S B Repertor

SB Repertor · Traditional Thames Sailing Barge · Races, Day Trips, Weekends and Cruises

Enquiries and bookings, please call 07831 200018 or email us

Taking part

What it’s like to go sailing on board S B Repertor

Taking part

Where we sail

View map of places where we sail

Discover the places you can visit on your own sailing trip — they’re on our map

Links

Sailing Barge Association

Organises the Sailing Barge Championship

Thames barge match

The official website of the match committee

Pin Mill barge match

The website
of the Pin Mill Sailing Club

Thames sailing barges

Very complete enthusiast’s site

Society for Sailing Barge Research

Preserving the history of sailing barges

About Repertor

Photograph: Lynne Tait

Slideshow of five images

The Thames sailing barge was the workhorse of coastal transport until well into the 20th Century. The design and rig evolved in a very specific way to suit the locations, conditions and requirements of her trade.

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S B Repertor was the first of a fleet of seven steel barges built for Horlocks of Mistley. Her name is a Latin word meaning “leader; discoverer; innovator”, possibly chosen because she was the first of this new all-steel fleet.

When built, she relied purely on her sails for motive power; but in the 1930s she was fitted with auxiliary engines. Gradually over the following four decades her reliance on engines increased and her sailing rig was reduced, until eventually she became a motor tanker.

In the mid-1970s she was sold out of trade, with her engines stripped out, and became, for a time, a houseboat; but later that same decade she was converted back to a sailing barge with an auxiliary engine. On deck, she now once again looked very much as she would have in her trading days under sail.

In the late 1980s, she was bought by the present owners, David and Elaine Pollock, and reconverted for comfortable charter cruising and racing.

Find out more

For a more detailed history of S B Repertor, see History