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Ravensdale moored alongside the pontoon at Maryport Marina |
At long last, Ravensdale is back in the water.
Her relaunch at lunchtime today didn’t go as smoothly as we’d
hoped, but we’re back in the marina now and it’s great to be afloat.
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The blocks in place ready for the relaunch |
The wooden blocks Phil and Mic made at the weekend were
screwed to straps and tied in place under the exhaust manifolds that lift and
get damaged whenever she is lifted in or out of the water.
Sadly the blocks failed when the straps of the boat hoist tightened
beneath them and one of the blocks broke as it took its share of Ravensdale’s
16 ton weight.
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A fender is used to replace the broken block |
So we had to revert to plan B and two of our fenders were
inserted under the exhaust manifolds in an effort to protect them from getting
broken again.
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Ravensdale is lifted in the boat hoist |
The big boat on MPM’s yard at the top of the slipway – the Isle
of Man fisheries boat, Barrule – was moved to make room for the hoist to
transport Ravensdale from the hard standing onto the slipway.
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Isle of Man Fisheries vessel Barrule before she was moved to make way for our relaunch |
Watching Ravensdale heading towards the water was nerve-wracking. I
couldn’t help thinking about the various holes Phil had cut in the hull to fit
the trim tabs , the transducer for the depth sounder and the paddlewheel for the log and wondering if
there would be any leaks.
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Phil and a friend watch Ravensdale head towards the slipway |
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Ravensdale's relauch |
Once she was in the water, Phil went to check that there was
no water coming in at any of the locations where he had cut holes through the hull and thankfully there wasn’t.
So he drove Ravensdale to her mooring and it already feels
as though we’ve never been away.
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Ravensdale back where she belongs |
We’re not going to get rocked to sleep tonight as there's next
to no wind, but it looks as though the wind is going to get up tomorrow so we'll soon discover whether we have lost our sea legs.
