Firstly we would like to assure you that our tall ship, SV Tenacious, remains operational and will continue delivering our current voyage programme as planned.  

As previously shared, the financial position of the Jubilee Sailing Trust has been extremely precarious for some time. The Covid Recovery Campaign was launched due to the significant reduction of income over the past two years, coupled with rising costs and increased pressure from our creditors, resulting in our organisation being at risk of closure. This has raised an astounding £890,897 since April 2022, which has allowed us to continue operating Tenacious and delivering our mission, and enabled us to make some progress with funds owed to our trade creditors. 

The Jubilee Sailing Trust, as registered charity no. 277810, operates through its two subsidiaries, ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust Ltd’, and ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd’. ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust Ltd’ owns STS Lord Nelson (decommissioned in 2019), whereas Tenacious is owned and operated by ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd’. Our principal trading and financial arrangements have been through ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust Ltd’, including the employment of our staff. 

Unfortunately, despite the fantastic support received over the past few months, we have been forced to make the difficult decision to enter ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust Ltd’ into administration. This decision was made after one of our principal creditors threatened imminent legal proceedings to reclaim their owed credit. Regardless of our recent organisational restructure and ongoing development review, this situation escalated rapidly and the sale of Lord Nelson will not be possible within this new timeframe.  

Since the launch of our Campaign, every effort has been made to avoid this situation, including contacting all creditors to consider alternative repayment timeframes, or if they would be willing to forgive the funds owed to improve our balance sheet. We are grateful to those who were able and willing to assist us in this manner, however the debt forgiveness and the fundraising efforts combined were not enough to significantly change our position. 

We had hoped that the sale of Lord Nelson would have been agreed before our situation reached this point, as the funds from her sale would have been used to repay our debts. This was our most desired outcome, and very recent interest in her sale had looked extremely promising, however the expedited time frame placed upon us meant this would be impossible to achieve. 

With ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust Ltd’ now in administration, the assets owned by this company will be sold to generate funds for creditor repayment. Lord Nelson will be taken over by the administrators for this purpose. 

We recognise that this will be deeply upsetting for many of our supporters. Please know that this outcome was never our intention.

Essential shore-based employees are being transferred to ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd’ under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations. The Permanent Crew are employed via an agency, whose contract will be continued with ‘Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd’. These transfers will ensure that Tenacious, her published voyage programme, and those who are booked to sail with her will not be affected by these changes. 

We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as our ongoing restructure adjusts to this new format. For transparency, updates regarding this will be shared with our supporters via email, on our website, and on our social media channels throughout. 

Whilst this update may be greatly disappointing for many, we want to emphasise that these actions mean that Tenacious will still be able to continue delivering our mission, which remains unchanged.

We received a great influx of support and suggestions following the earlier announcement of our restructure, we have a new strategic plan, and are re-engaging with existing supporters as well as those new to our work. We recently completed a tremendous week on the Isle of Wight as one of the Cowes Week Official Partner Charities, engaging with thousands of people and benefitting from the huge exposure of such a high profile event. We will shortly be publishing Tenacious’ Summer (2023) voyage programme, and would encourage anyone wishing to sail with us to book soon, as our summer voyages have sold out for the last two years running. 

We are undergoing enormous change in a short period with a small team, but believe that the outcome will result in our wonderful charity and tall ship, Tenacious, being able to continue bringing our mission to over 1,200 people each year, for many years to come. 

We thank you for your understanding and support at this time.

If you believe that you are a creditor of Jubilee Sailing Trust Limited, please contact the Joint Administrators’ team at cmu@uk.gt.com for details on how to submit your claim into the administration estate. If you are interested in purchasing Lord Nelson, please contact Preeya Saimbi at Preeya.K.Saimbi@uk.gt.com to discuss further.

Any enquiries or suggestions are welcome, please email: info@jst.org.uk