A pal and I dropped by Standard Quay at Faversham to see if we could spot a little lugger that we’d heard a friend is considering buying, so I took the opportunity to bag some photos of how things are there now. I’m sorry if you feel they’re not up to my usual standard – on arrival I discovered the battery of my usual camera was flat and so had to use my mobile phone, which seems to produce quite blue-grey images. I must get a spare.
Anyway, if you’re in the market for a steel-hulled schooner liveaboard, the one currently for sale at Standard Quay may be just what you’re looking for. It looked in pretty good shape to us, though neither of us has ever seen it sailing. The schooner’s pictured above.
On a more cheerful note, the first two shots above are of the lovely small Thames sailing barge Lady of the Lea, two shots of Bob Roberts’ old sailing barge Cambria in restoration and a nice little Roxane that lives on the creek here.
And below is the bow of another Thames sailing barge Lady Daphne, here in a dry dock being repaired after a racing accident (I believe) and the yuppie flats that have already encroached the area opposite Standard Quay. The blue banner reads ‘Save Standard Quay’. For more on the Standard Quay campaign, click here.