Antiguan Governor-General Sir James Carlisle is to attend a reception on 16 January when he will be shown around the tall ship ‘Tenacious’ in the company of Amanda Butcher, chief executive of the Jubilee Sailing Trust and Captain Simon Catterson. 

The Jubilee Trust is a unique charity that aims to promote the integration of able and disabled sailors to sail side by side as a team. The Trust built and constructed two purpose built Tall Ships, Lord Nelson and Tenacious. Tenacious was built by a team of professional shipwrights and volunteers of mixed ability, in the spirit of the JST ethos of integration. Launched in September, 2000, she is the largest wooden tall ship of her kind to be built in the UK in the last 100 years. She has taken over 5,500 people to sea, of these over 2,140 have been physically disabled.

TENACIOUS was recently involved in a dramatic rescue of seven people from the French sailing yacht ZOUK in heavy seas after the boat had lost its rudder and had been drifting helplessly in the middle of the Atlantic for sic days.

Tenacious received the distress call and made direct contact with Zouk. Two crew managed to board the yacht in difficult conditions with both a towing line and a box of freshly baked cake.

Several of the crew from the yacht transferred to Tenacious leaving four including the yacht’s skipper on board. Despite the appalling weather, they managed to rig a towing bridle. However due to the stresses without a rudder, the line broke the next morning. Repeated attempts were made to tow the stricken yacht until finally, the difficult decision to abandon the attempt to salvage the vessel was made. To prevent the Zouk from becoming a hazard to shipping, the yacht was sunk.

Crew from the Zouk praised the skipper, Captain Barbara Campbell, for the professionalism and empathy of the entire crew.

News Report from Antigua Sun Newspaper

SY Tenacious link is www.jst.org.uk