Thames Rockets has launched the £1.6m Rocket Rebel, the largest, fastest eco sightseeing boat to take passengers on the river.
I couldn’t resist the chance to go on it and grabbed a friend to settle any nerves, concerned that I might tip out and have to activate my life jacket.
The aluminium speedboat can take 26 passengers, double the current 12 maximum allowed in Europe.
In short, we loved it. The ride took about an hour and once buckled up, skipper Charlene Peck eased the boat from the London Eye jetty and we were off.
As it slowly meandered down the waterway past the bigger ferries our guide, Max, a professional actor, regaled us with crazy facts I never knew about so many of the river’s landmarks.
For example, I did not know that the Tate Modern tower is 99 metres tall and that the art gallery has more visitors a year – 4.8m, than it does bricks – 4.6m.
The iconic sights we passed included the Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and HMS Belfast.
Things got very exciting after we passed Tower Bridge and rocketed down into Canary Wharf at around 35mph (30 knots), the boat barely skimming the water.
The vessel’s sound system was switched on booming high energy banging tunes like Top Gun’s Welcome to the Danger Zone.
Charlene had full control of the throttle as she accelerated into S turns and U turns, the boat lurching on the crest of its wave.
The only time the boat seemed to tip was when it slammed into its own wake.
We got a chance to speak to the boat’s founder, Charlie Matheson, who got the idea to ramp up his offering from RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to Rocket in 2018 and has navigated nautical legal loopholes to get such a big speed boat onto the Thames.
He said: “We always had a fantasy of building a much speedier looking, with no inflatable part of it, all aluminium boat with more passengers. The minute you go over 12 passengers it moves into ferry law. ”
He added: “The boat looks really exciting, looks like a speedboat and everything else, but it’s met all that criteria and that’s always been the difficult thing to achieve.
“We had to get maritime barristers to reinterpret the law.
“Also the integral structure of the boat has to be really strong to meet the licensing so that’s why it’s difficult and that’s why you haven’t seen anything like this in the UK before.”
It was exhilarating, it was thrilling, it was a great fun, it is a fabulous way to experience our world famous river.
The RIBS and the Rebel Rockets will both run throughout the day, with prices starting at £54.95 (adult) and £49.95 (child) – available online and from the London Eye ticket office.
