Lively Lady - Doing it again after Forty Years

by Nancy Knudsen on 9 May 2008 This week a valiant small wooden yacht has made it to the luxurious Abu Tig Marina in Egypt after completing the challenging transit of the Red Sea.

She is Lively Lady, just 11 metres long, made famous by Sir Alec Rose's 1967 solo round world journey, during which he stopped in Melbourne to visit his son. At the time he received a hero's welcome back to Portsmouth, whose museum now normally houses the yacht. The complete journey took him less than two years. This journey is scheduled to take about the same time, and Portsmouth is set to give the little boat and its crew a second great welcome.

However, on the 28th July 2006, the Lively Lady got to sail again! As a result of a brainchild of British

Ocean adventurer Alan Priddy, with the generous permission of the Portsmouth Museum, and the support of many, including chief sponsor Raymarine, Lively Lady set off from Portsmouth to again sail a circumnavigation, but with a difference.

The aim of the 'Lively Lady Raymarine Project' has been to assist youg adults who 'have not had the best start in life', and, by training for and undertaking a leg of the journey, to turn their lives around.

After completing what is probably the most consistently challenging leg of the round world route, the crew – skipper Alan Priddy and his three mates Colin Vicky and Jay – are enjoying a well deserved rest, before setting out for Malta.

While in the glamorous Abu Tig Marina, which will provide the first time the crew have seen a capuccino or a restaurant for many months, the yacht will be on display to the public for six days, and there is much interest by the swarms of – specially British – tourists who remember the little boat from her heyday.

Alan Priddy reports from Abu Tig: 'Lively Lady is surrounded by huge and very expensive super yachts but in this sea of white plastic, she stands out like a proud queen now she is dressed with all her flags flying in the wind. We have put one line of flags with all the countries we have visited, another with all the yacht club bur gees, another with the “We Can Do It” flag on and another with our sponsors “Raymarine”
I must say she does look rather pretty.'