Anyone Use a SIB on the Thames?

[Don Logan]

Hi, I have a SIB mainly used for fishing on the south coast but have now moved inland to Surrey/Berkshire area. I'm thinking about using the SIB on the Thames somewhere between Reading and Oxford as both are fairly close, but looking around online, this looks fairly restricted and involves fees for licensing and visiting charges.

Does anyone here use a SIB on this area of the Thames and if so then could you advise on what you pay and how? The below link seems to illustrate that a 4m Honwave sib is subject to a £165 annual registration fee, plus a daily £13.80 visitor's fee- surely it's not that expensive to use a little boat on a river? I'd expect a slipway fee on top of that as well, and considering I'd probably only do this 2-3 times a year is not worth the cost.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/river-thames-boat-registration-charges/river-thames-boat-registration-and-other-charges-1-january-2023-to-31-december-2023#powered-boats

Any help appreciated.

[CJL]

No its either or.

So you either pay for an annual licence or a visitor licence. If you are using it occasionally then the visitor licence is best and avoids the dreaded and quite useless Boat Safety Scheme as you can self certify. You will need insurance though. Visitor licences can be bought at locks on the day or online but this isn't the most reliable way to do it.

Chris

[Yabadabadoo]

Try Marlow - very nice and there’s a little public slip from memory.