Youngsters aiming to return historic yacht to past glory

Portsmouth.co.uk - 

Historic yacht Lively Lady is back in the water after being moored for almost three years.

A crew of young adventurers who want to fund a trip around the globe are working tirelessly to make Sir Alec Rose’s famous vessel seaworthy again.

On Saturday they led a procession of around 25 topper sailboats from Hill Head to the Isle of Wight for a fundraising event.

It was the first time Lively Lady had been sailed since she returned from her round-the-world voyage in 2008.

Lauren Harris, a 21-year-old student from Chichester University who is in charge of making the vessel seaworthy again, said: ‘It has been a very successful day and everyone has done really well.

‘Lively Lady supporters from a long time ago are now getting involved which is great.

‘For most of them it was their dream to be able to sail on her, so they want to do whatever they can for us to go and do it ourselves.’

Lively Lady was recently leased to Around and Around, a Portsmouth-based charity teaching young people to sail.

Lauren and four of the charity’s youngsters accompanied her across the Solent in their other yacht, Robertson’s Golly.

For the last few months they have been working hard to make Lively Lady’s hull secure.

The crew will embark on a series of sailing events this summer to continue raising cash for the project.

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