Report and Accounts 31st August 2014

2014 Operational Summary Sea-Change worked with 170 clients during 2014 of which 42

had special needs and delivered 825 berth nights to 16 groups and adult supporters, developing positive personal development, key

skills, self-belief, leadership, maritime skills and opportunities

DofE Approved Activity Provider, RYA Training and Sailability Foundation Centre, ASTO Member

Unit 1 Blackwater Marina, Mayland, Essex CM3 6AL

01621 744196 info@seachangesailingtrust.org.uk

Sea-Change Projects Ltd is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee Registered in England no. 6163852 Charity no. 1125958

www.seachangesailingtrust.org.uk

From the Wheel

Looking back over 2014 and ahead to 2015, the 9th year of Sea-Change, is an opportunity to take stock. To celebrate the fund-raising success that enables us to start building a sailing barge for the charity; to thank the appeal patrons and many people without whom this would not be happening; the many others who sail with us and the team of trustees, office and sea staff. Perhaps most of all, as we embark on this exciting new chapter, it is time to remember why we started.

I was reminded of this at a meeting with our new local RYA Sailability Development Officer, who asked about the history. Of course there was and continues to be the passionate belief that Thames barges are great for our work; fun to sail and large enough to provide space for people to thrive and engage in a variety of positive personal and group activities. However, the thinking underpinning the charity came from our experience at the end of the kind of short sailing trips we had formerly been involved with. We were often left feeling that people needed more time. It was time for people to go home just as they were seeing the point and sometimes they went home to something less than ideal, having opened their eyes to something “rich and strange”.

Sometimes their behaviour elsewhere meant they could not be invited to come again as members of the crew because they would be seen by authority to represent risk. There had to be a way to offer long-term involvement and support based on the needs of the individual. The phrase “rich and strange” rhymes with the “sea-change” in Ariel’s Song from Shakespeare’s Tempest that gave the charity its name, reflecting the transformational opportunities that can be found through living and working together afloat.

As well as sailing with groups supported by accompanying staff, usually on the Reminder chartered from Topsail Charters, this thinking led us to give young people a chance to stay involved through extended residential sailing in our Youth Sailing Scheme (YSS). It could also lead them to consider a maritime career. For the last four years this has been delivered as authentically as possible using the Cambria, chartered from the Cambria Trust. In 2014 the training voyage for YSS was to Norwich and was a highpoint in the season. She had regularly visited in her trading days but now it is rare for a vessel of any size to go into the city centre. It was arranged by the helpful Broads Authority and required the lifting or swinging of 7 bridges. It was doubly pleasing as there was a fair wind into Yarmouth, which enabled us to sail into the berth and on the return a fair wind away again.

2014 also saw Sea-Change become 1 of 5 partners in the Shipshape Heritage Training Partnership run by National Historic Ships UK. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund it gives 2 annual intakes of trainees experience of the scarce skills required by traditional vessels. Also this year we became an Approved Activity Provider of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Residential section.

Next year will see the completion of the hull of our new vessel and the start of work on the rig and fit out, with the intention of trials in 2016 and a full season in 2017. There is still plenty to do, not least raising funds for the 2nd phase but we are on the way.

Capt. Richard Titchener Executive Officer

Funding

We are very grateful to the many generous individuals, organisations and anonymous donors who have funded us and we wish to express

our thanks to them all

New Thames sailing barge appeal

Bernard Sunley Charitable Trust Drapers’ Company Eranda Foundation

Fishmongers' Company Garfield Weston Foundation

Gosling Foundation Headley Foundation

J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust Michael Everard

Plain English Design TK Foundation Trinity House

Trusthouse Charitable Foundation Wates Foundation

Bursaries and support

Acorn Fund ASTO

Augustine Courtauld Trust Big Lottery Fund Grant

Boshier-Hinton Foundation Crouch Harbour Authority

Essex Community Foundation Essex Youth Trust Foyle Foundation

High Sheriff of Essex Awards Homelands Charitable Trust

Ipswich Maritime Trust Maldon Town Regatta McColl's Retail Group

Mercers' Company Minter Family Fund

National Maritime Museum Oak Trust

Port of London Authority RYA Sailability

Sported T K Foundation

Whirlwind Charitable Trust Worshipful Company of World Traders