Community / Commercial director of Sail Training International: ‘Sailing changed my life completely’
VANESSA Mori, the commercial director at Sail Training International, is currently visiting Shetland for the Tall Ships Races. She spoke to Shetland News about the charity behind the events and her own experiences at sea.
Mori previously worked in the publishing industry before she fell in love with sailing.
“I actually started sailing later in life,” she said. “But it changed my life completely.
“I went sailing for sixth months but I ended up sailing for four and a half years.
“I completely changed direction and… here I am!”
She joined the organisation in 2018 and now takes care of the commercial side of the charity.
Mori said: “My role really is to find host ports, to deal with ports like Lerwick… working together with them from bidding to contracting, to then supporting the port to make sure that they’re ready for when the fleet comes in.
“The other side of the role is to make sure that the ships want to come and that the ships’ needs are met.”
She says the goal is always to “get as many young people on board as possible”.
“The main aim [of Sail Training International] is to encourage youth development through the sail training experience,” Mori explained.
“Also to encourage international friendship and understanding between different nations.
“I think, given the situation of the world at the moment, it’s really important that young people get to meet other young people from other parts of the world and realise that actually they’ve got more similarities than differences.
“For a lot of these young people, it really changes their lives… you realise you can do stuff that you didn’t think you could do before.”
Mori said that Shetland has been an “amazing” host port so far and that it is “fantastic” that 100 local young folk have been sail trainees this year.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
