Sad news - Jubilee Sailing Trust

[snowleopard]

I have heard today that the JST has collapsed. After several attempts over the last few years to raise emergency funds, reality has caught up with them and there seems no hope for another rescue. The ships are in the hands of the receivers and all staff have been laid off with immediate effect.

 

[fjcruiserdxb]

Tough time for charities at the moment. Started vounteering for one recently and they had to reduce from 3 boats to one. Let's hope they survive. Not a lack of demand, more about issue with raising money. Many of these trusts provide an invaluable service to special needs, deprived youth and encouraging more to try sailing as a hobby and career.

 

[John_Silver]

Happy memories of waking, the dawn sun clearing an autumn mist from Worbarrow Bay, to find that Tenacious and Lord Nelson had joined us in the, otherwise deserted, anchorage overnight. An evocative sight. May the ships sail once more.

 

[fredrussell]

That’s very sad news.

 

[14K478]

The outfit that bankrupted Cooks Shipyard in Wivenhoe over the building of the "Lord Nelson".

 

[Bajansailor]

I wonder what will happen to Lord Nelson and Tenacious?

The STA / TSYT sold their two brigs some years ago - Stavros Niarchos is now called Sunset and is in the Eastern Med.
Ship SUNSET (Sailing Vessel) Registered in Malta - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9222314, MMSI 248868000, Call sign 9HA4838

And Prince William was bought by the Pakistani Navy -
Ship SAIL SHIP (Sailing Vessel) Registered in Pakistan - Vessel details, Current position and Voyage information - IMO 9222326, MMSI 463000000, Call sign ARNR

 

[Snowgoose-1]

£150 k per month running costs apparently. Quite a bit to find .

Hopefully other organisations can take up the slack.

disabledsailingassociation.org.uk | Affordable sailing for all Disabled people

 

[fisherman]

I went to Norway on the Nelson. Some of the officers told me the aim of the JST had been somewhat diverted, groups of regular customers, like the 'West Ealing 2-6 heavers' or some such, would for instance, organise to take the whole ship for a voyage. At the same time, they would be stalwart fund raisers. I found some of them to be very possessive. The permanent crew had to be very diplomatic at times. Bloody shame though, another avenue for the less able blocked off.

 

[ashtead]

Maybe a use at Portland as I hear any old craft pressed into service there -budget looks fairly low for international aid surely

 

[snowleopard]

It certainly seems that big ships are difficult to run for sail training as the costs increase disproportionately with size, witness the 4 ships of the STA and now the 2 from JST. Fleets of smaller boats seem to fare better but there's not much around for people with more severe disabilities, e.g. wheelchair users.

 

[onesea]

The other question becomes how much demand is there for wheel chair users? In the 40 years they have existed the world has moved on, there are allot more opportunities for disabled etc to do many activities.

The JST frequently had calls for able bodies to sail on the ships, at reduced costs. However what was the average age range of the paying personnel?

As others have said the cost of running a 500t plus ship is vast with regulations that get imposed. That along with the reduced number of ports berths available makes these ships challenging.

 

[14K478]

I did wonder why the JST decided to run a second ship.

 

[snowleopard]

I did wonder why the JST decided to run a second ship.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Lord Nelson was doing great and there appeared to be a need for more capacity. I understand that the cost of building Tenacious escalated far beyond original estimates and the cost of servicing additional loans meant any operating surplus was swallowed up by interest payments.

 

[14K478]

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Lord Nelson was doing great and there appeared to be a need for more capacity. I understand that the cost of building Tenacious escalated far beyond original estimates and the cost of servicing additional loans meant any operating surplus was swallowed up by interest payments.

So… pretty much what happened to the baker’s shop in Woodbridge Thoroughfare.

Not brought down by market conditions or the state of the economy but by management hubris and incompetence.

 

[Bajansailor]

And Tenacious was built of timber (I think Siberian Larch?) and WEST epoxy - I think the original intention of using this method was to get volunteers to come and help with the build. Even disabled folk could help to spread epoxy.
However she was built under Class approval, and I am sure that the costs of doing this must have been enormous (I remember reading somewhere that every mixed batch of epoxy had to be 'approved' by the Class Surveyor) - it would probably have been much cheaper in the long run if she had simply been built of steel.
And building her in steel in Britain would (I am sure) have been a lot more expensive than building her in (say) Korea (I am sure that @14K478 could elaborate on this) - but it would not be very politically acceptable to build a vessel like this in the Far East rather than Britain.......

 

[fisherman]

Tenacious was £14.5m. In 2001 I was on the Nelson in Antwerp, so was she, and so was the Stad Amsterdam, steel, 10m Euros from Damen. All the disability stuff would not tot up the extra.

 

[ylop]

Not brought down by market conditions or the state of the economy but by management hubris and incompetence.

I'm sure "market conditions" is a factor. Its not felt to me like they did a good job of adapting to the way the 3rd sector seems to work in the 21st century. In better economic times there are always benefactors who will chuck cash at something for PR/Tax reasons - but I can't actually recall when I last heard a "good news story" from them - the closest to good news was "we've not gone bust yet". They've not really embraced Youtube / TicToc etc - probably because they didn't actually have any young trustees (ironic given their market!) ? Or the TV crew doing a documentary? My feeling was they were in an echo chamber - they assumed that everyone knew what they did, and perhaps that they were just too big to fail.

 

[Minerva]

£150 k per month running costs apparently. Quite a bit to find .

Hopefully other organisations can take up the slack.

disabledsailingassociation.org.uk | Affordable sailing for all Disabled people

150k/month Blimey.

I'm kind of stunned at a charity with running costs at £1.8mil/year. How many service users do they manage to accommodate per year?

Can't help but think that running a fleet of~50ft accessible catamarans would offer significantly lower £/service user/day ratio than a couple of unwieldy tall ships!

 

[Daydream believer]

How do you get a wheelchair up the mast & out on to the yards, to furl the sails in a blow?

 

[Bajansailor]

How do you get a wheelchair up the mast & out on to the yards, to furl the sails in a blow?

You don't - that is why they cannot take a paying crew that is 100% wheelchair users.

Saying that, I remember seeing that they do have hoists to lift wheelchairs up to the first platform.
And it is not just wheelchairs - they also have audio compasses for blind sailors.

Oh, and the square sails are 'furled' from deck by people hauling on the bunt lines - crew later go aloft to stow them properly, with gaskets.