Returning to the water

After the hectic preparations to get ready for Raybel’s refloat on the high tide in May, a calmer time since, with the major restoration work (and the funding that went with it) now done. Some time for reflection and a bit of down time. Now we’re moving into the tricky phase of maintaining momentum, without the urgency of the restoration work. It’s challenging - but exciting to be looking forward to Raybel as a venue, and then sailing too.

Raybel has ‘taken up’ beautifully since the refloat. After little more than a week, the timbers had swelled enough for the hull to become fully water tight, and the pumps could be turned off. Great testament to the work of the shipwrights – and special thanks to Laurie and John for managing the whole nerve-wracking refloat task …. getting the manoeuvre just right in a tiny time window.

Next up is the interior refit – electrics, plumbing, re-installing the galley - which volunteers are starting to get to grips with. There’s also a bit of remaining work to be done on winches and ‘deck gear’, a new mizzen mast to be made, and then another grand moment when the masts, rudder and sails will be craned back on.

With a new phase comes a new way of presenting who we are and what we do ….so much more to that now. The new website developed by Charly Tudor Design and our own @fayethorley is choc-a-bloc of all we've been up to in the last five years. It’s a culmination of those years work, by so many people,  and an achievement we’re all so proud of. The full restoration story of Raybel is there, in words, pics and video, with section-by-section accounts of the conservation.

But it looks forward too – with the online shop for sail cargo, a developed ‘donations’ page setting out the next phase plans, a calendar of events coming up and a ‘services’ page too for all we can offer now …. Raybel as a venue, to the dry dock, talks , barge tours and consulting. We’ve come a way.

Gareth on Raybel