Sailing on the Thames 50 years ago

Bonita on the EYC scrubbing dock

As Bonita sets out on her passage across the Thames Estuary today on the 50th anniversary of the OGA it is a good time to recall how sailing on London's river has changed over the last half century. From 1937 to 1965 Bonita was based at Erith Yacht Club spending the winters in a mud berth dug into the saltings and summers on a swinging mooring. This 1937 photograph shows her up on the scrubbing dock with the EYC club ship Garson I (a converted Thames barge) behind. She has clearly just been painted - no doubt the reason for the photo.

The smart paint wouldn't have lasted very long, after a week or two on her mooring the topsides would have been smeared with oil. Even in the mid 1960s the Thames was a filthy river; as youngsters at the yacht club we were told that if you fell in and took just one mouthful of water you would need a trip to hospital to have your stomach pumped. The warning worked, despite Bonita's lack of guard rails we never did fall in! The only benefit to the pollution was that no antifouling paint was required since no weed or barnacles could grow in the water; the bottom was simply painted with a coat of bitumastic paint to keep it waterproof.

There was much more commercial traffic on the Thames then with a regular procession of ships passing up to the London docks and back. As well as the ships there were thousands of Thames lighters, a large number of which were moored in a barge road off Erith. When a tug or ship passed by the clanging of the moored lighters gave advance warning of the approaching wash and you knew you'd have to hang on a few seconds later. Occasionally one of the lighters would be poorly secured and would break adrift. A number of EYC yachts on their moorings were hit by lighters and a few were sunk by them. It was after a drifting lighter hit Bonita and became caught on her, breaking her bowsprit, springing the planks at the stem and dislodging her rail, that my father decided to move her down river to the safer waters of the Swale.

Allan Beckett

Yachting clothing has undergone dramatic changes. The first photo in this blog, which can be seen here, shows Dad's pre-war sailing outfit. By the time the war had finished he had smartened up a bit and was sailing in his demob suit as seen in the photo on the left; this photo was taken in the early '50s but not a lot had changed by 1960. The cine film below was taken on one of our weekend trips down to Holehaven; you can see that my 'yachting jacket' consisted of a normal raincoat. As I remember the only wet weather oilskins we had aboard were a very stiff and not very waterproof PVC ensemble complete with sou'wester.

In the film Bonita is sailing under her last suit of cotton sails, she got her first  terylene suit in 1964. If stowed away wet the cotton sails would go mouldy - a constant concern. As was blowing the sails out; we spent more than one Saturday evening at anchor hand stitching repairs so that we could sail home on Sunday.

Another notable advance was the invention of melamine crockery, in the days of china there were regular breakages, indeed on the occasion of one particularly vicious squall the crockery cupboard door came open and pretty well every plate aboard was shattered. How Captain Cook managed to keep the fine china dinner service that we saw in Orkney intact (23 June blog entry Fog and wind in the Orkneys) I cannot imagine.



There have been some distinct improvements aboard Bonita over the last 50 years but at the same time much remains unchanged. One constant is that, despite her distinctly cramped 19th century accommodation, she retains the ability to engender great affection in all who sail in her; so much so that many of her crew for the RBC have been insistent that they were not going to miss out on being a part of this, her greatest adventure.

More reminiscences about sailing on the Thames in the pre-terylene era can be found in the History section of the EYC's website here.

Head winds

The forecast today was for SW winds force 5-6 and indeed we had most of that in the harbour. With great reluctance I decided that a day pushing to windward against strong winds was not the best thing for either boat or new crew.  We stayed in Brightlingsea and explored the surrounding countryside. 

One advantage of being stuck in port is that it gives you the opportunity to browse and spend money in the yacht chandlers. Around the Thames estuary and all along the South coast there are good chandlers pretty much everywhere, but further afield they are much more scarce. In many places on our trip we found the chandlers to be fairly rudimentary affairs, sometimes with only a few plastic-wrapped stainless shackles and bolts.  Nothing of much use for the long distance yachtsman wanting to replace worn out kit or looking for a local pilot book.   Like most specialist shops the chandlers have been undermined by internet shopping for higher value items. 

The harmless pleasure of wandering into a well stocked chandlers, looking around, and buying something that might just come in useful one day is becoming a scarce luxury.

We now feel we have very nearly exhausted the attractions of Brightlingsea (though we have not yet visited the local museum which is only open at weekends) and are looking forward to more favourable weather.

New and younger crew!

Today was a wet and windy day in Brightlingsea but greatly improved by the arrival of enthusiastic new crew. Our twins John and Emma are both keen to help with Bonita's voyage. The picture shows them newly arrived on the waterfront in Brightlingsea.

Behind them is the anchor of some large ship, now mainly retired to decorative duties but temporarily performing a useful function in anchoring down the marquee. We have seen many old anchors whose sea going days are over used to add interest in coastal towns. Plymouth scores highly as it has one of the huge anchors of the old Ark Royal aircraft carrier: waterside pubs often display ancient specimens bought up in fishermen's nets. Even humble terraced houses often have rusty yacht sized anchors in their front gardens. The anchor is said to be a traditional emblem symbolising hope. Anchor and hope being the sailor's last resort when all else has failed.

By contrast the anchor often used as a naval insignia and on cap badges is usually a fouled anchor. Emma's jaunty cap badge shows this clearly. The cable has become wrapped around the stock making it unreliable and likely to pull out under load.  It is odd that so often we see the anchor symbol represented in this dangerous state.

The third picture shows the Christ's College boat club captain honing his skills during the long summer holiday.

Lighter winds and dryer weather are forecast for tomorrow.

In harbour

Bonita spent the day in Brightlingsea awaiting new crew, and anyway there was a strong SW wind blowing so it was not suitable for going out and crossing the estuary. A few dinghies set out for a short, wet and exciting sail in the Colne. I did odd jobs aboard including strengthening the bit of starboard rail that had been nudged by the smack in Saturdays race.

Brightlingsea has always been a sleepy little place but it seems to have adjusted reasonably well to changing times. There used to be an active smack and small boat builders on the waterfront but these have closed down and the site has been developed for flats and shops. Some of these are still empty after several years.

There is also windfarm work, as in several other small harbours we have visited. Whatever the costs and benefits of offshore windfarms, their ongoing need for maintenance has bought employment to many small ports hit by the decline of the fishing industry. There are still lots of fishing smacks at Brightlingsea as there always have been, but now they race  and might occasionally fish, rather than the other way round. 

Thames sailing barges for many years traded produce up and down this coast and into London. The barges still visit, but now their cargos consist of  fare paying passengers.

The picture shows the barge  Hydrogen picking up customers from the pontoon in Brightlingsea.

Hydrogen was built in 1906 and is clearly still in excellent condition. She was originally built to carry industrial chemicals, as were her sister ships Oxygen and Nitrogen.

When barges could no longer trade profitably under sail Hydrogen's sailing gear was removed, an engine was installed, and she carried on working as a motor barge. By the early 1960s only one barge, Cambria, was still carrying cargo under sail (although it is said that her owner/skipper Bob Roberts made more money from appearing on the BBC than by trading). Later, with the revival of interest in sailing barges, Hydrogen was, like many other motor barges, converted back to sail again.

Wivenhoe

Today saw the departure of Alice and Allan who have sadly run out of time and have to return to more important duties. They have helped us all the way from Grimsby and survived a variety of East Coast gaffers gatherings.

Wivenhoe

This afternoon there was a Parade of Sail up the river Colne to Wivenhoe. Having at present no crew of my own, Minstrel very kindly lent me some of theirs for the event; Mary for the upstream journey and Jolyon for the return. 

In theory a Parade of Sail consists of a steady stream of evenly spaced yachts progressing sedately up the river in an orderly fashion. Today it was blowing a very brisk SW wind from behind and most boats found it difficult to keep their speed down.  On the upriver journey we were sailing under just jib and mizzen, and even that was too much at times.  

Wivenhoe is a charming town with a long history of boatbuilding and maritime activity. We were made very welcome by the Wivenhoe Sailing Club. However their pontoon in the river is quite small and the visiting yachts were soon stacked up six abreast. The tide runs very strongly once it turns, and since there is little water at low tide everyone was in a hurry to leave soon after high water.

Rafted up at Wivenhoe SC

There was much activity with ropes and fenders to disentangle the boats in the strong current, with plenty of varied suggestions about how best to get the job done. Eventually everyone got away without damage and we returned to Brightlingsea for the night.