Hello my name is Georgia!
I am 22 and live in the small Scottish Island between Scotland and Norway!
How I got into sailing⛵~
I started sailing in 2013 with Sail training Shetland on the sail training vessel Swan (Built in Lerwick in 1900, a 23 meter Fifie herring longline fishing boat converted to a sail training vessel in 1998). This is where my love for sailing began. We spent two weeks sailing the south west of Norway with 5 crew and 10 trainees. I am very lucky to come from somewhere with a accessible sail training initiative. ⛵
Voyages 🌍~
2013 Swan – Shetland to Norway🇳🇴 and back to Shetland🏴
2014 Alexander Von Humbolt- Tall Ship Races from Harligen in Holland🇳🇱 to Fredrikstad in Norway🇳🇴
2015 Tenacious – Gran Canria around the Canary Islands🇪🇦
2018 Statsraad Lehmkuhl – Tall Ship Races from Esjberg in Denmark 🇩🇰to Stavanger In Norway🇳🇴
Challenges and Achievements from TSR 💪~
Walking on to my first tall ship in Harligen was one of the most nerve-racking moments. Joining a ship in a foreign country to sail with a crew and trainees from all over the world at 17 was very intimating. I came on very unconfident to jump into new things always being on the safe side. But the fantastic crew pushed me out my comfort zone and I learnt jumping into all the opportunity I would get out only as much as I put in. Something as simple as climbing the rigging and working with Sail with a very big fear of heights was handled by the crew amazingly and by the end of the voyage I was confident in this new ability.
Coming back to TSR on such a large ship was so intimidating. I had spent my whole life looking at the Statsraad Lehmkuhl coming into Lerwick (the main town in shetland) I had dreamed of sailing her and I was lucky enough to be funded a 3rd time by sail training Shetland to take the voyage of a life time! It was a challenging voyage feeling I should have been more advanced but I really spent my time working with 3 trainees who had never sailed on a tall ship before and pushing them to make the most of their voyage. My biggest achievement of this voyage was being part of these trainee journey into great sailors 💪.
Why I would recommend Tall Ship Races ⚓~
There is so many reasons I would recommend people to apply for the Tall Ship Races!
Your personal growth is inevitable! Wether it is confidence, making friends, sailing skills or just seeing how far you can push your self and the rewards not only to you but your watch and your crew! Everyone takes something different out of it but no one walks away from their voyage the same as they walked on to that ship!
The TSR is a great event because you don’t only meet an amazing crew who you leave as family, but with events in the host ports you get to meet so many people from the fantastic sailing community from other vessels and event organisers! It takes alot of work but it comes together so well and it’s a festival of energy and happiness!
TSR Is anything but a relaxing holiday it is hard work, it can be tiring and occasionally very wet 🌊😂.
But I cannot stress this enough if you have ever considered sailing at the TSR DO IT! There is brilliant funding and organisations to help you 🙌.
My Journey after TSR✨~
After 3 fantastic Voyages being supported by Sail Training Shetland I now have joined the committee to continue bring opportunity to young people of all sailing abilities to the high seas ⛵. Like the Lovely Eline of Vitamin Sea sail, I want people to have the opportunity of a life time! It’s important to give back to the sailing community to continue the generations to have the opportunity to join this community!✨
Thank you for reading about my sailing experience 🙌⛵⚓
~ Georgia
Norsk bokmål 
English