The Freya, a steel-hull sailboat, returned Saturday to the Gwynn’s Island site where she was built more than 60 years ago.

More than 40 people attended a gala homecoming celebration that included glasses of champagne and a bottle of bubbly poured from the stern of the vessel after its arrival by Marcy Benouameur, daughter of the late Gilbert Klingel who built the boat.

“This is so, well, wonderful ... awesome,” said Benouameur, moments after she stepped off the boat onto a pier at the old Gwynn’s Island Boat Works. Benouameur said she grew up right by the boatyard in the 1950s.

Gary Edmondson of Mathews said renovations to The Freya are expected to begin this summer. Captain John Bonner said the Mathews Maritime Foundation is seeking money and volunteers so The Freya can be restored.

Those aboard the voyage from Cobbs Creek to Gwynn’s Island Saturday included Bonner, Morgan Moss, Brian White, Edmondson and Benouameur. Randy Applegate, engineeri...