Sky News covers tall ship Tenacious story in lead up to Jubilee Pageant

Tenacious is a tall ship with a difference - and Sky News recognised this when they sent their Royal Correspondent Paul Harrison aboard to make a short film about her in the lead up to the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

The photo shows cameraman Jonathan Scarratt filming Paul Harrison who is standing on the first platform of Tenacious' main mast.

Tenacious is a tall ship with a difference because she can be sailed by both able bodied and disabled crew members. Whilst able-bodied people can come aboard and have an exciting square-rig sailing experience; so too can wheelchair users, visually impaired, amputees and those with just about any sort of physical disability.

On Thursday 17th May, Sky News gave Tenacious a significant amount of coverage in their news bulletins and on their website. Sky News will also be broadcasting live from on board Tenacious on the day of the Pageant itself - 3rd June.

Tenacious, built by the Jubilee Sailing Trust, has just arrived back in Southampton after a 3,000-mile cross Atlantic voyage.

On board as she departed Jersey on her final leg, Captain Barbara Campbell told Sky News: "People who are blind or deaf or amputees don't see themselves as disabled and on here they are not.

"They can join in with everyone else because we have the facilities to allow them to do that. It's really inspiring to see what everyone can achieve."

The 714-ton Tenacious operates a 'buddy' system which pairs abled and physically disabled crew together and there are cabins designed for wheelchair users on board.

"We all seek adventure with an element of risk and this environment has both", on board medical purser Carol Redgrave explained.

"So someone who has had a disability for a long time may have been wrapped up by society in cotton wool and told, "You can't do this and you can't do that", but here that's all gone, everyone is equal."

Emma Simpson suffers from epilepsy - a three-week trip at sea would normally be prohibitively expensive for insurance reasons but on board Tenacious there is little she is not able to do." If I tried to do this anywhere else the insurance would be huge. This is the one place where I know no one will make a fuss. I just said, 'I've got epilepsy' and they said, 'Ok that's not a problem.' "

The transatlantic voyage has also given the crew the chance to get Tenacious ship shape for the Queen's river pageant.

"We've done quite a lot of work varnishing and painting across the Atlantic and she’ll look great when she’s part of the Diamond Jubilee pageant," ship's mate Ali Travis explained.

"It's a great opportunity for the ship and we're all looking forward to it."

As her name suggest, Tenacious is set on her course for the Thames and Tower Bridge on June 3.

:: Read more about the Jubilee Sailing Trust at www.jst.org.uk or on Twitter at @JubileeSailing