Features and Reviews

Brixham meets the new crews!

Tall Ships Youth Trust vessels Prince William and Stavros S Niarchos sailed into Brixham for the second year of Brigg Races in Tor Bay, with new recruits training aloft at the fish market quayside on Friday 17th August.

As the fresh crew members practiced climbing all over their ship Stavros, they found they were up against a more experienced crew on Prince William who had remained with their vessel, following their week's training.

Before the two crews got ready to go head to head racing, they joined together in a noisy parade to announce their presence in the port. Armed with whistles , musical instruments and banging cans, the ear -piercing vocal warm ups paid off as both crews took to the road around the harbour, to let Brixham know they were in town and ready to do battle!

Crew member Erica pointed out there was, “Plenty of rivalry between the two crews!” .She explained that Prince William would have the advantage being in her opinion the lighter vessel. However she said that the ‘crew of Stavros would have to be twice as cunning to try and gain advantages, especially at the start.' With many of the new recruits on Stavros having only just learnt to go aloft, they would quickly need to bond under the instruction of their Captain Liam Keating equally keen to outrun the rival ship.

Guiding the young recruits the two ships have a series of salaried crew including the captains, chief officers, second officers, chief engineers, bosuns and cooks. They come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and often starting out as Tall Ships trainees, and are all ‘dedicated to the charity and love of sharing their knowledge and experience with young people.'

Joining the ships for the weekend there were also more ‘seasoned sailors' including local enthusiast Kathy from Paignton. Kathy said “I began with a day sail and have now joined as a crew member five times!” Erica who had travelled all the way from Berkshire to join the Stavro's crew again said,” Last year the Sunday race saw glorious weather but was hopeless for racing, so this year everyone was hoping for a good wind to spur the ships on!