Tidal Thames Sailing

[vjmehra]

Not sure if this is best here or in the Thames forum, but I'll gamble on here...

With the new (and in my opinion excessive) speed restrictions and even more ridiculous exemption criteria coming in shortly on the Thames we are almost certainly going to have to sell our RIB, therefore we are considering other options and rather than motor cruising, we are thinking about potentially sail cruising, however I never seem to see sailing boats out on the Thames, so I was wondering how practical this idea is.

If I was to purchase a small sail cruiser (say 20-25 foot) and keep it somewhere such as Limehouse, is it actually plausible to sail frequently on the Tidal Thames (obviously Tower Bridge and traffic kill the fun towards the city, but is the other way a practical place to sail)?

I'm guessing there is no black and white answer here, but I'd love to hear a few opinions!

 

[laika]

I suggest you go and have a chat with the folks at Greenwich Yacht Club on a tuesday night. If sailing the tidal thames wasn't plausible they wouldn't be there. Really friendly unpretentious bunch.

 

[vjmehra]

True, I have been up there before, very nice clubhouse, but it seemed to be largely dinghy focused, I'm not desperate to join a club, was keener on the odd trip with a few friends, however I've never sailed on a river before, only on the sea. I can imagine there are a lot of different challenges!

 

[Seajet]

Sailing the Thames

There are / were two Anderson 22 sailing cruisers on the Thames that I know of, one on a mooring somewhere off Greenwich, the other in the lower reaches.

 

[Conachair]

If I was to purchase a small sail cruiser (say 20-25 foot) and keep it somewhere such as Limehouse, is it actually plausible to sail frequently on the Tidal Thames (obviously Tower Bridge and traffic kill the fun towards the city, but is the other way a practical place to sail)?

Takes a tide just to get down to the eastuary, s´pose in a 20 footer you could pootle about on the river but you might be better off somewhere like the medway.

 

[vjmehra]

I live right in between St Kats and Limehouse marina, hence the Thames is definitely preferable!

 

[Seajet]

This is lifted from the Anderson website;

-------

George ; " Can't agree more about speed being a safety factor - when it gets horrid you need to go for it - well a couple of weeks ago it blew up while we were on the lower reaches of the Thames ( wind against tide ) and we went for home - dead into the wind which was so bad the boat would not go through stays" ( George later explained he was having to play the main in bursts in a narrow stretch, + his boat has a roller headsail, the windage of which is too much in really severe conditions, really needed to lower the genoa and set a storm jib).

" Took four attempts to get around as the wind was so strong on the hull - we had two reefs in and only a small bit of jib, motor sailing was out of the question. Stinging spray was being blown over the boat and the ( windspeed ) memory recorded a 50 knot gust.

After three hours we were up to Dartford Bridge and we were getting knocked over again & again - we had to sail as the river is wide there, and we had never seen so many ships on a Sunday for ages ( sheltering ).

Under the lee of the bridge I dropped the sails and cut the topping lift to drop the boom to reduce windage. With the engine flat out we made very slow progress, veering off in the big gusts - the wind lulled for half an hour and we made it back to our mooring. We could not get off into our dinghy as it came back up again and we just sat there. Spray continued to fill the cockpit etc, it was horrid. The club launched a RIB to take us and several other crews off."

 

[oliverkinchin]

Hello Vjmhra,

I understand your concerns. After moving our Rival 32 to St Kats I worried about how much sailing we would get done on the Thames, but we are out quite frequently with other boats from St Kats as Conachair will vouch for . You can have a great sail down to Greenwich which caters very well for sailing yachts. You also have Erith which in my opinion is the best as you have a wide expanse of river there to do some great sailing depending on the wind direction plus they are friendly and the bar is fantastic. You also have Thurrock, which although is not as nice as Greenwich or Erith it is indeed a great stop over. If you fancy going further on a weekend I do think that in your size of boat you could make Queenbourgh and the Medway, then for an extended weekend you have Gillingham and Chatham. There are great opportunities on the Thames it is just the wind direction that can be frustrating as on either the outgoing or incoming you will be heading into wind on most occasions due to our westerlies. Best of luck.

 

[dylanwinter]

brilliant place to sail

I thoroiughly enjoyed my Thames adventure

challenging, entertaining,like sailing through history

film 24 and up

http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/ca...0-zero-shakedown-cruise-iow-to-crouch/page/2/

 

[halyardmonkey.]

Its very practical and there are plenty of sailing yachts and dinghys...... Just ask: Greenwich, Erith, Thurrock and Gravesend Yacht clubs.......

We have racing too, locals races at each club and inter-club events.

And for the brave there is a frost bite event Jan/feb!

loads of sailing going on!!!!