The weekend of September 11-12th sees St Katherine’s Dock play host to the celebration of 100 years of Classic Sailing.

As part of The Mayor's Thames Festival (thank you, Boris) for the second year running, there’s a fabulous floating exhibition of up to 50 beautiful boats, from swish 1960's luxury motor cruisers, to vintage Oyster Smacks, fand the boat that carried Winston Churchill's body up the Thames for his state funeral to an impressive 1920's steam tug.

This is great news for Boatshed London: it’s really exciting to have such a high profile event on our ‘turf’, bringing thousands of additional visitors and many boat owners to the marina. And for the true sailing or motor boating enthusiast, opportunities to see these wonderful craft extend beyond the Revival weekend – many will be berthed in St Katherine’s for up to two weeks after the event.

Dotted around the historic Docks are a range of unique nautical themed family entertainments, including deck games, a paper boat race (I asked Ellen McArthur to take part, but oddly enough she was otherwise engaged), a vintage fashion show (featuring yours truly in full Boatshed London regalia, vintage circa 2010) and a ‘gaff rig’ demonstration.

Star of the show is probably the beautiful tall ship, Fryderyk Chopin, which is at St. Katharine’s to celebrate her 200th Birthday. Named after the famous composer, she will be moored at St. Katharine's Pier, next to Tower Bridge, for ten days from September 3rd. In fact, I watched her skipper skilfully bringing her alongside this morning, with the aid of remote controlled bow thrusters and a megaphone! – (not to be confused with my own rather less skilful attempts to moor a mere Bavaria 42!)

Of course, I won’t be far away should any of the event’s participants be interested in selling a classic yacht or motor boat. Boatshed has many years’ experience in finding loving new owners for such vessels and I will be spending much of my time in and around the marina over the next two weeks. So, if the spectacle inspires you to buy a classic boat – or to sell your pride and joy – please get in touch with me.

The festival is entirely free and suitable for all ages. There are live jazz bands to put everyone in a vintage mood and plenty of bars and restaurants offering some light (or strong) refreshment.

To discuss buying or selling a boat in London, please call Brian on +44(0)7850 086802 or email brian@boatshedlondon.com