Essential Information
| Type | Experiences |
|---|---|
| Location |
Other
|
| Date and Times | Friday 19 – Sunday 21 July 2024 |
| Prices | £225.00 per person |
| Member exclusive. Not a member? Join now |
See page for booking details
Become a Member
Enjoy a unique sailing experience with Royal Museums Greenwich Members this summer on an historic Thames sailing barge.
This is a fantastic opportunity to sail with an experienced skipper on the River Blackwater in Essex.
Find out more about the experience below, and get in touch to secure your booking!
About the barge
The Thames Sailing Barge Trust’s Pudge was built of wood at Rochester in 1922.
She celebrated her centenary last year and is a Dunkirk Little Ship. She completed a major restoration in 2023, with new decks, coamings and hatches, while below deck her 1960’s accommodation was completely removed.
She now has six separate twin-berth cabins with full-length wide berths, three wash rooms with running hot and cold water plus WCs. There is also a shower. You bring your own sleeping bag and pillows.
Everyone takes it in turn to cook (in teams of four), wash up, clean the cabin and swab the decks. The new galley has two four-burner gas ovens and two electric ’fridges. There is running hot water at the two sinks. Should the weather turn chilly there is warm air central heating to all living areas.
Below decks the cabins are in the part of the barge that was once the main hold; the galley and saloon are located in the fore hold. The skipper’s cabin is in the stern; the mate’s is in the fo’c’sle. The Trust runs a training programme with up to ten new trainee mates, or “third hands” each year, so a third hand may be sailing with us in addition to the mate, also berthing in the fo’c’sle.
About the experience
Pudge comes with an experienced skipper and mate who can sail the barge on their own, as was the custom in days of sail, but Members are always welcome to assist with all the tasks required to take a barge to sea and to helm and sail her wherever wind and tide allow (see photo above). She does have an auxiliary diesel engine to get us home should the wind drop altogether.
Pudge was chartered by a group of Royal Museums Greenwich Members last July, starting and finishing at the Hythe in Maldon on Essex’s River Blackwater. All agreed the whole weekend was enormous fun.
Voyage timetable
Where we sail is determined by the strength and direction of the wind on the day. Necessarily, our destination is always the skipper’s decision.
The timetable is for everyone to board on Friday evening at the Hythe in Maldon between 5.30pm and 6.30pm to meet the skipper, mate and shipmates over dinner in Pudge’s saloon. Barges sail on the tide, so after a safety briefing from the mate Pudge will leave around 11pm on Friday evening, an hour and a half before high water.
It’s not compulsory to be on deck for our departure, but it’s a full moon weekend and it’s quite romantic cruising down the Blackwater by moonlight. Skippers usually anchor once the barge is in water deep enough to remain afloat at all stages of the tide, and set off again down river at dawn, around 5am.
The return to Maldon is on the tide around 2pm on Sunday, in time for those who arrive by public transport to catch the 3.30pm bus to Chelmsford Station for trains to Liverpool Street.
Your hosts will be Members Don and Penny Baines who are experienced barge sailors, and who have run four previous Royal Museums Greenwich Members’ charters. The barge will be provisioned for Friday evening dinner; Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner; and Sunday breakfast and lunch. Tea, coffee and biscuits are served at regular intervals.
How to book
The total price is £225 each (£195.00 charter and £30.00 food, based on double occupancy). Single occupancy is available for £420.
For further details and to book your place, please contact Don Baines: donbaines@keme.co.uk.
