What licence and Boat Checks

[donbelcher]

A friend of mine who has a 535 wants to take his boat on the Thames starting from about Oxford are and ending up well down in to London.

At the moment he sails on the Solent with a 60 hp Johnson 2 stroke and the usual equipment for Solent sailing. I have told him I think the engine is unsuitable and I said it was not just a case of putting your boat on the water and off you go.

Before he get's into any trouble could anyone give me a short synopsis on what he should do to prepare for the trip with regard to licences, boat checks and certificates.

Don

[admin]

I will get Dee to talk to you , they have done the same in their 535

ADMIN

[deeandmartin]

I will need to check back, but from memory, you will need the appropriate Thames licence, which I seem to remember you could easily get short term on line to be displayed on the boat. We launched at Penton Hook, we had an early start, cruised for nearly a day, stopped at Thames Ditton (very limited facilities), then down through the Thames barrier none stop and back to Thames Ditton, roughly 9 hours solid cruising. We had a 50 hp 4 stroke on our 535 and switched tanks part way carrying 2 x hulk tanks of fuel. The boat was required to have a full BSC, we also carried what we consider to be basic safety equipment including anchor, radio, equipped grab bag etc. if we did the trip again we would certainly arrange more stops, timing is everything, tides particularly can cause problems as can the volume of river traffic, we avoided some of these elements by the timing of our trip (not organised by us, we simply joined the flotilla), with he date specifically chosen for the tides and the longest day of the trip departing Thames Ditton at 5.30am. We would certainly hope to do this again, but as ever preparation is everything. Hope this helps, any questions I will do my best to answer, good luck, Dee

[donbelcher]

Thanks for that info Dee.

I will let them know as I'm not sure they knew they had to have the boat checked first.

Don

[deeandmartin]

No problem, happy to help if we can, what I also should mention is that there was an amazing amount of flotsam from bread baskets, trees to pallets, much of which was partially submerged so you do need to keep our wits about you. Also the waves on the Thames can be every bit as 'lively' as the Solent on a bad day, the flow around the bridges can be pretty scary and the wash from the river ferries/traffic makes life very interesting. It is great to do but you definitely need to keep your wits about you and really benefit from a second pair of eyes watching out for potential problems....... Don't let me put you off it was great and not all of the trip was that 'hairy' we certainly benefited from being 5 or 6 boats travelling together and the early start is well worth it. Any questions please come back to us, all the best, Dee