Departure postponed

Alan Priddy's round the world voyage in Sir Alec Rose's Lively Lady put back by one year

In August 1966, damage to Lively Lady forced Sir Alec Rose to postpone the start of his historic journey around the world for a year. Thanks to her recent re-fit, and with the help of the Meridian Trust Association and Portsmouth Museums, Lively Lady the boat in which Rose made a two stop singlehanded circumnavigation over 1967-8 - a year after Sir Francis Chichester on Gypsy Moth IV and in a slower time - is in great shape structurally. However 40 years on, history is repeating itself - this time for much more positive reasons.

The Lively Lady Project will see skipper Alan Priddy sailed Sir Alec Rose's yacht around the world in 29 legs during which 58 disadvantaged 'young adults' will get their chance to be on board. The project is designed to benefit socially excluded young adults by giving them essential skills for life and by creating a support network around them that can help get their lives back on track and play a more active part in their community. Up to 100 of the young adults will help to crew Lively Lady as she sails around the world again or be involved in shore-based logistics and support.

However, even those who don’t make it to the final crew will benefit from applying as they’ll be put in touch with mentors and organisations who can give them the lucky break they need to change their lives.

Support for the voyage has resulted in the demand for an added, and originally unimagined, Schools Programme. Diverse cultures, religions, geography, history, communication, science, materials technology and many more subjects are all touched upon by a voyage of this nature. Modern communication means that schools can follow Lively Lady around the world, learning valuable lessons about all of these as she and her crew stop at over 20 different ports across the world.

Alan Priddy, the Portsmouth-based ocean adventurer and skipper of The Lively Lady Project says: “We’ve been taken aback by the amount of enthusiasm from schools who have been in touch asking us to put together educational programmes around our journey and a number of organisations who work with disadvantaged young adults want to work with us. It’s important to us to put together a programme the people of the City of Portsmouth can be proud of and we need more time to do that.”

To give the project that time, the original start date of October had become unrealistic. Because of the need to comply with government regulations and catch weather windows around the world the only option is to postpone for a year. Any less time and the crew would be forced to wait for several months in the Tropics for a weather window to get back to the UK.

“Everyone behind the project is disappointed that we have to postpone but is still behind the project 100%, and we’re still very positive as we feel this gives us the time and the opportunity to make a difference to even more lives,” said Alan Priddy.

With that in mind, The Lively Lady Project is keen to hear from any young adults who think this programme could make a positive difference to their lives. For more information contact Alan Priddy on 07802 237125 or alan@offshore-expeditions.com