Despite a recent donation from Government, Tall Ships Bermuda is still in need of more than $300,000.

This came from Tall Ships Bermuda Chairman John Wadson during a power lunch with Sail Training International race director Paul Bishop and Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge (TSAC) project director Andrew McCall who operate out of Hampshire England.

TSAC is organised jointly with Sail Training International and the American Sail Training Association. It will start in late April in Vigo, Spain with ships arriving in Bermuda around June 1.

They then travel to various ports before finishing in Belfast, Ireland.

"Trying to fund this event is extremely challenging," said Mr. Wadson. "We embarked on this project in 2003. Who would have known that 2009 would have found us in such a different financial state."

He said Tall Ships Bermuda has had to cut their budget, but they hope they have done it without compromising the race.

On Friday, Government announced it would donate $456,000 to Tall Ships Bermuda. But the organisation still has some fundraising left to do to meet their $2 million target.

"We are still $375,000 short of our goal," said Mr. Wadson. "As the national sail training organisation for Bermuda, our remit, our purpose, is to promote sail training from Bermuda.

"In that regard we have our own programmes. We send people off on sail training adventures, typically in the European summer, but we have done it at other times of the year depending on what other programmes are on offer."

Mr. McCall said the overall Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge had also been rocked by the world's financial problems.

"In this current climate we were in desperate need of more ships and trainees," he said. "In my job as project director, I have concentrated on that.

"I have tried to persuade all the ports to produce 25 trainees."

He said an added complication was that most of the race takes place when school is in session in April.

"Luckily, Bermuda has come to our rescue and produced more than double the number of trainees that was required."

To deal with the school issue, a requirement for a certain percentage of people on board to be between 15 and 25 years old has been relaxed on most legs of the race.

"The only leg in which that requirement is being held to is the last one from Halifax to Belfast," said Mr. McCall. "Otherwise we encourage young people to go, but it is not a rule. The Bermudian trainees are dotted all over the place."

Mr. Wadson said that the goal was to spread Bermuda trainees across all six legs of the race.

"And our focus on tall ships Bermuda is on the younger people," he said. "We are encouraging them and we will support younger Bermudians up to the age of 30.

"We will try to help them with the cost of the voyage. After age 30, we offer no financial assistance.

"We are trying to hold those berths open for young people so they can take advantage of it. But, notoriously, younger people are going to decide later than older people. So we are hopeful that we will have a fairly large number of Bermudians."

There are currently 101 people on the list as interested, 55 have filled out applications and 34 have been placed on ships for different race legs.

"You must be 15 years old or older, and from a Bermuda perspective, we have never asked a question other than can you swim," said Mr. Wadson.

"The whole thing about sail training is that you really don't know how to sail. It is about discovering yourself and learning how to work as a member of a team.

"What you are developing through sail training is life skills which will take you to places that perhaps you never would have gone.

"It builds self-confidence, and leadership abilities. We believe it will make a real difference to Bermuda's youth."

Mr. Bishop and Mr. McCall were in Bermuda to do a port inspection.

"It is more about making sure that we are working together in terms of all our respective roles," said Mr. Bishop. "It is vital that the relationship we have with the port committee of Bermuda is good."

Mr. McCall said their visit was about making sure that everything in Bermuda was being done to meet the standards set by Sail Training International.

"So far things are excellent," said Mr. Bishop. "Bermuda has hosted races so well on so many other occasions.

"We came here very confident they would do the same again and now we are even more confident after seeing the number of volunteers, the enthusiasm, and professionalism. It has been a very good meeting.

"It was pretty clear that everyone had been working very hard, but there is still a lot of work to be done, of course."

Mr. Bishop is the author of 'Tall Ships and the Cutty Sark Races'. He got into sailing as a youngster growing up in East Looe, Cornwall.

Later he worked on a Lloyds of London yacht out of Gosport, Hampshire.

Mr. McCall said that although this was his first trip to Bermuda, his first yacht racing experiences were actually with Bermudians in the 1960s.

"Warren Brown and deForest (Shorty) Trimingham were two of them. It was extraordinary."

After the Fastnet race he went on to a career working with the Whitbread Company who then ran the Whitbread Race.

Both men said sailing helped to bring out their leadership skills, and Mr. Wadson hoped it would do the same for Bermudian kids.

"We are absolutely thrilled that we have had such a response from Bermuda's youth," he said. "It is worth noting that in 2000 we actually sent 150 young people to take part in the Tall Ships 2000 Race."

And he said that he was thrilled that Bermuda had its own tall ship in the race, Spirit of Bermuda.

"Spirit of Bermuda has decided to do the entire race except for the last leg," said Mr. Wadson. "And that is because she has to do an entire leg just to get over to Europe.

"She will start in Vigo, Spain after a voyage through the Azores.

"She will be there for the start of their festival, April 30. She will race down to Tenerife and down to Bermuda. For that particular leg they are still actively trying to recruit crew."

For information about becoming a trainee, volunteering or making a donation write to P.O. Box HM 703, Hamilton HM CX, telephone 296-2238, fax 296-3732 or e-mail info@tallships.bm.