PLA looks to avoid Jubilee Pageant chaos

The river pageant will be the largest event on the Thames for more than 300 years with around 1,000 vessels taking place – both commercial and leisure.

The pageant will be headed up by a golden 18 man royal row barge, the Gloriana. It will not carry any member of the Royal Family though – because of health and safety issues.

Instead, the designated Royal Barge, the specially converted Thames cruiser, Spirit of Chartwell, will carry the Queen and Prince Philip on the day.

The flotilla will be bolstered with passenger boats carrying up to 30,000 flag waving members of the public along with music barges and boats spouting geysers.

This of course leaves plenty of room for an accident, which will have to be carefully managed.

PLA have been heavily involved in planning the event with the organisers for 18 months now. It is now at work laying over three miles of mooring chains for vessels, doing rehearsals, and overhauling the 30 PLA vessels taking part in the event.

Martin Garside, PLA spokesperson, said to MJ: “It has been an unprecedented complex logistical project. Not only has it taken years to plan, it has involved the pageant organisers, government agencies, the emergency services and PLA. We want the day to be a success, but also to minimise the disruption to other river users.”

Always a challenge when you’re tasked with trying to keep Britain’s second largest port running smoothly at the same time.

The formal river procession will be take place on 3 June 2012 between 2pm and 6pm, starting upriver of Battersea Bridge and finishing downriver of Tower Bridge.