How many of you reading this had your first taste of life under sail on the tall ships the Sir Winston Churchill, Malcolm Miller, Prince William or Stavros S Niarchos? Under their parent company the Sailing Training Association, these great landmark ships introduced generations of young people to the benefits of sailing from the 1950s onwards. If you talk to one of the lucky souls who sailed aboard them, the glint in their eye as they recall the thrill of scaling the ratlines and making their way along the yard is unmistakable.
In 2003, the Sailing Training Association adopted a new name, Tall Ships Youth Trust, and the man in charge of continuing that life-changing work is sitting before me in the RAF Club in Piccadilly. Alastair Floyd grew up in Glasgow, joined the Royal Marines as a
