers took ours last year from the pontoon fouled the prop and had to summon assistance to stop them drifting of into the estuary. The inner row of mooring buoys on the west bank (deadmans island) are shallow at low water. A reasonable place to break the trip.
 
There's quite a lot of info regarding your proposed journey in 'East Coast Pilot', I've used it on both my recent trips to Lunnun and found the book very useful. Also I see there's new changes to the detailed info about London marinas in the 'updates' section of their website www.eastcoastpilot.com, might be worth a look.
 
You've just reminded me- Last month the concrete barge and the all-tide landing were out of commission- best check before you arrive
 
Nick

We did this last year in Ty Dewi. Stopped both ways at Stangate Creek rather than Queensborough - a much nicer spot and very secluded given how close you are to so much industry.

St Kats was my first choice then I found out the price and wasn't so keen, then found out the locking in/out times and was put right off, it would have seriously limited the cruise.

We went to Limehouse instead and it was really good - excellent links to the rest of the city, nice place, very friendly and cost us under £60 for two nights for our monster craft. And lock in/out for many more hours of the tide.

PM'd you with a link to some more stuff.

Nick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

T
Notices to Mariners - Week 50
Replies
2
Views
744
tillergirl
T

Share this page

Top