Medway and Swale Boating Association
The voice of boating on the tidal Medway and Swale
The Regional Race Officer course, to help clubs with the delivery of the Race management for their special events and open meetings, is being held at Downs SC near Deal in Kent on 8/9 October. Full details for the course are on the RYA Race Management website or contact Martin Styles on 07515 164874
This sailing dinghy was recovered by Peel Ports from the Medway today, near the Victoria buoy, possibly washed away by the high spring tide. Please contact info@msba.org.uk if you know where it came from.
18+19 February: Frostbite Race overnight at Erith YC with dinner ashore
Sun 9 April (Easter): Gaffers’ Race from Garrison Point to GYC followed by dinner ashore
Sun 28 May: Duke of York Challenge followed by dinner ashore
Sat 9 September: R.T. McMullen Cup single handed race followed by dinner ashore
Mooring on GYC pontoon is free of charge for competitors before and after the race.
For more information or to enter a race, please email cruiser@greenwichyachtclub.co.uk
UPDATE: The race has been postponed to Sunday 2 October 2022
This is an annual race for monohull yachts, organised by the Royal Engineer YC, and open to local cruisers with an NHC rating. Entry is free of charge. There are three classes: fast cruisers, medium cruisers and slow gaffers. The start line is in Gillingham Reach at 10.00 and there are 57 possible courses.
This is the oldest yacht race on the Medway and may be the last, so don’t miss it!
For further information, non REYC members should contact Charles Hessey (treasurer@msba.org.uk)
The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation (ASF) was established in 2013 after the tragic death of Andrew “Bart” Simpson. Andrew was a talented sailor who firmly believed in the benefits that participation in sport can bring to young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. ASF now exists to continue Andrew’s vision and to bring change for thousands of young people. ASF’s core purpose is to transform lives through sailing.
Would your club/friends/family like to take part in Bart’s Bash 2022, ASF’s annual flagship fundraising race?
Bart’s Bash is a global sailing race taking place at 100’s of venues, with 1000’s of sailors in 100’s of different classes of boat around the world. Founded in 2014, the event was verified by Guinness World Records as ‘The Largest Sailing Race in the World’.
This year Bart’s Bash takes place on 10-11 September 2022 and is open to all venues globally. Each individual event is organised by a venue and organising authority for all activities at the site. Each of the Andrew Simpson Centres will be hosting events too, so if you would prefer to come take part at your closest centre, here are the locations: Birmingham, Reading, Portland, Portsmouth.
To find out more see the attached event guide and register yourself, your group or your club here.
The Association of Yacht Brokers and Agents (ABYA) has been lobbying HMRC for the past eighteen months to make changes to the existing Return Goods Relief (RGR) scheme. The new changes would enable anyone who purchased a vessel, pre 31st December 2020 based in Europe, on which they have evidence that UK/EU VAT has been paid, to return the vessel to the UK under the Return Goods Relief scheme without having to pay VAT again.
Medway Yacht Club extends a warm invitation to dinghy and dayboat sailors. The Medway Marathon has provided a yearly challenge for the dinghy and dayboat sailor for over half a century. This year the event will be held this year as part of the Great British Sailing Challenge. The 26 mile course takes competitors through the sweeping main estuary reaches of the Medway River and into the mysterious creeks bisecting wading flats of abundant birdlife. The tides and differing points of sail nature of the challenges the sailors endurance tactics and seamanship. Support and safety however is second to none with guard boats and safety ribs stationed along the course. Come along and spend a Saturday doing something very different.
Key information and access to entry of the race is available on https://www.medwayyachtclub.com/medway-marathon/
Brief facts:
Fresh as a daisy, Bernie Branfield is seen here on Tuesday mooring up his Invicta 26 “Louisa” at Hoo Ness YC after returning from the Jester Challenge single-handed transatlantic race. Another of the five competitors, John Apps from Medway CC, also with a Kent-built Invicta, returned a month ago. Both intrepid sailors had to retire from the race after being beaten back by storms in mid-Atlantic. Bernie enjoyed the Azores so much he stayed there a while to enjoy the scenery before returning. Respect!
Report by Kentish Sail Association. Photos by Seamus Masters.
Back in 1972, a few keen traditional boat sailors from north Kent organised a race for Essex smacks and Thames barges in the river Swale; fifty years on the event prospers and is now one of the largest annual gatherings of traditional boats on the East Coast. Last Saturday witnessed some thirty-five craft racing out of the Swale in a brisk sou’westerly to compete in the 22-mile race off the north Kent shore; the brown sails, set against the eastern horizon, made for a fine sight and a great day’s racing was enjoyed in the calm waters of a weather shore.
It had been blowing pretty hard the day before and that had deterred a few of the smaller boats from heading south from the Essex rivers for the race. But the engineless Thames barge Edme arrived in the Swale for the first time since 2019, and the smack Hyacinth and bawley Gladys made it down from Pin Mill. The ADC was another smack that had been absent for a number of years so her arrival was much to be welcomed.
Edme went on to win the bowsprit class and the BMM Western trophy for the fastest elapsed time around the course, while ADC was the first smack home. The Faversham-based Repertor won the staysail class and Centaur the restricted staysail class. Nightfall was first home of the gaffers over 25 feet, and Fifi sailed home alone to take line honours in the gaffers under 25 ft, the rest of that class having retired in the teeth of the squally conditions. It’s always good to welcome a small fleet of Dutch barges, and this year Johanna, Nooit Volmaakt and Albatros sailed a shortened course and added a touch of stately elegance to the affair.
Fifty years on from that first Swale match it’s clear that the traditional boat scene thrives. Despite the rising costs, the declining interest in our maritime history and the inevitable toll of the years on old wooden boats, an active and enthusiastic core of owners, crew, shipwrights and skilled craftsmen keep a remarkable fleet of traditional craft alive and active around our coasts. The Swale Smack & Sailing Barge Match is just one of many races and events that take place each year but it’s certainly one of the most significant on East Coast and it looks set for another fifty years.