At MSO Marine we have many facilities for getting your vessel out of the water and accessing her hull. The main facilities for doing this for bigger boats is to use wither one of our Dry Dock or to use our tidal grid. If you’re going to booking into use either of these facilities there are a few things you need to know.

Tide Levels

We need a tide that is predicted to be 6.9m at high water at London Bridge to successfully dock boats. This means that there are usually two periods of opportunities a month. These are duding the Springs of a tidal cycle. If you want to know more about tidal cycles on the Thames take a look at the Port of London (PLA) website.

It’s because of this tidal window that most vessels are in the yard for a minimum of 10 days, even if they are only having a survey.

We ask that any boats docking with us arrive at Brentford Lock two hours before High Tide at Brentford. We do ask that you arrive at Brentford lock on time. If there are any problems, please do ring to let us know.

There can be situations where weather or other things can influence the tides on the Thames. high Pressure systems can depress the tide height leading to below prediction High Water levels. If the EA choose to close the Thames Barrier, this will lead to no tide arriving at Brentford and these events will mean that the docking will have to be moved to the next 6.9m high tide.

You can see the predicted dates and times in the calendar below and you can keep an eye on the PLA’s Live Tides at Tower Pier to see what is happening on the Thames currently.

High Tide at Brentford is approximately one hours after high tide London Bridge (UTC) and two hours after (BST). We need a 6.9m tide to dock most boats.

Docking into Dry Docks

In order to get a vessel into our of our dry docks our team have to sink the dry dock. This is done by opening valves at low tide, and allowing the tide to flood the dock. WE then secure your boat in the dock at High Water and then once the tide has receded, we close the valves and re-float the Dry Dock with your vessel high and dry inside.

Docking opportunities are arranged to take one boat out and put another boat in. If you miss your assigned docking you may be charged a fee for re-floating and sinking the dock.

Docking onto Tidal Grid

Our Tidal Grid is a great facility for short term works and surveys.

In order to get on to our Tidal Grid we need two tidal cycles over two days unless your vessel is very local. To get the vessel onto the Tidal Grid we must tow it underneath a road bridge on a rising tide, and the at High Water berth it onto the Tidal Grid.

In most cases we ask that your vessel arrives at our site, two hours before High Tide at Brentford. It will moored next to the road bridge and then moved on to the Tidal Grid on the next day.