Tall Ships Youth Trust

Tall Ships Youth Trust is a sail training organisation in the United Kingdom that currently owns and operates a two mast brig, the Stavros S Niarchos, and four 22m/72 ft Challenger class racing yachts.

The Tall Ships Youth Trust, formerly the Sail Training Association, based in Portsmouth and Liverpool, is a charity registered with the Charity Commission. It was founded in 1956 and is dedicated to the personal development of young people aged 16 to 25 through the crewing of tall ships. It also works to promote sail training around the world. Thanks to this work with young people, Tall Ships is a member of The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS).

The Tall Ships Youth Trust has operated a variety of craft; it used to own TS KI Sir Winston Churchill and TS K2 Malcolm Miller. These two three-masted topsail schooners are now privately owned and in the Mediterranean. Recently the TSYT operated a second sister-ship in addition to Stavros S Niarchos, the Prince William. However Prince William was removed from operational status at the end of 2007, to make way for the new Challenge 72 class yachts. In 2010 she was sold to the Pakistan Navy and renamed Rah Naward ("Swift Mover").

The four Challenger yachts usually sail together to provide inter-class racing, whereas Stavros S Niarchos generally makes longer voyages, along with appearing at Tall Ship events around the world.

The Challenger yachts, being of smaller capacity (18 berths each), provide a more flexible approach to sail training, allowing TSYT to scale the amount of sailings relative to demand (i.e. not all yachts need to sail). A ship of Stavros S Niarchos's class is limited in that it will always sail, regardless of how many of its paid-for berths are in use on that particular voyage.

The Challenger yachts were part of a 12 strong fleet of Challenge 72's built and used in the 2000/1 and 2004/5 BT Global Challenge. The purchase of the craft provides TSYT with four stable, reliable and extremely well tested craft to base a sail training program upon. In 2009 the charity acquired a catamaran which has been named "White Wave" and she is used to provide a good solid platform for younger trainees.

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Wikipedia