Sub-5m Thames cruise - Page 2

Bilge Rat · 16 May 2004, 21:48

Quick catch Daniel he's got beer and food aboard

Bilge Rat · 16 May 2004, 21:51

Once again the sub 5 ers raided Daniels onbard fridge freezer during a well earned refreshment break, here's phil sampling some of the contents of Daniels fridge

Richard B · 16 May 2004, 21:52

Robin, there are two main areas of the Thames - tidal and non-tidal. Upstream of Teddington Lock, the Thames is under the control of the Environment Agency and there is a 4kt (8kph) speed limit. Below Teddington Lock, it is under the control of the Port of London Authority.

I didn't realise until Daniel (DJL) mentioned it that there's an 8kts speed limit between Teddington Lock and Wandsworth Bridge. The rest of the river is to the best of my knowledge unregulated, with the caveat that navigation must take place at a safe speed and no dangerous or damaging wash created. Best guidance can be found on the PLA's web site: http://www.portoflondon.co.uk

Bilge Rat · 16 May 2004, 21:53

Thats my mooring mate...who said you could put your dirty great grey thing on my spot !!

Richard B · 16 May 2004, 21:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by willowkis

Superb Photos, Do you ever go near Windsor???

Tell ya what, willow... we live ten minutes from the Thames as well and the elitists never invite us either!

Bilge Rat · 16 May 2004, 21:58

Straight to the tower !!

Bilge Rat · 16 May 2004, 22:09

Once again a great trip out guys in some superb company, and thank the lord for daniels fridge and Kellys superb sandwiches, though next time can we have at least 4 different types of sandwich in your range

3 different types was just not enough

oh and you really need a cooker on board that boat to go with the fridge, how the hell are you going to cook the bacon sandwiches when it gets colder.

Tideway · 16 May 2004, 23:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

Robin, there are two main areas of the Thames - tidal and non-tidal. Upstream of Teddington Lock, the Thames is under the control of the Environment Agency and there is a 4kt (8kph) speed limit. Below Teddington Lock, it is under the control of the Port of London Authority.

I didn't realise until Daniel (DJL) mentioned it that there's an 8kts speed limit between Teddington Lock and Wandsworth Bridge. The rest of the river is to the best of my knowledge unregulated, with the caveat that navigation must take place at a safe speed and no dangerous or damaging wash created. Best guidance can be found on the PLA's web site: http://www.portoflondon.co.uk

Looks like a fun trip!

Just to add to the above, a good site for those new to the Thames is:

http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/tidalnav.htm

As mentioned, wash and its effects are the main ones, look out for the Romeo Yankee flags, eg. at houseboat moorings or police & fire boat piers. Even though you probably are putting out minimal wash when on the plane, it is appreciated if you slow down whilst passing, plus it shows that you are paying attention! Also listen to 'Woolwich Radio' Ch14 for details of persons working on the waterline or any temporary restrictions.

Have fun

,

t

John Kennett · 16 May 2004, 23:41

Not forgetting, of course, www.thames-tideway.co.uk

Actually that site hasn't had any major updates since I put it together in 1996 so it's a bit out of date. Perhaps we could make it a RIBnet project!

John

Alan · 17 May 2004, 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bilge Rat

The secret slipway that no one's supposed to know about !!

Hmm, now I've confused myself. (Not difficult, agreed

). Having finally been able to get boatlaunch.co.uk to work (does anyone else really prefer it when it was a lot simpler?!) I find that the slip at Poplar aka the secret slip ins listed as Johnson Drawdock. I though Johnson drawdock was further upriver.

Anyway as JCW pointed out earlier there is a nice pic of him wading and my first DS21 being recovered so mebbe its not that secret after all

http://www.boatlaunch.co.uk/?page=sl...action=picture

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 08:18

Heres a few more pics taken yesterday out on the Thames

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 08:23

Have to say a big thank you to Wayne Maddox of Wayne Maddox Marine for getting me back afloat after i stupidly snapped the plastic clip that works my hydrolic mechanism on my tilt Saturday, after scouring the southeast for the part to no avail i tried Wayne and he rooted through his shed full of spares to find the exact part i needed

MeMe · 17 May 2004, 09:04

some very funny comments.

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 09:21

MeMe why dont you get your northern butt down south sometime and the southern sub 5 ers will take you out and try and convert you to a suverner

and if your feeling home sick we'll even try and find a chippy thats willing to fry odd things for you

Come on you know you want to...... Daniels onboard fridge is getting better stocked up everytime we go out, give it a few months and we'll be drink Champagne and eating caviar..... Now how med style is that for you

Seriously its about time you came down and we showed you some southern hospitality.

Rat

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 10:09

Alan ....your very correct boat launch does list the slipway as the draw dock, i checked it out on Friday without my boat to make sure and confirm it was the same one and the pictures show its the slip on boatlaunch.

After we had launched and recovered we came to the conclussion that we wouldn't want to try recovering anything too big, just after us a load of cowboys tried to recover a big bowrider with a brand new Range rover only to burry it to the axles in the deep shingle at the top of the slipway, well it ammused as as we recovered 3 boats in the time it took them to drag there thing out, eventually giving the rangie full bore they managed to drag the thing kicking and screaming out onto the hard. Also worth pointing out for anyone else thinking of using the slip way..... Yesterday it got very busy and parking was a big issue down there, we had to seperate trailers from cars and stack them on top of each other and chain them all together on the top edge of the ramp half on a step and half hanging off a step !!

as its all states access i'd suggest getting there early rather than late !!

Alan · 17 May 2004, 10:22

Agree that it can get very crowded - at the FIRST Rib.net gathering, which contrary to popular belief wasnt Plimuff last year but the Thames the year before!, we had half a dozen RIBS being launched, the biggest of which was a Camel Trophy 6.5m. We parked our trailers and cars down the road that is a left turn just before you get to the slip. Its one way so you have to drive around the block to get back to the slip. Certainly raises a few eyebrows a convoy of 6 RIBS and 4x4s driving through docklands!

Daniel TD5 · 17 May 2004, 10:44

yes credit were credit is due its all down to me i put three ribs in the water
and then recovered the them using the super powers of my truck and driveing
skill. the only problem was not the weigh of bilge rats 4.7 but the over loaded cool box on my boat it must be close to a ton

when we came to recover phil and bilge rat had eaten the lot so up it went all i can say shame
the guy in the range over recovered when the tide was going out or it would
have been the first range rover to go under tower bridge

Naked Dave · 17 May 2004, 11:02

Great photos guys, forgotten how beautiful and interesting the Thames can be.

Have you noticed that some of the observation towers on HMS Belfast are wearing balaclavas?

Would love to come down and do the same trip with you, do you accept boats over 5m?

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 11:05

Daniel in all fairness you did do a sterling job at launch and recovery, launching three boats single handed whilst me and Phil helped Kelly load up your onboard fridge with food and booze, god only knows how we managed to find london after the binge session down river

In all seriousness we acted like a well oil team, we used one vehicle to launch all three boats and moved the other two cars well out of the way, we were able to move the boats into position at the top of the slip only because they were small, Daniel drove and took directions from the rest of us well and because we acted well as a team we were able to launch and get away with all cars parked and the trailers locked down within half an hour. Comming back in was even easier as the tide had come up higher, we kind of repeated the same thing and recovered all boats again within half an hour, the pratts with the rangie were mincing about for ages trying to get the thing on, sunk the rangie to the front axel and then buried it in the shingle trying to drag the entire lot out, then once on the hard they blocked up the slipway insisting they had to tie the thing on before puttin git on the road. There incompitance made us look much better !!

Ac

Bilge Rat · 17 May 2004, 11:10

Narked.... Your welcome down anytime mate.

Suspect we'll be doing another trip up fairly soon as yesterday was a great success and everyone enjoyed it and now we know the river and the slip way a little better too.