The restored Carlotta was recommissioned and relaunched at the Elephant Boatyard, Old Bursledon, Hampshire, on Saturday 2/6/2018 after more than 43 years in the Western Pacific and Canada.

The service was attended by about 80 guests and conducted by the Revd.Tom Leary, one time vicar of St. Mary’s Merton, Lord Nelson’s parish in London. HMS Elephant, the 74 gun battleship built on the same site, was his flagship in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. It was on this ship that the most famous act of insubordination in the annals of the Royal Navy took place, when he raised his spyglass to his blind eye and claimed not to be able to see the signal from his commanding officer, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, to make a strategic withdrawal and disengage! Turning next to his flag captain, Nelson said ‘You know, Foley, I have only one eye. I have a right to be blind sometimes.’  Nelson then raised his telescope to his blind eye and said ‘I really do not see the signal.’

The relaunch was flawless, and it was in perfect weather. The owner’s former family boat, Mintaka, a  YM Waterwitch, built in 1960 on a S. Rhodesian farm, and its current owner, Ian Cowie, were in attendance, having sailed from Cowes for the occasion.