Kennet Valley sail along to the TRAD Boat Festival

KVG paid a second visit to the Thames Traditional Boat Festival, deferred from it’s usual date earlier in the summer. 6 TR’s and a Stag were part of the Festival car display. 

The Traditional boats were all gleaming with acres of varnish and burnished brass. Alaska, a 19th century passenger boat was running trips for 40 lucky passengers at a time, throughout the day. The silence of steam power.

The programme showed that there were parades of the different types of craft, spaced during the day, together with an excellent commentary so we knew what we were looking at. There was a good selection of eateries and other non boat related stands.

At the top end of the meadow could be found a fantastic display of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships, all dressed overall with bunting flags and also a complimentary selection of MoD vehicles.

We were honoured with a brief fly past by a Spitfire of the Memorial flight and a dog fight between 2 Tri-planes. Great fun.

It could have been warmer but was still a great day out. We started to drift off around 17.00.

TRaah for now, Mike Thomas

Thanks to Val Carter for the photos, more to follow.