Match on the Medway

On many occasions I have admired the spectacle of sailing barges on the Thames, having first encountered the finish of the Thames Match at Gravesend over ten years ago. I really didn’t need much persuading to book when a trip to see the Medway Barge Match was advertised online by Timeline events.

Niagara at Gillingham, in the build up to the race start

The Medway Barge Match is among of the oldest organised sailing races in the world, with an impressive run of annual matches (races) that go back to the 1870s, if not earlier. The Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser of 20th May 1872 carried a report of an earlier Medway Barge Match on a course that would be familiar to the crews of today featuring 7 barges with the organising committee and a large number of spectators following the race on board the City of Rochester steamer.

Last year’s edition of the Medway Barge Match had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, so to help ensure the race would go ahead in 2021 it was moved to August from its traditional slot earlier in the year. Eight barges in three classes would compete in this edition, supported by tug Christine and with the race committee on board the Jacob Marley, the ship we would be photographing from.

Our day started early, to ensure our boat made it from Chatham Marina to Gillingham Pier for the start at 7am, passing Upnor Castle; the Medway Yacht Club; and John H. Amos, the last surviving paddle tug in the United Kingdom. The long established course sees the barges sail out to the Medway Buoy and back again, usually taking somewhere around 7 hours depending on the conditions on the water.

Marjorie sails past the Medway’s industrial landmarks, followed by support tug Christine

The north-north easterly wind proved to be especially good for racing today, resulting in one of the fastest races in living memory (at the opposite extreme, some reports of past matches under calmer conditions describe ‘drifting races’ that sounded like tests of endurance). Through the morning it was fascinating to learn more about the barges, the different classes and the mechanics of the race.

Along the way the route takes in sights that include Fort Hoo, Fort Darnet, Grain Tower Battery, the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery, Garrison Point Fort and the Port of Sheerness. It was an interesting and fun experience, even if the choppy waters and spray made photography a little more challenging as we headed out into the Thames estuary. Throughout, our crew did a good job of getting us where we needed to be.

Grain Tower

It was particularly interesting to see the masts of the SS Richard Montgomery as these will not be a sight for too much longer. The SS Richard Montgomery was a US Liberty Ship that sank 1.2 miles off Sheerness in August 1944 while laden with 7000 tons of munitions, of which 1,400 tons remains on board. The spontaneous detonation of the remaining cargo has the potential to cause devastation for miles around so the site of the shipwreck is protected by a 500-metre exclusion zone and monitored continuously.

In 2020 it was announced that surveys had identified that the masts may be placing undue strain on the rest of the vessel structure. The decision was made to ‘reduce the height of the masts in order to maintain the integrity of hull and minimise the likelihood of structural collapse of the vessel’. The work, originally scheduled for this year, now seems likely to take place in 2022.

Repertor passes London Thamesport

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the match from the water, from the relatively calm start in early morning all the way through to the firing of the shotgun to mark the finish of the match for the last barge in mid-morning. I thought it was amazing to see a race that my ancestors on the Isle of Sheppey would have recognised and quite possibly witnessed over a century ago. Presentations were made on the water at the end of the race.

Thank you to our crew for getting us out to the outer buoy (which had looked in doubt at one point due to the strength of the wind) and to the organising committee for patiently explaining the mechanics of barge matches to those of us who were completely clueless!

Results

Coasting Class	Restricted Staysail Class	Bowsprit Class
1st – Cambria (1906)	1st – Niagara (1898)	1st – Blue Mermaid (2019)
2nd – Orinoco (1895)	2nd – Repertor (1924)	2nd – Marjorie (1898)
3rd – Centaur (1895)	3rd – Edith May (1906)
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Gallery