Influential Business Backers For Tall Ship Sail Training Project

16th August 2015

#TallShips - The Atlantic Youth Trust's (AYT) proposals for a new sail training tall ship for Ireland have taken another step closer to fruition with the backing of a group of influential business people.

As the Sunday Independent reports today (16 August), financier Dermot Desmond joins Denis O'Brien and CPL Resources founder Anne Heraty among the early seed funders for the €17.2 million plans to build a replacement for the Asgard II - and as a legacy youth project following Belfast's recent hosting of the Tall Ships Races.

Many of the same business people backed the Green Dragon, Ireland's entry in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race, according to the AYT's Enda O'Coineen, who says that after that experience they "wanted to do more.

"They provided the expertise and seed funding for an international study into how this could be done," he added, noting that the project aims to get 1,000 young people from both sides of the border training on the ship annually.

Published in Tall Ships

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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