Volunteers disciplines - Volunteer

We are urgently seeking new volunteers based locally to our base in Brixham, Devon (i.e. within manageable travel time) to lead in a range of disciplines including Maintenance, IT, Fund‑Raising, Administration (including Company Secretary/Membership secretary) and Events Management.

As well as being a much-loved icon, by locals and tourists alike, Pilgrim is a nationally significant heritage asset. Built in 1895, she represents a key milestone in the development of the fishing industry, in which the town of Brixham is still heavily involved, as England's largest fishing port by volume of annual catch. It was ships like Pilgrim which allowed the development of all the techniques necessary for modern trawling, but using a platform requiring great strength, determination and skill in both fishing and sailing.

The Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation tries to preserve and educate others about the manner of sailing at the end of the 19th Century, when there were up to 300 boats of similar type moored in Brixham harbour alone.

As a volunteer, you could make a real difference to our educational outreach, events and/or operational activities, enabling Pilgrim to spread the word of her heritage to a wider audience, potentially both at home and abroad.

We're really in need of Management Volunteers with skills in a number of areas, sometimes taking individual initiatives, or more generally leading a small group of other volunteers.

Anyone with experience in disciplines including general management, finance, marketing, project management, IT and administration, or more manual skills such as woodwork, metalwork and mechanics, would be most welcome to come and help with these roles. Above all, our management volunteers need simply to be self‑motivated, with a 'can do' attitude!

The Pilgrim Heritage Sailing Foundation is structured as a charitable company, overseen by a number of Trustee / Directors who give a little of their time each month to drive policy and direction for the Charity and to fulfil our statutory requirements. These positions are fully voluntary themselves, and beyond this we have a small pool of volunteers willing to help out in many and varied tasks, not least sailing our wonderful vessel, the Victorian Trawler Pilgrim of Brixham!

To run our operation though requires some volunteers to step up and take charge of key functions within our operation. This can involve anything from sending out a Whatsapp message to regular volunteers to meet at a certain place and time for a particular function, or taking an initiative with respect to marketing for an event or for sailing trips and following through a task to completion, calling on others where necessary.

Right now, it's this team of functional leaders which we particularly need. Ideally the more local to our summer base of Brixham the better, just for ready access to our office at the Brixham Labs of Plymouth University at Freshwater Quay or to Pilgrim herself at the Heritage Pontoon in Brixham harbour.

We're really looking for committed individuals willing and able to give some of their time and energy to a much-loved asset to Brixham and the wider Torbay. We do engage with the Public and our community, largely through Open Days and visits to and from local schools etc., and we've run events with a Musical through Ecological and Historical focus both around the town and on board over the past few years.

Each of these, together with our regular sailing activities, requires management and co‑ordination across a number of disciplines as mentioned in the Opportunity Summary, none of which require huge amounts of time individually, but collectively add up to everything one can imagine necessary to run what is effectively a small business undertaking.