Señora Trust

The Señora Trust, charity no. 1163053 - Training, Restoration and Employment.
Project Summary -
The project will train young people in the manufacturing skills that made Sunderland the world’s
premier Shipbuilding town, providing the new generation a good foundation for careers in the engineering
and construction industries.
The project is based in the historic Pallion Shipyard, the last shipyard still standing on the Wear.
The Trust is partnered with Monumental Training ltd and Pallion Engineering, and works closely
with NE companies to promote maximum inward investment and job creation, providing apprenticeships
tailored to the manufacturing sectors’ staffing requirements. Our first 20 apprentices start
on the 8.8.16. Our workshops will take up to100 apprenticeships in engineering to 2019. The men
who built the ships will work with our instructors to help our apprentices achieve NVQ Diplomas
(level III) in Marine Engineering, carrying the community’s traditions of manufacturing excellence
into the future.
The program will include restoration of the classic yacht Señora (1908) to become ‘The People’s
Yacht’. On her completion the Trust will establish a Community Interest Company that will lease
her from the Trust and operate her for charter as a sail training vessel and for corporate hospitality.
The lease fee will allow the Trust to subsidise community groups to charter her.
Our Apprentices will work on Señora, on commissions for metal fabrications, and building, restoring
and maintaining other vessels. Income from this work will help sustain the Trust’s training program.
The chartering business will provide further training places and directly employed jobs in
tourism, corporate hospitality and sailing instruction.
Señora will combine classic beauty with pioneering design and technology. We are exploring the
market case for fitting her with the latest electric marine engine, making her a trailblazer in new
technology and environmentally responsible leisure and commercial marine vessels.
The Project has a significant additional value as an tourism, health and education project; new,
green technology, celebrating the City's heritage skills, and promoting the healthy sport of sailing.
Through celebrating Wearside’s proud history in shipbuilding, the project will provide imaginative
learning programmes and open days for volunteers and the general public. Señora will contribute
to the regeneration of an historic conservation area on the River Wear. Her completion will be
timed so she will take part in the Sunderland Tall Ships Festival, 2018.
The project’s legacy will be quayside workshops recapturing lost skills through quality training; selfsustaining
businesses providing work and economic stimulus in a previously moribund area of the
City; and increased tourism on the banks of the Wear as 'The Peoples Yacht’ celebrates the City's
industrial, cultural and environmental heritage through taster courses, river trips and sail training.
For detail contact senoratrust@gmail.com