Time to consider next stepinplan forlifeboat

After its feted return to the village the General Dudley Blake Lifeboat now is in a temporary home. This affords time to the Tourism and Development Group to consider the next step in the plan to make the boat a focal part of the village.

The local Tourism and Development Group with invaluable help have secured the return of the village’s lifeboat to it’s roots and are committed to restoring it for posterity, which could entail procuring a museum to make the boat available for public viewing..

Ownership of the lifeboat has been passed onto the Tourism and Development Group whose plan for it may take years to complete.

Provisional estimates put the cost at €200,000 of restoring it to something like its former glory.

The Group launched a public fund raising campaign which has accomplished the important first step to bring it home, and now are looking at applying for grant aid which has been granted to other similar projects elsewhere in the country.

Onlookers were favourably surprised by how good of condition the lifeboat was in on its homecoming on June 23 exactly 24 years to the day since it last sailed into Blackrock in 1994. The boat left the village in 1935 with the closure of the lifeboat service in the village.

The lifeboat on arrival was given a hearty welcome with the Dundalk Louth Sub Aqua providing an escort and music played by a Samba band.

The Tourism and Development Group are open to suggestions and advice on how to progress the restoration.

Meanwhile the boat is stored near Ardee where it will be surveyed and assessed on what viable options to take.