1956 - It all began! Expand The Tall Ships Youth Trust (then called the Sail Training Association) was founded to run the Tall Ships Races.
1966 - The Sir Winston Churchill: the first Schooner Expand The Sir Winston Churchill, a 37 meter schooner, was launched after a group of young people sailed across the Atlantic as part of the Tall Ships Race and were determined Great Britain should have their own Tall Ship.
1968 – The Malcom Miller: the second Schooner Expand The Malcolm Miller, Sir Winston Churchill’s sister ship, was launched after the Daily Express led a huge national campaign to raise the funds needed to build her.
1968 – 2000 – The Schooners at Sea Expand The two Schooners sailed the globe offering thousands of young people the experience of a lifetime and attracting admiring glances from ports near and far, supporting over 40,000 young people
2000 – Schooners leave and make way for the Brigs Expand We said goodbye to the Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller as they completed their final voyage with the Trust. Due to the success of the Schooners, two new Brigs were commissioned and, at the turn of the millennium, one arrived in the shape of the 72 metre Stavros S. Niarchos.
2001 - The Second Brig Expand Having waved goodbye to the Schooners the year before, we celebrated their long and valuable service at a huge ‘Farewell to the Schooners’ party. Later in the year, a second Brig was commissioned and the name ‘Prince William’ was announced as she sailed up the Thames on St George’s day before arriving in London for her first reception.
2003 – Tall Ships Youth Trust Expand At an AGM on the 1st August 2003, Members of the Sail Training Association voted overwhelmingly to adopt a new name for the charity - Tall Ships Youth Trust. It was felt that the new name would better describe the charity’s work to external audiences and help to raise more funds as a result.
2008 – The Challengers Expand We said a fond farewell to Prince William and welcomed four 72ft round the world racing yachts to the fleet. This enabled up to diversify, attract a new audience and expand our work with young people.
2009 – The Tall Ships Cat Expand A very generous benefactor donated the Tall Ships Cat, a 62ft Catamaran. This allowed us to reduce the lower age limit to 12 and offer more opportunities for disabled people to come along.
2014 – The Tall Ships Ketch Expand Tenacity of Bolton, a 55ft Ketch, was built by Bolton School and gifted to us to provide the perfect sail training environment for young people.
2017 – Goodbye Stavros Expand We waved goodbye to the Brig, Stavros S. Niarchos to improve our financial stability and focus on supporting as many young people as possible with our fleet.
Today Expand Our aims remain the same as they always have been - to support the personal development of young people from all walks of life through the crewing of ocean going vessels. All the yachts in our fleet sail all year round offering a broad range of voyages from day sails to transatlantic crossings, there’s something for everyone. Having recently sold the two Brigs, we are now turning towards the future and making plans to increase out sea-going capacity yet further.