A New Spar for Cutty Sark (2)

In Part One the Blue mermaid and the spar for Cutty Sark arrived at Greenwich Pier.

[Photo Credit: Sarah Jones]

Once the spar was placed on the pier by TS Rigging ready to be taken ashore to the ship before the commuters came in the morning, the crew made their way to the Gipsy Moth for a well-earned break. Leo, Sarah, Graeme, Glynn and John made their way home and we were joined by Chris (whose Laerling won the recent Classic Boat award for best new build), Olivia from the Isle of Dogs Sea Cadets, and long-standing supporter Jim and daughter Cathy. We had brought a Thames Match Cup with us from Maldon to reunite it after engraving with Richard Atherton who was awarded “most valued crew member” after the race in July. Hilary had also won it in 2011 when the race finished at Erith as it had in its early days, and Sir Robin Knox-Johnson presented the prizes. He had sailed with Spiro on Lady Daphne when Taylor Woodrow proved themselves to be developers with a soul buying several sailing barges and welcoming more when they transformed St Katherine Docks from dereliction to an amazing heritage centre. It is still amazing if a little less focused on sailing barges than in those heady days. Richard had to make do with a handshake and a beer on this occasion. He was crew on the Lord Nelson and we met at Cherbourg in the nineties when Queen Galadriel moored near Nellie (as her crew affectionately called her) and in the blink of an eye we are a lot older.

Livett’s outstanding crew on the Alfie arrived well before high water in the morning as we singled up the warps. They sprang into action and gave the crew of the barge a chance to enjoy the sights as far as Margaretness where she dropped the tow in the young ebb. It is an understatement to say how grateful we are to Chris Livett for his support in towage and so many other ways. Without him we would have found it very difficult to maintain a presence on the Thames.

The breeze was mainly northerly meaning a couple of tacks in Barking and Halfway Reaches, similarly in Erith and more in St Clements and the Lower Hope. It was an unusually quiet day in terms of shipping, and we saw virtually nothing all the way down. This made for a more relaxed passage than often is the case especially at the choke points like Broadness and Tilburyness where a combination of the tide setting you onto the buoys or into the bight with areas of wind shadow can be taxing enough without ships. The river used to be significantly wider for example at Tilburyness before embankment and it is as if it still remembers where it used to go. This is nothing like what the hatched lines of the fairway on the Raster displays in front of the VTS Officer suggest. The ever so clever training simulator at Gravesend does have the tide edge in Northfleet Hope to prepare pilots for entering Tilbury but as a general rule the computer that can understand Thames tides like a time-served waterman has not been invented yet. Maybe AI will be able to deduce how the tide edges vary in each bight according to time before or after high water and the position between springs and neaps, but it will never be able to see the tell-tale signs of driftwood, seaweed and bubbles. Or will it? 

[Photo Credit: John Wheeler]

By Lower Hope Point as Sea Reach opened out into a glorious fetch with no tacks for fifteen miles there was still an hour of ebb to run, so on we went, making low water at Southend and slowing as the flood was encountered. In the distance we could make out SB Niagara running into the Medway on her way home from Maldon, both of us likely on the last excursion of the season. She won the championship for the best performance in the matches in 2025, a well-deserved achievement after a big commitment to attend them all.

It was decided to transform as barges do, not from a Honda Civic to Optimus Prime but from stem head or staysail rig to the coasting bowsprit rig with its extra sail area. This task was accomplished as Blue Mermaid cheated the flood along the Shoebury shallows. She popped out into the tide at the Blacktail Spit buoy. Olivia the Sea Cadet did a sterling job of keeping close-winded and we fetched the SW Barrow buoy before tacking into the shore again. 

Approaching the Maplin buoy, it was now four hours flood and there was water over the sands and late enough in the day that no firing was occurring, so over we went, working tacks in two fathoms or less into the dusk. High water saw Blue Mermaid just the south side of the Ridge which was crossed with seven feet 40 minutes later. If you have water over the Ridge, there is more through the Rays’n bringing you out nicely uptide with a fetch over to the Colne or harder work against the ebb to West Mersea. This route saves miles compared to the Spitway. The Rays’n was the accepted route from Blackwater or Colne to the Swin until it silted up after WW2. In those days the Spitway was lower down in what is now a windfarm. Should it return north as sands are prone to do, a bit of relocation of turbines might have to happen. Or would it be cheaper to dredge? In fact, the old Spitway is still there as we used to find in Passage Matches before the wind farm was built, although it has less water than the new of course. Whatever happens with net zero, I hope some turbines remain as they are immensely useful to the sailor giving as they do clear indications as to wind direction offshore and onshore. Even if our wild places now resemble Piccadilly Circus at night with red lights aplenty. On a hot summer’s day you can watch the sea breeze arriving via changes in the London Array and on the Gunfleet, and the land breeze is indicated at Weeley and Southminster. Not what was intended but useful.

Blue Mermaid anchored off St Peter’s steps at West Mersea at 2330 fourteen hours from dropping the tow. Next morning, Thursday, there was time to undress and steve up the bowsprit before heading up the Blackwater to the mooring.

So, another season ended and as I write this at the beginning of December we are well into the winter refit at Hythe Quay, sails dressed and back aboard, outboard in for service, fire extinguishers and gas appliance check done and running rigging stored in the hold for servicing. Meanwhile plans are coming together for 2026 and it will soon be upon us. Hopefully there will be some deliveries as well as the return of friends old and new to enjoy learning whatever makes them tick, from sailing an engineless barge in something like an authentic manner to having fun with their fellows.    

Richard Titchener