The Maritime and Coastguard Agency conducted running trials with KC and her crew last week for the revalidation of her passenger certificate.
The crew were put through their paces with all the drills incuding man overboard, fire, bilge pumping and so on. All the equipment was checked together with the necessary certificates associated with it and all was audited in compliance with the Safety Management System.
The emergency fire pump being prepared for action.
Two of the new 65 man liferafts now sited on the bridge wings.
These new flat pack liferafts are are less obtrusive than the old and round 130 man pods previously sited aft.
This has freed up space aft.
Part of the new decking.
The new coach roof aft.
New woodwork aft.
KC steamed from the moorings to the Dartmouth pontoon to take on fresh water for the boiler and galley services and then sailed on to the mouth of the river before returning to the moorings.
There is still quite a lot of painting, varnishing and other jobs to complete before KC can be quietly dropped back into the schedule taking her place running harbour cruises. The weather is key here and it has not been helpful this last week with loads of rain. And you can’t paint and varnish in the open air when it is raining. Fingers crossed for endless sunshine next week.
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild which is designed to set her up for the next 25 years running on the River Dart. The Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust is now fund raising for the second phase of the rebuild. You can read more about the rebuilds and how you can help if you can here.
John Megoran
