About Us

The Atlantic Youth Trust was founded in 2014 with the idea that one of the best ways to help young people develop is through time spent on a tall ship. It isn’t about learning to sail it is simply to learn about themselves, about working together and cooperating with others and having an adventure. 

From the start we carried out extensive research and found wherever we looked the benefits were real, and we could see the results. We spoke to many young people who had profoundly benefited, whose lives were turned around by time spent at sea in the environment of a tall ship and it’s been inspirational. 

Atlantic Youth Trust has two registered charities, one in the North and the second in the South of Ireland.

Many of our Trustees and Professional Operations Team have extensive personal experience of sail training and understand its value. They have worked to develop our programmes and deliver our model called MX101 (marine experience). Many of our team came to sail training via the Asgard and Asgard II, our iconic national tall ship training vessels. 

Today we wish to provide the experiences we benefited from to young people, we want to give back and share those skills and the adventures.

We work with Sail Training Ireland to support young people. 

They come from all backgrounds and all abilities on the island of Ireland by giving them the opportunity to participate on voyages on sailing vessels. The exciting adventure offers the participants the opportunity to overcome fears, push boundaries and take on new responsibilities in a challenging environment. The experience promotes self-confidence, enhances self-esteem and develops leadership, teamwork and communication skills. It often has a profound effect on the participants’ outlook and life.