13 brilliant ways yachts are used for charity

When Cyclone Pam tore through the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific last year, the 73 metre Silver Yachts Dragonfly was there to help. In just one of the ways that yachts could help the cyclone-ravaged region, Dragonfly was quick to respond by transporting medical aid and doctors to the remote areas that were in dire need of care.

It helped that some of the crew were medically trained as well. A stewardess on board Dragonfly is a doctor, the yacht's captain Mike Gregory said, and five more of the crew were trained medical technicians. Between this and a shoreside security team and ex-Navy seals joining the mission, the locals were in good hands as this superyacht came to the rescue.

The organisers of the 2015 Nord Stream Race, the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and Saint Petersburg Yacht Club, invited the crews competing to do so for a good cause. Crews could participate in a Childhood Charity Race, of which proceeds would be donated to the World Childhood Foundation. All winners donated their prize money of €3,000 to the World Childhood Foundation, making the kids the real winners of this yacht race.

"We are very happy to be able to support the World Childhood Foundation in this way as they are doing tremendous work for the benefit of the children all over the globe. I know that the initiator of the foundation, Queen Sylvia of Sweden, is very interested in sailing and is appreciating the commitment of the sailors”, said Alexander Prinz zu Schleswig-Holstein, a representative of Norddeutscher Regatta Verein.

The K1 Britannia Trust, which has charitable status in the US and UK, are busy building a replica of the Royal yacht HMY Britannia with the aim to gift her to charities when completed. The gaff-rigged cutter was launched in 1893, originally built for the Prince of Wales, Commodore Albert Edward, later to be known as King Edward VII. The Britannia, pictured above in the centre of the photo shot in the 1930s, went on to serve his son King George V, until she was ordered to be scuttled by the Royal Navy in 1936.

The replica of Britannia was commissioned in Russia in 1994 and shipped to Norway in 2009. The K1 Britannia Trust acquired her in 2011, "for the purpose of completing her rebuild so that she could be deployed as a flag ship for a whole range of charitable activities and projects around the world."