Jubilee Sailing Trust: Company which operates Portsmouth tall ship Tenacious goes bust leaving staff jobless

The Jubilee Sailing Trust, based in Southampton and sails the tall ship Tenacious from Portsmouth, will have all its assets passed onto a receiver. It announced in a shocking statement on its website that staff will be losing their jobs and “phones, website, social media and emails will no longer be monitored”.

Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Limited JST(T)L faced financial challenges over the past two years, with the company being associated with the vessel for 45 years. A statement on its website said: “The last four years have seen two large-scale funding appeals, refinancing, several restructures, and a reduction in fleet size to one ship - and of course a pandemic. With much internal and external consultation we have tried different funding models, most of which have been heavily reliant on fundraising, or, trying to attract partners willing to pay full price to charter the ship.

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"For the last 15 months we tried a funding strategy that was more reliant on income from our voyage crew paying for 75-80 per cent of the cost of a voyage (or using bursary funding secured for this purpose). Unfortunately neither our voyage sales nor our fundraising efforts have been successful in meeting the c.£150k/month required to operate Tenacious and keep her legally compliant to deliver our voyages, nor to repay the historic debt (c.£477k) accumulated prior to the September 2022 change in strategy.

"Whilst we have been investigating several options to change our situation, including loans and alternative business plans, we recently learned we were also unsuccessful in being able to raise the full amount required to put Tenacious through her regulatory dry docking in time to deliver our planned Atlantic crossing.” The company said there is no viable way financially for them to operate their schedule of Caribbean voyages, with all sailings up to April 2024 being cancelled.

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Emergency talks have been taking place with the company’s board and financial and legal advisors as Jubilee Sailing Trust is unable to pay its crew shore-based staff, or refund the crew whose voyages have been cancelled. The trust said closing the company is the only option. The JST charity, a separate entity to the JST(T)L company, is currently being reviewed by the Charity Commission as to whether it can continue.

The trust has operated mixed disabled and non-disabled crews on ships for years. They issued an appeal for £500,000 last year to offset the financial damage created by the pandemic. “Although this situation is immensely upsetting for all involved, we hope that you can be proud of all that you, our supporters, have helped to achieve with both Lord Nelson and Tenacious since their launch,” the trust said.

“Without you sailing as voyage crew, volunteering on shore or onboard, and helping raise funds and awareness of what can be achieved in an enabling and accessible environment, we would not have been able to work directly with 56,728 disabled and non-disabled people during this time. From all at JST, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part of this amazing journey.”