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ARCHIVED - The Pascual Flores sails again; Torrevieja replica restored by the Nao Victoria Foundation
The boat is a replica of the 1917 pailebote historically used to transport salt from Torrevieja and the province of Alicante
The Nao Victoria Foundation, a non-profit organization which makes and restores replicas of historical boats and galleys, has successfully completed and refloated the hull restoration of the iconic Pascual Flores pailebote in Huelva on April 14: the boat will now make its way back to Torrevieja.
The restoration work started last November in Punta Umbría (Huelva) when the boat was taken out of the water and now after five months of arduous work from skilled professionals including carpenters, caulkers and engineers, the vessel has once again been successfully launched into the water.
The vessel we see today is not the original Pascual Flores built in 1917 in the shipyard of the old Playa del Arenal in Torrevieja for the purpose of salt transportation. Instead, the ship is a replica build in 2008 by the Town Hall in Torrevieja, which invested around 4 million euros in the project.
This replica formed part of the “floating museum” in Torrevieja from 2008 until 2020, but required significant repair to prevent it from becoming the first exhibit in a new sunken museum for snorkelers only! (see below; image from the floating museum several years ago showing the vessel with rigging intact).
The Town Hall in Torrevieja and the Nao Victoria Foundation signed an agreement to convert this unique ship into a patrimonial and cultural asset for the municipality of Torrevieja, which will hopefully be used to promote tourism in the area.
Once the total restoration work is completed, and the vessel re-rigged, the Pascual Flores will be used for guided cultural tours, in which information about the long history of pailebotes will be available to the general public.
The Pascual Flores will be opened to the public in Huelva and will then make several stops at different ports in the Mediterranean, along with a special stint in Torrevieja, as the activity program has been designed in collaboration with the “Joaquín Chapaprieta” Municipal Institute of Culture in Torrevieja.
The Nao Victoria Foundation has amassed an impressive collection of replica vessels and finances its work by taking the replicas around the ports of the country to enable the public to experience the history of Spanish shipping through these perfect replicas, built using the same techniques as the original vessels and sailed using the same techniques as would have been used by seafarers hundreds of years ago.
