SV Tenacious at the starting line for the last leg of the STI Historical Seas Festival 2010 from Istanbul to Lavrion.
History
United Kingdom
Name	Tenacious
Owner	Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd
Builder	Jubilee Yard (Merlin Quay), Southampton
Laid down	6 June 1996
Launched	3 February 2000
Commissioned	1 September 2000
Out of service	December 2023
Identification	IMO number: 1005679 MMSI number: 235000230 Callsign: ZQHM2
Status	Operational
General characteristics
Tons burthen	586 tons
Length	54 m (177 ft) hull, 65 m (213 ft) including bowsprit
Beam	10.6 m (35 ft)
Draught	4.58 m (15.0 ft) in summer
Propulsion	Sails: 1,217 m2 (13,100 sq ft) Engines: 2x400bph
Sail plan	Barque (three-masted))
Speed	11 knots (20.37 km/h) under sail, 8 knots (14.82 km/h) under power
Complement	Permanent crew approx 11 (incl. 3 volunteers) Voyage crew up to 40 (50% of whom may be sensory impaired or physically disabled)

The SV Tenacious is a modern British wooden sail training ship, specially designed in the 1990s. When completed in 2000, it was the largest wooden ship to be built in the UK for over 100 years.

Design and construction

The ship was built by the Jubilee Sailing Trust (JST) and, along with STS Lord Nelson, the pair are the only tall ships in the world that were built so that both disabled and non-disabled people can sail as crew, not passengers. Features that cannot be found on other ships include wheelchair lifts throughout, unique ascender systems that allow wheelchair users to go aloft (either assisted or by their own efforts), a speaking compass for those with visual impairments, hearing loops, adjustable furniture for those with mobility difficulties, and a joystick to help individuals with dexterity limitations to steer the ship. Everyone plays a full and active role in the voyage. The JST are a UN accredited charity offering sailing adventures to people of all abilities and backgrounds. The ship is owned and operated by Jubilee Sailing Trust (Tenacious) Ltd.

Launched in 2000, the sailing vessel Tenacious is the largest wooden tall ship built in the United Kingdom in the last 100 years. It is 65 metres (213.25 feet) long including bowsprit, and it is rigged as a three-masted barque with two mizzen gaffs. Its deck is 49.85 metres long, its hull is 54.02 metres long, and it has a beam of 10.6 metres at its widest point. Tenacious displaces about 714 tons (summer draft). A press release from the Belfast Maritime Festival on 22 June 2006 announced that the Tenacious was "the largest wooden ship still afloat".^[1]

History

The ship's maiden voyage was on 1 September 2000 from Southampton to Sark, St Helier and Weymouth before returning to Southampton. The ship is owned by a UK-based charity, the Jubilee Sailing Trust, which also owns the 42-metre-long tall ship STS Lord Nelson (length including bowsprit is 55 metres and waterline length is 37 metres).^[1][2]

Tenacious featured in the first series of Channel 5's Sea Patrol UK, when one of the crew members had fallen ill and needed to be winched into an RAF Westland Sea King and taken to hospital. Due to the height of the masts and rigging, this posed a challenge to the helicopter's pilot and winch crew but the rescue attempt was successful and the crew member survived a potentially fatal condition.^[3]

In December 2023 the JST announced that Tenacious's owning company was insolvent and had been put into liquidation and that all future cruises had been cancelled.^[4]