Roll on springtime with team Raybel
March 2020
Dry Dock
Our dry dock was towed round to Sittingbourne on the afternoon high tides of the 12th and 13th of March and is now in place at the wharf. In January we got the dock, complete with the remains of sailing barge Westmorland, into Lower Halstow, where essential welding repairs were expertly carried out by Rikki and team at Payne's welding.
S.B.Westmorland
There has been a lot of interest in Westmorland including a visit by National Historic Ships Register and their expert Dr Eric Kentley making a film about their guidelines for the recording and dismantling of historic ships. It was an interesting day as Dr Kentley worked on the Mary Rose project and has actually visited the Titanic! We will continue the filming process for NHS when we dismantle Westmorland at Sittingbourne.
Busy Work
The wet weather has slowed work with Raybel and the barge Museum. Boatswain Rob has spent much of his time travelling between Raybel and the dry dock with a boarding ladder in one hand and a bilge pump in the other, emptying the water, washing out the mud, meeting contractors, and shifting scrap iron.
Progress
We now have lighting in the containers and a hand wash sink in the galley, courtesy of volunteers Paul and John. Roger cut through the museum floor to lay in the new power supply to the wharf then cleared out another drain. Rod sourced us some metal racking, John painted up a shelving unit. We also had our youngest volunteers on board when James brought his children to help out at half-term. Sterling work you Guys!
Comedy Double Act
Conyer Cruising Club asked if we could do a talk about Raybel and the Barge Museum and Clive and Mark duly obliged. A very warm welcome from a lovely bunch of people.....and free dinner!Happy to do more of those - even without free dinner.
Sail Cargo
Gareth was invited to speak at the National Maritime Museum, an event marking the 150th anniversary of the launch of Cutty Sark. With the shipping industry having to face up to its ecological impacts, we were there to discuss how sail power will be a part of the future, not just the past. Interestingly a message firmly endorsed by the new Director of Royal Museums Greenwich, Paddy Rodgers. Blog post to follow soon.
Heritage and Community
Our history person Faye has set up an office in the 2nd floor of the museum and will be developing exhibitions from there. She is making great inroads into Raybel history including contact with an archive in Newfoundland. Faye is going on a recruitment drive to get more people involved in the research, and would love to hear from anyone interested. She will be offering professional training in archiving, oral history recording and digital research so this could be of interest to anybody heading for a career in heritage, research, or archives.
Skaters and Scooterists
We invited our neighbouring skaters to have a look round during the school holiday - it was a very rainy day but Faye managed to get them aboard. Even some reticent ones were tempted by Eric the Pug!
Partnership Working
We will soon be welcoming the young work experience people on board so we have had Portable Appliance Testing done, upgraded our fire extinguishers, and updated the safety policy. It also means that we are moving the regular volunteer day to Wednesdays 10am - 1pm starting on Wednesday the 18th March under the direction of Gareth Maeer who is covering project management duties for a few months.
Donations
Following our Christmas wishlist appeal we have had some very nice donations of a welding set, an electric heating ring for melting pitch, and some coils of mooring line - a huge help to us. We arenow looking for recycled (or new) sheets of Sterling board or shuttering ply to make a proper hoarding fenceto the wharf that can double as a bold visual entrance to the site. If you have a soon-to-be-completed building site near you, perhaps you could have a chat with the site manager for us? Also - any exterior grade paint will come in handy for sealing it all.When the dry dock pulls in there will be lots of work to do and hopefully it will stop raining!Will be great to have you aboard,RegardsTeam Raybel.
Volunteer Days
Every Wednesday 10am - 1pm Starts Wednesday 18th March. Other days may be added depending on workload.
Volunteer Drop-in Evenings
Want to hear more before you join in? Our drop-in evenings are where you can find the latest on the project and how to get involved.Wednesday evenings 7pm - 8.30pm on Raybel.
Mark