The summer of 2026 will long be remembered for its succession of grilling heatwaves, so when the 94th Thames Sailing Barge Match took place on Saturday 18 July on a day of light cloud and a cool northerly wind it came as something of a relief. The entry for the Match was slightly improved this year with seven starters distributed between the three classes and we were particularly pleased to welcome back Lady Daphne after her prolonged absence in the West Country. Our committee boat was Rod Bingham’s Voyager.
The northerly breeze at force 2-3 gave good manoeuvrability in the weakening ebb tide and some good starts were made, not least in the Coasting class at 0730hrs. Pudge led the way, going for a flying start at the Mucking 3 buoy, the windward end of the line, but being fractionally early had to briefly bear away along the line to cross thirty seconds after the gun. The mighty Will made a splendid sight powering down to the line with all sails set and drawing well to cross in just under one minute. Lady Daphne was less hasty crossing at a good speed at 0735.
In the Staysail class, Niagara was practising her run at the line before the start, a tactic which paid off as she made her real start at only 27 seconds, the fastest of the day. Edith May followed about a minute later. In the Champion Bowsprit class start the two entries, Blue Mermaid and Marjorie, hung back rather cautiously over Mucking flats, perhaps each waiting for the other to take the plunge. Eventually Marjorie broke away to cross at 0804 followed by Blue Mermaid a minute later.
With a decent fair wind and the tide, by the time the committee set off down Sea Reach in Voyager, good progress had been made and the leaders were almost out of sight. We caught up with Will and Pudge toward Southend as Niagara which had pulled well away from Edith May overhauled them. For a moment couldn’t make out the barge a mile or more ahead of everyone – were they even racing? It was actually the Lady Daphne. It was not until 0945, two hours after their start, that Niagara finally caught up with Lady Daphne.
With the tide turning, the committee now had to decide whether or not to shorten the course. It seemed likely that Niagara and Lady Daphne would be able to reach the North Oaze with a light but fair wind, but what about the rest of the fleet some of which were a couple of miles behind? We could see that these were heeling a bit and holding a good course and the weather looked fairly steady so the committee decided to take a chance on the full course while we had the opportunity for once. That chance paid off – all the barges completed the course within the time limit except Will which, slowed down by a hundred tons of ballast, had to retire.
Tacking around the mark was relatively straightforward at first but as time went by and the flood began to bite it became progressively more difficult and barges had to leave an increasing margin to avoid being set onto the buoy. The first barge round at 1046 was Niagara rounding neatly in almost slack water, followed by Lady Daphne ten minutes later. Nearly an hour passed before Blue Mermaid reached the North Oaze buoy, allowed a reasonable margin for error and rounded neatly with Marjorie hot on her heels and also rounding cleanly. By the time Pudge and Edith May rounded toward 1150 the strength of the flood tide was starting to cause problems although both avoided hitting the mark.
At 1200 we headed for home. Rod Bingham opened up Voyager’s engines to show off a good turn of speed which was badly needed as the flood tide and freshening fair wind had carried the leaders almost out of sight. A fine sight they made spreading their biggest headsails as we gradually overhauled them to arrive back at Gravesend just in time to see Niagara come home first at 1345, exactly six hours for the 42-mile course at an average speed of 7.0 knots. Lady Daphne finished at 1430 to win the Coasting class. Marjorie finished at 1454 having passed Blue Mermaid (finish 1501) on the way home. Edith May (1542) and Pudge (1549) took second places in their respective classes.
The prizegiving was held in the evening at the Three Daws with the prizes being presented by Jamie Gilbert of the PLA who had spent the day afloat with the Committee. In the unavoidable absence of our Chairman, Michael Everard, the evening was hosted by Michael Mainelli.
First place in the Bowsprit class winning the FT Everard Cup was Marjorie, master Simon Devonshire. Second place, the Allied Mills Cup to Blue Mermaid, Richard Titchener. Thames Champion and first in the Staysail Class winning the Shipowners Mutual Cup was Niagara, master “Noddy” Cardy. Lady Daphne, master Oliver Evans, was first in the Coasting class winning the Greene King Cup with second place going to Pudge, master “Shiner” Wright.
Noddy Cardy of Niagara had made the fastest start of the day, the seamanship prize went to Simon Devonshire of Marjorie while Richard Titchener of Blue Mermaid was judged to have made the best rounding of the turning mark. The Mainsheetman trophy was given to Alana Cameron of Lady Daphne and the Crew award to Paul Duggon of Blue Mermaid. The Gold Belt trophy for achievement was given to the master and crew of Lady Daphne in recognition of her extraordinarily good performance in this match. The last time we saw her, before the Covid epidemic, she held the handicap for the slowest barge in the fleet. Today she had had not only won her class by a country mile but had held her own against the barges in the two “fast” classes, and had done this with a young crew including a recently qualified master. They represent good hope for the future of the barging community.
Thanks were expressed to Jamie Gilbert of the PLA for presenting the prizes and for his assistance in facilitating the Match, to Rod Bingham for the use of Voyager as our committee boat. I would add my thanks to Bridget for again acting as our timekeeper.
I would like to finish by paying tribute to the work of Brian Pain, our Honorary Secretary for the last twelve years, who died earlier in the year. Brian was generous in his support for the match, produced the publicity and programmes and where possible sailed in the match aboard his own barge Lady of the Lea. He will be greatly missed.
Next year’s Match is provisionally due to be sailed on Saturday, 12 June 2027. We hope to see you all again then.
Julian Cass, Officer of the Day, 2026