Award-winning Northampton Cadets to join flotilla escorting Queen’s barge

Young people from the Northampton and Wellingborough Sea Cadet unit will help lead the Queen’s barge down the River Thames to mark the Diamond Jubilee.

Members of the group will join other Sea Cadets from across the UK to lead the barge, Gloriana, across the water on June 3, to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Captain of the Sea Cadets, Capt Mark Windsor RN said: “This is a great honour for us, not least as Her Majesty is our patron, but it also offers our cadets an incredible opportunity to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime event, to be part of history.”

Sea Cadets, aged between 12 and 18, will be the focal point in a huge procession of over 1,000 vessels in a Thames pageant, the likes of which haven’t been seen since 1717.

A 55-strong team of Sea Cadet boats from all over the country, each one carrying a flag to represent a Commonwealth nation, will sail in a diamond formation on an 11km route from Wandsworth to Greenwich.

The boats, Trinity 500s, were specially designed for Sea Cadets last year by Olympic dinghy medallist Jo Richards and will be fitted with an outboard motor supplied by Suzuki GB.

The narrowboat, the Diamond, will support Northampton’s Trinity 500 and has been provided by the Northampton and Wellingborough Sea Cadets, representing Lady Juliet Townsend, Lord-Lieutenant for Northamptonshire.

Commanding Officer Lieutenant (SCC), Claire Read RNR, said “It’s an honour and a privilege for our cadets to be selected for this prestigious event.”

A canal boat that normally gives pleasure cruises to the elderly and disabled in Northamptonshire has also been picked to accompany the Queen’s personal vessel. The Mountbatten Crusader is owned and run by St John Ambulance Northamptonshire and is usually found moored at Blisworth Marina on the Grand Union Canal in the south of the county. It will sail as vessel 104 in the historic event.

Please click here for more information about the Sea Cadets

Article taken from the Northampton Chronicle & Echo