Plans for Portsmouth children to sail on world-famous Lively Lady are delayed

AMBITIONS to offer disadvantaged children from Portsmouth a life-changing experience sailing a world-famous yacht around the UK have met choppy waters.
Lively Lady is welcomed into Port Solent in 2018.

Picture: Keith WoodlandLively Lady is welcomed into Port Solent in 2018.

Picture: Keith Woodland
Lively Lady is welcomed into Port Solent in 2018. Picture: Keith Woodland

Organisers of the trip on the Lively Lady have said they’re heartbroken to have delayed the epic voyage, which was due to set sail in 2021.

The 36ft boat was made famous by the late Southsea greengrocer Sir Alec Rose, who completed his single-handed trip around the world on her on July 4, 1968.

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But a spokesman for Around and Around, the charity now tending to the vessel, said the coronavirus pandemic had delayed a proposal for a new UK tour by ‘at least a year’.

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Alistair Thompson, who represents Around and Around, said: ‘The idea was that for 2020 they would do training voyages and start getting a young crew together.

‘Then they were going to sail around the UK next year. But that’s completely gone by-the-by because of Covid.

‘You can’t get into schools, you can’t train in close proximity with people, so I doubt this will all start until probably late summer 2021.’

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The initiative was intended to mirror a similar one carried out in the late 2000s, which involved a number of young people from Portsmouth.

Between 2006 and 2008, Lively Lady sailed across the world, this time crewed by a group of 38 disadvantaged youngsters.

They were guided by ocean racing legend Alan Priddy, from Portsmouth, as they completed relay legs of the epic voyage.

Mr Thompson added that Lively Lady would be due to sail again – but not until later in the new year.

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He added: ‘That will only be with volunteers who know how to sail her and are already involved.

‘Plans to engage with schools and kids from Portsmouth and elsewhere unfortunately just can’t happen at the moment and that’s really sad.’

Lively Lady was refurbished more than two years ago by Around and Around.

Scenes of jubilation greeted the Lively Lady's Port Solent homecoming in July 2018, echoing scenes of the yacht’s incredible arrival 50 years earlier.

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But behind the scenes things were less than rosy. A legal row had erupted between Around and Around and Lively Lady’s former custodians the International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC) in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

It was claimed the IBTC had left the famed yacht in a ‘sorry state’ after taking over her care in 2015.

The historic vessel’s poor upkeep prompted a legal battle in which Alan Priddy sought to sue the IBTC for £15,466 at the end of 2018.

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