The prestigious Martyn Heighton Award for Excellence in Maritime Conservation was launched in 2019 in honour of NHS-UK’s late director, Martyn Heighton, a passionate champion for the maritime heritage community. The award comes with a cash prize of £500, courtesy of Award sponsor Beckett Rankine. The winner’s name will also be engraved on a special trophy, which was commissioned using funds donated at Martyn’s memorial service and incorporates wood from HMS Victory.
WINNER: EXCELLENCE IN MARITIME CONSERVATION AWARD 2025:
Raybel Charters CIC (Sittingbourne, Kent) - Raybel
The Winner of the 2025 Martyn Heighton Award for Excellence in Maritime Conservation is Raybel Charters for their conservation of the 1920 Thames Barge Raybel. The return of Raybel to operational use was carried out across three phases. An early assessment of significance helped determine the conservation pathway, with the team aiming to retain as much original material as possible whilst putting strength back into the fabric. Difficult decisions were carefully debated, and the finished result clearly identifies areas of new material, with multiple forms of record-keeping throughout the process helping to make this an exemplar project.
Raybel Charters Community Interest Company was established in 2018 and Raybel was moved to Milton Creek in September 2019. Shipwrights Tim Goldsmith and John Hall started the restoration work in March 2021, with Laurie Watkins joining in November 2023. Raybel was refloated with all structural work completed, in May 2024, 104 years after she was built – and just a few hundred yards up Milton Creek from the Wills and Packham Yard where she was launched in August 1920.
A programme of volunteering, open days, creative workshops and archive research has run alongside the conservation work. The project has been a key component of a new heritage cultural and leisure site at Lloyd’s Wharf on Milton Creek, re-connecting Sittingbourne with its maritime heritage. This has been especially important as a restoration has never been carried out in the town, despite its rich heritage in barge construction.
The final stages of re-rigging took place earlier in 2025, and Raybel made her maiden post-restoration sail in June 2025. She will now be used for sail shipping between Ramsgate and London.
HIGHLY COMMENDED:
Mike Barnes (St Olaves, Norfolk) - Sparklet
The judges awarded the status of Highly Commended to Mike Barnes of St Olaves in Norfolk, for the conservation of the Edwardian Broads racing yacht Sparklet. The yacht’s reconstruction was based on high quality off-ship research and the use of lofting to determine the extent of work required to recreate the original shape. The impressive documentation of Broads yachts and builders from the era made the project possible.
Sparklet is a Broads A-Class racing cruiser from the Edwardian era, built in 1905 by Herbert Bunn of Wroxham to beat the 1904 Broads Racing Yacht Maidie. These two vessels are the last survivors of their class, and are both now owned by Mike Barnes. Sparklet was restored at Broadland Boatbuilders St Olaves by IBTC Lowestoft Graduate Henry Harston and owner Mike Barnes. She has been returned back to her original length and shape, in a faithful restoration using only tradition methods and materials. In June 2024, a head-to-head match race took place between the newly-restored Sparklet and Maidie, some 114 years after they last raced against each other.
