Kathleen & May Tall Ship 100-day appeal fundraiser, target £260,000.
Kathleen & May in sail.
Credit Kathleen & May Heritage Trust via www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk
2025 is a milestone year, the 125th anniversary of Kathleen & May. As the United Kingdom’s last surviving wooden-hulled, three-masted topsail schooner, she survives to tell the stories of generations of seafarers, port towns, and essential coastal trade to many visitors each year.
But she is under threat, her hull is leaking. Located now in Gloucester Docks, she is laid up, unable to sail, and in urgent need of structural stabilization and repair.
Please find a Virtual Tour of Kathleen & May on this blog to help with the appeal. You are all welcome aboard to look around and imagine a life at sail. Virtual Tour donated by Clare Wiseman, 360reveal.com
To donate please follow this link.
What’s Driving the Fundraising Effort
A 100-day appeal has been launched to raise funds specifically for urgent repair work at T. Nielsen & Co, one of the world’s leading traditional shipyards.
Once rescued, Kathleen & May’s custodian ownership will pass from the Clarke family to the Kathleen & May Community Interest Company (CIC), formed in 2024 to preserve her legacy.
Designated by the Arts Council in 2011 as a National Treasure, she’s not just a local icon, she’s nationally significant.
The Kathleen & May CIC is working tirelessly to raise £258,678 for emergency repairs to preserve this iconic vessel. Once repaired, she will serve as a community treasure, sailing from the Port of Gloucester for the next two decades, educating visitors about Britain's maritime legacy.
To donate please follow this link. Kathleen & May GoFundMe
Why Kathleen & May Is Irreplaceable
Launched in 1900 at Connah’s Quay North Wales as Lizzie May, she was renamed Kathleen & May in 1908 in Youghal Ireland after a change of ownership.
During her working life, she sailed around UK and Irish ports, including routes in England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands and Ireland, delivering cargoes of coal, grain, timber, pit props, and more.
She is the only unconverted wooden coastal schooner left in service (i.e. not adapted into another form) from that era.
The Kathleen & May is a coastal schooner, a type of sailing vessel built to carry cargo efficiently around home waters. She was designed for strength and speed, with her shallow draft allowing her to reach smaller harbours that larger ships couldn’t enter. For more than sixty years, she sailed between ports across England, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands and Ireland, delivering essential goods.
These schooners were once the backbone of coastal trade, they were like lorries today delivering goods across the country. Today, the Kathleen & May is the last of her kind left afloat.
In her restored life she has sailed again, from Youghal in Ireland to festivals in the UK, and has even undergone repair in Gloucester as recently as 2021.
What It Means Locally & Nationally
This ship is materially tied to local history: Gloucester Docks, ship restoration in the region, volunteer networks, and people who remember her sailings in nearby waters. But her significance extends far beyond one town. She is a living testament to coastal trade that linked the communities of Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, Ireland, and England over more than half a century.
Restoring Kathleen & May isn’t just about preserving a single ship, it’s about preserving threads of maritime identity that belong to many port towns, many families, many stories.
What the Appeal Will Do
With the funds raised:
Stabilize and repair her structure to stop further deterioration
Document all restoration work, creating a handbook of traditional shipbuilding practices
Relaunch her as a working tall ship, registered at Port of Gloucester, returning to summer sailings around Britain & Ireland
Use her as a sailing, educational and heritage centre, connecting people with maritime pasts across the UK & Ireland
Your Chance to Be Part of History
This is our moment, her 125th anniversary is a rallying point. Let’s make this year the turning point for Kathleen & May.
👉 Step onto the Kathleen and May Virtual Tour and enjoy exploring above and below deck
👉 Donate now, every gift, big or small, helps toward that urgent £260,000 goal
👉 Share the story with your friends, family, local press, and MPs
Let’s rescue a tall ship that once sailed every corner of our coasts, and let’s make sure her decks still echo with footsteps in the decades to come.
To donate please follow this link. Kathleen & May GoFundMe
