Medway and Swale Boating Association
The voice of boating on the tidal Medway and Swale
The historic Queenborough Harbour is to be linked with Milton Creek. At Queenborough, the harbour trust is improving mooring facilities for Thames sailing barges.
Lloyds Wharf, in Milton Creek, is home to the Raybel Charters project. There is also a magnificent new building which will house the reborn Dolphin Barge Museum. An inaugural meeting is to be held shortly.
On the high tide of 16 November, after months of careful planning, the restoration team successfully manoeuvred the sailing barge Raybel into her dry dock in Milton Creek at Sittingbourne. More information…
The sailing vessel De Gallant is returning to our shores with a cargo of olive oil, olives, wine, coffee and chocolate, almonds, chick peas, pinto beans, sea salt and honey. Here’s the schedule, subject to wind and weather:
Friday 18th September – De Gallant arrives into Ramsgate Harbour, where friends and partners Kent Sail Cargo will be hosting a day of unloading and collections. Whilst in the harbour we’ll also trans-load the London cargo on to Sailing Barge Dawn, for the final leg of the journey up the Thames estuary.
We’re offering the opportunity to be on board Dawn as she sails up to St Katherine Docks. Be part of these inaugural sail cargo charters which are available for two stages of the journey:
Monday 21st: join at Queenborough Harbour or Leigh-on-sea for the passage to Gravesend, with an unloading at Tilbury.
Tuesday 22nd: join at Gravesend for the meandering course into central London, through the Thames Barrier, passed Greenwich, around the Isle of Dogs to St Katherine Docks.
Wednesday 23rd we will host the London collection event at St Katherine Docks for customers who have placed their orders.
If you are in Sittingbourne on Wednesday evening 15 July, Raybel Charters invite you to witness history being made. Back in January, sailing ship Gallant left Trinidad on a voyage to collect sail cargo goods from Colombia and Portugal. Last Saturday she docked into St Katharine Dock in London and on Wednesday she will transfer goods onto the sailing barge Dawn at Queenborough. Dawn will be delivering to several Kent ports and on Wednesday night at about 8.45pm will be sending her barge boat (the big rowing boat that barges use) with a delivery to Lloyd Wharf at the head of Milton Creek. This will be the first cargo delivered by sail to Sittingbourne in perhaps 80 years.
Please join Raybel Charters on the wharf to welcome the first of what we hope will be regular event in Sittingbourne. Please note, we will be maintaining social distancing on the wharf and would ask you to do the same. The new Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum will be open in case of inclement weather.
Network Rail have announced that, due to mechanical failure, the Kingsferry Bridge will be inoperative and unable to be lifted until further notice. Efforts to repair the fault will commence on Monday 18th November 2019 but timescales for normal service restoration are unknown.
Mick Nolan of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust has written an excellent account of a practice session with the MSBA’s rescue dummy “BOB”. Click below to read or download the article. Contact the MSBA via info@msba.org.uk if your club or organisation wants to borrow BOB.
There’s nowhere better to be than at sea to watch the 50-odd traditional vessels that are expected to attend. But for those not afloat there are good vantage points at the point at Harty Ferry, on Tankerton slopes and down at Herne Bay where competitors round the outer mark just off the pier. The first start is at 10.30 from Sand End in the East Swale and you can expect vessels to heading back into the Swale around 2pm onwards. More info at www.kentishsail.org
Some of the historic vessels in today’s sail past, plus the impressive Switzer Meridian fire tug which danced like a ballerina.
This photo was captured just after the start of the race using the MSBA’s own CCTV camera in Gillingham Reach. This year the Barge Match is part of the Medway Regatta, of which the MSBA is a sponsor.