Following a few initial sessions in the autumn, we are delighted to bring back our Members - Coffee and Chinwag virtual roundtables this spring.

This is a relaxed, low-tech session for anyone in our membership interested in connecting and reflecting with peers across the UK about what lays on the horizon and discuss opportunities and challenges they are currently facing. This month, our plan is to give space for members to meet with others and get to know about other vessels and projects across the maritime sector. The session will hosted by Delphine Jasmin-Belisle, MHT Trustee and Head of Development and Membership for the Heritage Alliance. Future sessions may be themed in response to your needs and requests.

We plan to make this a regular calendar item, last Friday of every month, 3pm-4pm

Member Coffee and Chin Wag
Friday 24 February
3pm-4pm
To book, contact Delphine at delphine@hild.solutions

We really hope you will join us in this informal roundtable, which would provide a chance to create new connections and share the latest maritime heritage news.

At our recent webinar the theme of fundraising was discussed. 
A recording can be viewed on YouTube - follow the link from here to our website
The item on our website includes a number of links to helpful online resources.

Other useful resources were created for Rebuilding Heritage, a UK-wide free support programme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to help the heritage sector respond to the ongoing impacts of the Cost of Living Crisis and COVID-19 pandemic.
These include:

• Webinar - ‘What does Fundraising Look Like for 2023’.
• Article – Making Good Business Planning Decisions in Difficult Times.
• Article - Where to Look for Difficult to Fund Costs.
• Interview Recording with Fundraising Expert Gill Jolly – Top 10 Tips for Heritage Fundraisers in 2023.
• Article – Fundraising on a Budget.

Hannah Hurford (MHT Trustee) and Jess Clay, both previous National Historic Ship trainees, have started a podcast exploring the current traditional sailing and maritime heritage industries. They use their own experiences, stories and interview others to talk through a variety of topics – from specific sailing vessels, to the intricacies of conservation, all whilst having a laugh!

You can find more information and sign up to their newsletter here:
https://www.offwatchpodcast.co.uk/

Follow them on Facebook and Instagram: @offwatchpod

The podcast can be found on all major podcast sites (excluding Apple Podcasts... taking a while to get registered!) including Spotify, Google Podcasts and even YouTube.

Heritage Harbours continue to develop across the country led by local groups and supporters and supported by National Historic Ships UK, Historic England and Maritime Heritage Trust (MHT).

Following a series of discussions with a wide range of HH projects towards the end of last year, it has been agreed in principle to go forward and form a UK Association of Heritage Harbours. This is to allow joint promotional activities, partnerships with other national organisations and to seek support for safeguarding the special heritage and environmental features of maritime and inland ports. A more detailed phase of work to develop the Association will now begin supported by National Historic Ships UK and Maritime Heritage Trust, including other relevant experts and Historic England.  A working group is being established and will be reporting back to Heritage Harbours by Easter 2023.  Alongside this MHT is looking at what more support it can give at national level. If you know of a group or project who would like to be involved in these areas please email: info@maritimeheritage.org.uk

Historic England one of the Heritage Harbours partners is conducting a survey on workplace skills in the maritime heritage industry, The idea is not to catalogue skills in themselves, but to look at the demographics of the workforce with a view to collating data about how futureproof the workforce is.  Historic England are also interested in any patterns that arise in responses, particularly geographically and economically.
The link to the survey is here:
https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/EPH8MK/

Wind, Tide & Oar is a 16mm film about the artistry of engineless sailing, directed by Huw Wahl and currently in production. It is scheduled to premiere at Royal Museums Greenwich in spring of 2024.

As part of the film’s making, you are inviyed to the Engineless Sailing Jolly which will welcome sailors from around the country to take part in a day of friendly engineless races and various engineless seamanship contests, followed by an evening of food, drink and music at Pin Mill Sailing Club.

If you don’t have a boat, there are spaces available on the Thames Sailing Barge Blue Mermaid. This includes one night aboard, food and the day's event on Saturday, for a total of £160 per person. Please contact: judy@seachangesailingtrust.org.uk

You do not need to be a sailor to attend on Blue Mermaid or as a spectator, nor for the evening event!

Further details including timings for the race and contests, possibilities for accommodation, and information on parking, will be released nearer the time

For more information and tickets, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/enginelesssailingjolly  

The photos show a St Mawes One Design dinghy, and the Yare and Bure One Design fleet in Norfolk. The former fleet is struggling to gather owners together, while the YBOD regularly field 30 boats for regattas. Even with such numbers, the future is not secure as one YBOD was broken up just last year due to unsustainable restoration costs.All around the UK, there are small fleets, in varying states of health, that keep alive delightful small day boats and yachts. Some are in good health, others struggle to, literally, keep afloat sufficient numbers for local regattas.

MHT is seeking out ideas about the possibility of bringing more small yachts, dayboats and dinghies into the Heritage arena, to encourage preservation and interaction between these many and very varied fleets of classic small boats around the UK.

If you know of any such fleets that would benefit from this, please be in touch with John Evans - jfkyachts@btinternet.com - for further details.