Physiotherapist Helen Richardson has been awarded the 2015 Jersey Clipper Bursary, worth £1,000. The award, made in association with the Jersey branch of Swiss bank UBS, will enable her to join the Jubilee Sailing Trust tall ship Tenacious at the end of this year, hopefully for the Central American leg of the three-masted barque’s circumnavigation.
In addition, thanks to an anonymous donation, the Jersey Clipper Bursary trustees have been able to present a runner’s up award of £400 to Harry Moisan, a student at Plymouth University. Passionate about sailing, he will use the funds to obtain further training qualifications so that he can pass his skills on to others.
Helen (34) has wanted to sail on a tall ship ever since she went on a primary school trip to see a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s galleon, the Golden Hinde, at St Helier Harbour and is delighted that the bursary will help her to fulfil her ambition.
Aboard Tenacious she will be teamed up with a physically disabled crew member under the ship’s ‘buddy system’ and together they will share the voyage and help one another along the way,
‘As a physiotherapist at the General Hospital I have been privileged over the last 10 years to secure honorary roles supporting our Island’s best able-bodied athletes at the Island and Youth Commonwealth games,’ said Helen.
‘Representing Jersey, and supporting others in doing so, always fills me with great pride and I am greatly looking forward to the forthcoming Island Games in Jersey, the fifth I have been involved with.
‘The bursary will enable me to use my specialist skills to support less able-bodied sailors to fulfil their own ambitions while also achieving my own. I’m also hoping that the voyage will cure my sea-sickness!’
Runner-up Harry Moisan, already a qualified Dinghy Instructor, Powerboat Instructor and Senior Instructor, has worked and volunteered at St Aubin’s Fort, St Catherine’s Sailing Club and with the Air Cadets, teaching hundreds of Islanders of all ages.
‘In order to be able to develop my skills further and to be able to pass on these to others I would like to qualify as a Race Coach and Personal Watercraft Instructor and gain the Advanced Powerboating certificate,’ said Harry.
‘As the number of people taking to Jersey waters is increasing year on year, the risk of accidents is escalating and so if I could run these courses it would provide an essential and much-needed service.’
The annual Jersey Clipper Bursary award, a legacy from the three Jersey campaigns in the Clipper Round-the-World Race, was established in 2007 through the generosity of Dandara, Les Pas Holdings and UBS. Further funding has since been provided by local boat-owner Nigel Philpott, the Island’s three former Harbourmasters – Capt Roy Bullen, Capt Brian Nibbs and Capt Howard Le Cornu – and, most recently, UBS.
