Stingray needs your help - her gearbox exploded

What a fantastic first year for our RHIB Stingray, enabling ghost gear recovery dives and helping support other brilliant marine conservation organisations around Cornwall.

Since her first recovery at Drakes Island in Plymouth Sound in the spring, Stingray's been busy responding to ghost gear reports around Cornwall's coastline and preventing further unnecessary death to marine life.

Stingray and our volunteer skippers have also supported Cornwall Wildlife Trust Seasearch efforts, with dive and snorkel surveys around the coast of Cornwall, ranging from Whitsand Bay, Looe, St Austell Bay, Falmouth Bay, Mounts Bay, St Ives Bay and lots of places in between!

We also threw our support behind the Ocean Conservation Trust seagrass efforts in Mounts Bay, helping them out at short notice to survey and gather important seeds ready for next year's restoration projects!

Stingray even spent the weekend supporting the Kernow Dive Festival fundraising event in June, which raised over £8,000 for DDRC Healthcare in Plymouth, a leading provider of vital services to divers in the UK.

Sadly, after a season of great work and over 100 sea hours since April, Stingray's gearbox failed on Monday. The breakdown left us stranded in Falmouth Bay, before a friendly local towed us back to Mylor Harbour.

Where possible, we do all our own maintenance and repairs. Our small volunteer team has already invested countless hours this year in keeping Stingray seaworthy and ready for action following her maiden launch. But this time, the problem is beyond fixing, and we need a new gearbox.

A genuine gearbox will cost us approx £3,500 before fitting – money we don't have for unexpected breakdowns. We can save money by considering non-genuine aftermarket gearbox options, and we've also considered sourcing a cheaper second-hand option; however, this last option comes with too many unknowns and could prove to be a false economy in the long run.

We need your help to get Stingray back out on the water, protecting wildlife and delivering marine conservation in our region!

Crowdfunder link:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/stingray-gearbox-appeal 

Please note that you can set the Crowdfunder tip to zero by clicking on the "custom amount" button!

Every contribution, large or small, helps us get closer to being back out at sea, making a difference.