Blue Mermaid. Photo courtesy Den Phillips. Click to expand

The View from the Wheel

Sea-Change Sailing Trust’s Annual Report 2019
By Richard Titchener

Blue Mermaid – The First Season

In April 2019 the new barge towed away from Downs Road Boatyard for the first time to have the compass swung and undertake sea trials. Onlookers would have wondered at the several slow circles off the Basin while Peter Garrod worked his magic on the beautiful compass he has refurbished for us. He then presented the deviation card and climbed aboard the tug to return ashore ….Read the whole report here.

Voting is open for the Classic Boat Awards 2020.

Sea-Change’s Blue Mermaid is one of the entries in the Traditional New Build category.

Please vote for us here now. Voting closes 8th March 2020.

Today’s classic sailing and motorboat scene owes its existence to the passion and dedication of many people – boat owners, regatta organisers, crew, naval architects, volunteer yacht club officers and of course the skilled boat builders who have built or restored the vessels on our list. The annual Classic Boat Awards celebrate them all.

Sea-Change’s Executive Officer Richard Titchener presents a momento to Chair of Patrons RAdm David Snelson in recognition of his invaluable contribution towards fundraising for our new sailing barge Blue Mermaid.

It’s mid-December and we are already about a third of the way there. Please keep on donating, thank you.

Our new engine-less Thames sailing barge, Blue Mermaid, has been built to load cargo in addition to delivering our work with young people. Her hold can accommodate up to 84 x 1 tonne pallets.

We are now looking to work with manufacturers, distributors and others whose products are shipped to or from the Thames Estuary and as far north as Suffolk or south to the Kent ports. Traditional work for  a Thames barge.

This also includes working with those sailing organisations whose cargo is brought up channel from further afield but who do not currently deliver up to London and where transshipping to a sailing barge would enable them to continue their voyage with minimal delay.

Interested? Please get in touch.

In the Princess Royal Gallery at HMNB Portsmouth on 10th October, Jenna Howe collected her Shipshape Heritage Training Partnership 2 course completion certificate from Hannah Cunliffe, Director of National Historic Ships. Jenna ended her one year commitment to Sea-Change and shortly starts work on Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith.

A great deal has happened since a year ago when the year one induction started in Brixham. Witnessing the award of certificates and presentations about the experience gained were invited guests and the new intake of trainees, including Ben Shirley who will join Sea-Change after twelve weeks at IBTC Lowestoft.