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Thames Festival Classic Rally 2009

Sat 12 – Sun 13 September 2009 / 12noon - 7pm

St Katharine Docks, East of Tower Bridge

Welcome to St Katharine Docks!
Step back in time as you cast your eye around a fabulous variety of craft: from a rugged oyster smack to the most elegant slipper launch, from an offshore racing yacht to a spindly Thames rater - yachts and boats of all styles and sizes which have a connection to the river and its estuaries. Ashore, there is rope-making, hammocks, coracle-making, oyster-sampling, and more! To complete the scene, all involved in the rally will dress in keeping with the period and style of their boat.

For further details about the Yachts involved click here.

3 comments

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Looking forward to it!

By john Eacott on Sun 16 August 2009

Great event. Nice people. Will be back next year.

By arjan megens on Tue 15 September 2009

It was an honour for ‘Sheemaun’ to be invited to the Mayor’s Thames Festival. With a crew of four I sailed and motored ‘Sheemaun’ from Ramsgate to St Katherine’s Yacht Haven on 9th September. On the way we witnessed a May Day situation with ‘Good Vibrations’ a hired 50 ft Bavaria yacht crewed by 10 Germans and who left Ramsgate with us intending to reach St Katherine’s in London. Their yacht had lost rudder function in heavy seas and had to be towed into Margate. We completed the voyage and were well received by Charley, Master of St Katherine’s Haven and well looked after. We judged the Classic Yacht part of the Festival a success and congratulate the hard-working organisers. Our return a week later to Ramsgate was made difficult by heavy seas due to N. E strong winds and took us two days. We were involved in a night time rescue of a lone yachtsman, who’s yacht was secured safely to ‘Sheemaun’ by the Sheerness RNLI for the yachtsman to rest and recover. Off Margate we were heavily rolled about 40 degrees in large seas and much crockery was broken! We reached Ramsgate tired and with much cleaning up to do in ‘Sheemaun’ and some minor repairs, never-the-less we had a great experience and much satisfaction at having voyaged the round trip of some 170 miles. I am writing this ‘blog’ to point out that for an historic yacht to attend at a Classic Boat Rally at London Tower Bridge, in the September equinox, when the wind and weather can be challenging; is a significant undertaking and very far removed from coming to Town by car or train! I trust the many hundreds of sightsee’rs who waved and shouted across to us when we were berthed at St Katherine’s enjoyed the sight of so many splendid historic yachts gathered together but I doubt that many had any clue as to how much time, effort and cost that the various yacht owners had put into the ‘show’. However, ‘Sheemaun’ and her Skipper and Crew look forward to repeating the event in 2010.

Captain Rodney Pell

By Dr Rodney Pell on Sat 31 October 2009