The Thames Sailing Barge Trust has been awarded a grant of £19,600 from Trinity House towards the Trust’s successful training scheme for skippers and mates.
One of the Trust’s objectives is to advance the education of the public as to the historic and cultural role of Thames sailing barges in the seagoing heritage of Great Britain and to provide training in the traditional seafaring skills required to sail and maintain Thames sailing barges in their local waters.
The Thames sailing barge community in general is facing a shortage of skilled crew. The ‘pool of talent’ we can draw upon is shrinking as time goes by, due to an increasingly aging demographic in the sailing barge community. It is vital that new blood is swiftly brought in so that precious skills are not lost.
Currently, it can take up to five years or so to gain sufficient experience to become a Mate, and ten years to become a Skipper. There is a real problem with skills disappearing coupled with the length of time it takes to learn the trade. There are currently only eight Skippers under the age of 50, and about 25 Mates.
Over the last 7 years the Trust have taken on a number of trainees each year in order to train them as future third hands, mates and ultimately skippers, so that there is a pool of people available to sail the historic Thames sailing barges in the future. This is the third time that the scheme has been supported by Trinity House.
Since the scheme started the Trust has made up 11 mates and 4 skippers.
The funds from Trinity House will be used to cover the costs of RYA training courses, books and hire of barges to carry out practicable learning.
The Trustees are grateful to Trinity House for making this award which will help make sure that for well into the future there will be sufficient trained crew to sail these iconic vessels including the Trust’s sailing barges Centaur and Pudge.
Source: Press release
Read more about the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, one of our Shipshape Network East projects.
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