Bookings and rebuild update
Bookings
Unfortunately, due to the considerable delays we have encountered since last autumn with the rebuild, we will not be in a position to reopen this year.
Accordingly, we will not be taking any bookings at all for this year nor at this juncture for 2024. We will commence taking bookings for 2024 next year once we have a reopening date.
Friends of Fair Isle members will receive advance notification of this date and thereafter we will update our website as to when we will reopen and from what date we will be taking bookings.
Concerning the recruitment of new permanent staff, we will notify in advance those who have already expressed an interest of when the recruitment process will commence and then post notification of this on our website. Staff recruitment will unfortunately not take place this year.
Rebuild Update
Notwithstanding having changed our strategy for the shipment of modules last year, we were badly affected by lengthy extreme adverse weather conditions since last autumn. This resulted in us having to pause operations before recommencing them this late spring.
Since restarting, we have now managed to have all the modules brought over to Fair Isle and installed meaning the new Observatory has now been put together on site which is a significant milestone to have reached.
However, even when this part of the rebuild was undertaken in what was described as an exceptional period of benign weather, we still lost 20% of our shipping and install time due to bad weather within that period.
Consequently, we are now considerably behind in our timetable programme for the rebuild meaning we will not be able to reopen this year but will reopen in 2024. At present, it is not possible to say exactly when, but we will post updates concerning this in due course.
Having now assembled the new Observatory, the next stage in the process is to complete the roof and then apply the cladding. It is anticipated that subject to us not experiencing any further lengthy delays due to weather that this will be completed by mid-autumn giving us then a wind and watertight building.
After that has been completed, the programme is to then complete all the electrical and plumbing works to be followed by all the interiors being finished. These works in themselves will take several further months.
Upon those stages of the project being dealt with, we then have the remaining works to be undertaken regarding our renewable energy system and then finally furnish the new Observatory. Again, these works will take several months to complete.
Fair Isle, as we all know, is logistically one of the most difficult environments to carry out any building project let alone one of this size.
Factoring in all the other additional worldwide problems which have arisen during the rebuild, these have simply compounded matters resulting in us facing quite exceptional challenges.
Notwithstanding all of this we have managed to maintain going forward with the rebuild and look forward to seeing it completed in 2024 and welcoming all our friends and guests back.
Douglas Barr, FIBOT Chairman, 11th July 2023