The Thames as it should be

byron

byron

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What an excellent day boat watching here at Ashmount. Dinghy's, paddle boards, motor cruisers in every variety, houseboats, rafts, if it floated then someone was enjoying it.
 
Agreed. Teddington / Twickenham was the same. Apart from a needless RNLI launch but that's another conversation !

Great to see folk out. Boat ownership is down but participation is up.

Off paddle boarding my self tomorrow.
 
Henley was very pleasant yesterday other than us nearly getting rammed by a very expensive looking large electric launch with a great big brass stem post.
We (me the wife and 2 kids) were out in our 14ft electric day boat which I drive very slowly - the Edwardian thing came up from behind being helmed by a child and just veered off a few metres behind us.

Loads of swimmers came past this morning down the regatta reach.
 
It is nice to see the variety of boats being used and swimmers as well. We come up River every year (i have done this for about 25 years while living on narrow boats or my barge) and I noticed there seems to be a general move towards people using day boats rather than the larger 25-30 footers which seemed to be so popular a few years ago. Also seem to be less narrow boats.

A move towards hire rather than ownership perhaps? Why would this be.
 
Cost. Ownership is down.

A 25 ft cabin cruiser could cost you north of 100k nowadays. ( new)

Oh and weather ...

I said all of this years ago.

Low cost and easy access with no hassle. That's where we will end up
 
I would have to disagree about narrowboats. I think they are making up the numbers. I have only been around the Thames for the last 4 years but there do seem to be more year in year.

Paul
 
kremmen said:
I would have to disagree about narrowboats. I think they are making up the numbers. I have only been around the Thames for the last 4 years but there do seem to be more year in year.
Paul
Click to expand...
No reliable statistics but I would tend to agree. I think most lockie will tell you that without the NBs they would be somewhat under employed !
Visiting NBs also contribute a significant slice of income these days - either through gold licences or visitors registration fees.
 
Outinthedinghy said:
Henley was very pleasant yesterday other than us nearly getting rammed by a very expensive looking large electric launch with a great big brass stem post.
We (me the wife and 2 kids) were out in our 14ft electric day boat which I drive very slowly - the Edwardian thing came up from behind being helmed by a child and just veered off a few metres behind us.

Loads of swimmers came past this morning down the regatta reach.
Click to expand...

Gloriana? :p
 
It was an electric Edwardian type thing I think its kept in the boathouse by the management college where Consuta used to be .

I still think there are less narrow boats than 10 years ago - but there are plenty nevertheless.

Not sure if its possible to get statistics anyway. Lockies count boats but not boat types.
 
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