IBTC Lowestoft & Raybel Charters win at National Maritime Awards

Two Shipshape projects have won awards at the National Maritime SME Awards 2023.

The National Maritime SME Awards 2023 were held at Woods Quay, London, on Wednesday 13th September 2023.

Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade, Nusrat Ghani MP, and Rear Admiral Rex Cox, CEO of the National Shipbuilding Office, joined 180 industry guests at the first ever fringe event of London International Shipping Week to recognise and celebrate the outstanding and innovative achievements of small and medium enterprises across Britain’s maritime sector.

The evening was a resounding success and united the absolute best of the nation’s maritime businesses. 

IBTC International Boatbuilding Training College, Lowestoft, Suffolk, won the Maritime Training and Education Programme Award sponsored by Jobs in Maritime

IBTC said in a statement: 

"We’re over the moon to announce that IBTC are winners of the Best Maritime Training and Education Programme Award as part of the National Maritime SME Awards 2023.  The award is a wonderful recognition of the hard work that everybody at the college puts in to provide the best education in boatbuilding and woodworking."

Raybel Charters, Sittingbourne, Kent, won the Best Community Engagement Initiative Award sponsored by Newhaven Enterprise Zone

Raybel Charters said on Facebook: 

"WE WON! and will bring our trophy home to Sittingbourne - a sustainable fine piece of Oak.  Later on in the evening we were gobsmacked to discover that we had been nominated as a finalist for Best Maritime Company category.  Although we didn't win it was humbling to be up alongside some of the most amazing innovative new companies in the marine world and be judged in the best six out of 170 plus nominations.  Thank You to National Maritime, Director Peter Green, Judges and Sponsors of this very prestigious event.  And thanks most of all to the Community of Sittingbourne who have taken Raybel to their hearts."

Read more about IBTC Lowestoft, one of our two Shipshape Network East Hubs, and Raybel Charters, one of our Shipshape South East projects.