Students off on high seas

Students off on high seas

6 May 2015

ASSUMPTION Grammar School students Caitlin Foley and Georgia Fermor have been selected to race the first leg of the Tall Ships Race from Belfast to Alesund in Norway in July.

Around 600 people applied with only 95 people from Northern Ireland selected for the Ocean Youth 

Trust crew trainee programme with the Ballynahinch students among them.

Caitlin and Georgia had to undergo a three-stage selection process including team building exercises and an interview in order to get the places. Caitlin will be on board the Eendracht, a 59 metre, three-masted ship which was built in the Netherlands in 1989, while Georgia will be on the Christian Radich, a 73 metre, three-masted ship built in Norway in 1937.

The Assumption students are very excited ahead of the race and have met lots of fantastic people so far during the selection process. They have also attended sea survival training days so feel well prepared for the many challenges that lie ahead.

 Both Caitlin and Georgia have also raised £300 each for the Ocean Youth Trust and can’t wait to set sail on such beautiful ships.

It’s anticipated that up to 80 Tall Ships will be visiting Belfast including around 18 class A vessels, two of which the Assumption students will be boarded on with over 500,000 spectators expected to attend the event.

There will be visiting vessels from Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Organisers are also hoping to see some South American ships in the line-up.