As most readers will know, I’m a big fan of historic boats of all kinds – everything from Thames sailing barges, through classic ‘gentleman’s yachts’ of the 1920s and 30s right through to Royal Navy warships.
I recently revealed that the River Thames had won a prestigious international conservation award – the Thiess prize – as the world’s best cared-for river because of the way the quality of the water has been improved over the past fifty years or so.
The thing about owning a boat on the Thames is that, just occasionally, there’s a desire to venture to pastures new. To cast off from one’s home mooring and head off into the unknown (well, almost unknown, anyway).
