 is being commended for its operation earlier in the week to assist a historic sailing v...){kind=link}
The UK’s volunteer Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is being commended for its operation earlier in the week to assist a historic sailing vessel that was taking on water and requested urgent assistance. It became a 10-hour operation involving three of the RNLI crews to see the historic ship safely to port so that it could be repaired to continue its service as a charity training vessel.
The Falmouth Coastguards received the call for assistance on Wednesday, May 22, in the evening from the Leader which operates for the Atlantic Youth Trust. Built in 1892, the vessel is the largest and possibly oldest surviving example of a unique vessel, the Brixham trawler. Once a common design of a wooden hull fishing vessel, there were over 400 of the trawlers in Brixham, but today it is believed that just five remain.
Leader, according to Sail Training International, is rigged as she would have been when first built, as a gaff ketch. She is 80 feet (24 meters) long on deck, and 105 feet (32 meters) overall. She displaces about 110 tonnes in sailing trim. Leader operates today with a crew of seven or eight and can accommodate 12 trainees.
After operating for 15 years as a wooden sailing ship, the Leader went to Scandinavia in 1907 where she continued to be used as…