Plan for all-island tall ship to replace ‘Asgard II’ unveiled

Plans for an all-island tall ship to replace Asgard II have been unveiled by a cross-Border trust which has been working on the project for the past three years.

The Atlantic Youth Trust says that it believes a new ship should be modelled on the 45-metre steel-hull vessel built for the Spirit of Adventure Trust in New Zealand.

The three-masted barquentine Spirit of New Zealand was commissioned in 1986, and is said to be one of the world's busiest youth ships. The Atlantic Youth Trust estimates the cost of building a similar ship here at €16 million.

The State received about €3.8 million in insurance for the loss of the Asgard II and the National Lottery contributed about €900,000 a year.

The trust believes this money, combined with cross-Border peace funding and corporate and philanthropic donations, could pay for the vessel, which would have double the capacity of the Arklow-built brigantine. It could offer 1,000 youth development berths a year during the ship’s 30-year lifespan, the trust believes.

The trust, chaired by Lord Glentoran and with Enda O'Coineen as president, undertook a global study of the tall ships sector before coming up with its design, and a business case was carried out by Ernst and Young.

Life-changing

“If successful, young people will be consistently given life-changing opportunities on a tall ship that is now widely recognised as being one of the most effective ways to inspire, integrate and educate people from all backgrounds,” it says.

It has been endorsed by Tall Ships Belfast chairman and Atlantic Youth Trust trustee Dr Gerard O’Hare, who noted that “the tasks and chores while living on a tall ship are directly transferable back to dry land – hence education systems around the world endorse such activities”.

Since Asgard II sank off the Brittany coast in 2008, Irish sail trainees have been placed on "ships of opportunity" by Sail Training Ireland (STI), a charity formed in 2011 with Dublin Port's support.

Trainees have secured berths on such vessels as the Dutch-registered brig Morgenster and the Dutch schooner Gulden Leuw, and a 21-metre classic schooner named Spirit of Oysterhaven, which is Ireland's only operational non-Naval Service sail-training vessel.

Round the world

The 89-year-old ketch

Ilen

, designed by Conor O’Brien, the first Irish man to sail round the world in a small boat, may also become available. The

Spirit of Oysterhaven

is currently circumnavigating Ireland as part of a “peace and reconciliation” initiative organised by the Atlantic Youth Trust, involving the twinning of youth organisations, county councils, regatta committees and port authorities on both sides of the Border.