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The Thames is overflowing with mega-yachts for the rich and chartered ships for workers


Skift Take

West India Dock is the busiest it's been since the 1980s as the world's 1% avoid Heathrow's lines or traffic gridlocks and dock right on the Thames for as much as 9,000 pounds a day.

Superyachts equipped with helipads and submarines have joined Britain’s biggest warship, more than a dozen tall ships and cruise liners on the Thames River for the Olympic Games.

Seven weeks after a flotilla of more than 1,000 small craft celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, the city is host to a glitzier collection of boats docked to celebrate the games that run from July 27 to Aug. 12. They range from Allen and Lowy’s yachts to cruise ships docked near the Excel Center, an Olympic venue in east London, and Britain’s largest warship, HMS Ocean, anchored near Greenwich.

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