Essential Information
| Type | Experiences |
|---|---|
| Location |
Other
|
| Date and Times | Friday 27 – Sunday 29 June 2025 |
| Prices | £240.00 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 is a Dunkirk Little Ship and in May will be sailing to France and back for the 85th anniversary commemoration of Operation Dynamo, when more than 338,000 allied troops were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk in May 1940.
She has six separate twin-berth cabins with full-length wide berths, reading lights and mobile charging points. There are three wash rooms / WCs with running hot and cold water, and a shower. You bring your own sleeping bag and pillow(s). Everyone takes it in turn to cook (in teams of four), wash up, sweep the cabin and swab the decks. The 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 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 for new mates, so a ‘third hand’ trainee may be sailing with us, also berthing in the fo’c’sle.
Pudge was chartered by a dozen Royal Museums Greenwich Members last July, starting and finishing at Maldon’s Hythe on Essex’s River Blackwater. All agreed the whole weekend was enormous fun, reporting ‘fabulous food, interesting conversation, great entertainment (shanties and stories) and wonderful company’ . . . ‘we felt like we were a family at the end of it all’ . . . ‘thoroughly recommend the experience – we’ll be back !’
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. No previous sailing experience is necessary for Members, who are always welcome to assist if they wish with all the tasks required to take a barge to sea and to helm and sail her wherever wind and tide allow. Pudge does have an auxiliary diesel engine to get us home should the wind drop altogether.
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.
Everyone boards on Friday evening between 5.30pm and 6.30pm to meet the skipper, mate and shipmates over dinner inPudge’s saloon. Barges sail on the tide, so after a safety briefing from the mate Pudge will leave Hythe around 1am Saturday morning, a couple of hours before high water.
It’s not compulsory to be on deck for our departure. You may stay in your cabin if you wish. There will only be a small crescent moon − but it is romantic cruising under a canopy of stars. 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 on the last of the ebb, around 5.00am.
The return to Maldon is on the tide arriving around 4.00pm Sunday, in time for those who come by public transport to catch the 5.30pm 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
All this for £205.00 charter + £35.00 food - total £240.00 each for a very special and memorable weekend. A £100 deposit (each) is payable to secure your booking, with the balance of £140 payable by May 31st. (Single occupancy is available for £445, payable when booking.)
For further details and online booking, please contact Don Baines: donbaines@keme.co.uk.
