ill be heading to London in Sept, I will have two days to stay towards the end of the trip. Is there anywhere I can rent a beach cat and go for a day of sailing?

Any info would be greatly apreciated.

London is quite a way from the sailing coasts and to rent beachcats for the Thames is ludicrous. One look at the river after you arrive and you will see the reasons. The current would be horrific for a beachcat. If you capsized you could wave at all the tourists on Tower Bridge on your way to Greenwich and out into the channel beyond but I would doubt that you would live to tell the tale. You'd be freighter and barge bait.

To take a day trip by train from London to Cowes, Southhampton, Brighton, or Hartlepool is an expensive ticket from Victoria Station. Some of the coasts are just plain cheesy attractions a la Panama City, FL (sorry, PC). It's really not worth leaving London just for the short ride on a cat even if you could find one to rent. The exchange rate to the dollar is around 1.82. You might as well double the price in dollars to the pound. All in all that would make it a very expensive ride on a cat in their notoriously cold water.

For a maritime experience while you're there, visit St. Catherine's Docks just east of Tower Bridge and take a river taxi downstream to Greenwich. You can purchase a ticket for the boat ride on the quay just east of the bridge at the Parliament complex near Big Ben. Buy a ticket that allows you to hop on and off. Board near Big Ben and hop off at St. Catherine's. Hop back on and go to Greenwich. The view of London from the Thames is worth the trip.

St. Catherine's is where visiting sailboats are berthed and you can see historic canal/river boats docked there. It's worth taking a camera. In Greenwich you can see Cutty Sark and her very close-by neighbor Gypsy Moth. Then, you can climb the hill to see Greenwich Observatory, straddle the Greenwich Meridian, and see the historical clocks that made possible the determination of longitude. Chronometers are not so boring after a visit there but you can max out on the information. Take a picture of yourself straddling the meridian that will prove to people that you have stood in both the eastern and western hemispheres simultaneously. Well, it's exciting for some people; mostly Europeans.

There is a reproduction of Sir Francis Drake's "Golden Hinde" on the other side of the Thames in London but I would recommend seeing St. Catherine's and Greenwich first.

I think you will come back with a good appreciation of how inexpensive and convenient it is to sail here in the states and especially so in Florida.

Robi, try the Cat Shack on/near Datchet Water; they are the UK Nacra dealer; so can probably accommodate you. Or Datchet Watersports. Datchet is very close to Heathrow and has a good cat fleet, so making contact with the club itself may work for you as well.

http://www.cat-shack.co.uk
http://www.dwsc.co.uk
http://www.datchetwatersports.co.uk/

Failing that.

Forget the sailing

Go on the London Eye. It is fantastic (and I do not work for BA)

good words, thank you folks.