UK Sailing Project Winters in Melbourne

They set sail in late April for the seven-day voyage south following a week as guests of The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The Project offers young people, who have not had the best start in life, a chance to turn their lives around. In total, more than 50 young adults will benefit from the Project which set sail from the UK in July last year.

Lively Lady is legendary British sailor Sir Alec Rose’s historic yacht in which he completed his solo circumnavigation in 1968. On this voyage it will make 27 stops around the world.

After Pacific stop-overs in Honolulu and Fiji, Sydney was their point of entry into Australia. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia treated the crew well and the yacht had plenty of visitors, including Rose’s grandsons Miles and Stuart.

On each leg, two new young adults come on board. Taking over in Sydney are Donna Anderson and Jason Rankin, joined by skippers Alan Priddy and Egbert Walters. Together, they’ll sail Lively Lady to Melbourne where she’ll stay until January for a minor cosmetic re-fit and, in the interim, wait out the adverse weather conditions expected between now and then.

The Melbourne visit coincides with the 40th anniversary of Lively Lady’s arrival in 1967 when she was sailed by Rose, a greengrocer from Portsmouth, UK. A branch of his family lives in Melbourne, now considered Lively Lady’s second home, and are looking forward to welcoming her back.

For skipper Alan Priddy and all involved, the project is an opportunity to continue the legacy left by Rose. It was his wish that his much-loved yacht should work out her days helping to make a difference in the lives of challenged young adults.

A chance meeting with Sir Alec as a child, followed by a lucky break, kept Priddy’s life on track. His wish is for the project to help  more achieve the same thing.

Through the work the young adults do in preparation for the trip they gain valuable life skills. Nutrition, budgeting, provisioning, organisation and team work are all vital for the voyage. On board they put all of this into practice, as well as learn the essential skills of trust, leadership, anticipation, confidence and responsibility that are so important to life at sea.

Fiona Pankhurst from Raymarine said: “It is a highly inspirational challenge that will enrich the lives of a large number of young people - something that we’re excited to be a part of.”

For more information and daily journals from Lively Lady’s crew, visit www.livelylady.net