UPDATE – COVID-19 TALL SHIPS OPERATIONAL STATEMENT
COVID-19 – TALL SHIPS OPERATIONAL STATEMENT
26/03/2021
In March 2020 Tall Ships Youth Trust made the difficult but necessary decision to suspend all voyages.
In line with the Government’s Covid roadmap, the Department of Education has today updated its guidance on residential education. We are delighted to announce that we have the green light – in principle – to begin day sails with young people from 12th April and residentials from 17th May. These are the earliest dates for a return to sailing and like all Government roadmap dates, are subject to change.
The full revised Government guidance released today can be found here.
For the last 12 months, Tall Ships Youth Trust has been part of the Government’s ‘School Travel Sector Stakeholder Group’ to restart the sector as soon as possible. In March 2021, Tall Ships, alongside famous authors, explorers and Olympians signed an open letter to the Government demanding the reopening of residential outdoor education. Today’s announcement is testament to the work we have undertaken in demonstrating the importance of residential education as part of the nation’s Covid recovery.
The safety of the young people we sail with will always be our priority. We will be required to undertake full and thorough risk assessments in relation to our sailing voyages to ensure they can take place safely. For us, this is likely to incorporate Covid testing into our sailing protocols for the foreseeable future.
Tall Ships Chief Executive, Richard Leaman-Grey commented:
We are absolutely delighted to welcome back young people after this year-long hiatus. Our life-changing voyages can once again help young people who are among those hardest hit by the pandemic. The experiences young people gain from living onboard one of our yachts for a week is unique and key to helping them to restore and rebuild their confidence and mental health.
Over the last 12 months, Tall Ships has done everything we could to reduce our overheads and sustain our income. We are incredibly grateful to all our loyal supporters who stuck by the charity and financially supported us through these very challenging times. Because of your incredible support, and the work of the Tall Ships team in these extreme circumstances, we are still here and excited to return to the water soon.
