YOUNG sailors spent their Easter break delivering beer brewed in Maldon to waterside pubs along the coast.
The Thames sailing barge Blue Mermaid was loaded with beer from the Mighty Oak Brewery and sailed along the River Blackwater and called at Harwich, West Mersea and Burnham.
The engineless 26 metre barge was crewed by young people during its quest along the Essex coast.
The project is sponsored by Essex County Council as part of their Climate Change Challenge to help Essex reach Net Zero.
The voyage highlights the use of wind and tide as a clean and renewable source of energy for deliveries around the coastline.
The barge is owned by the Sea-Change Sailing Trust charity which offers residential voyages to young people and vulnerable adults with the aim of developing essential life skills.
The barge is a newly built replica of a barge built in 1930 and lost to a mine in the war.
Judy Harrison from the executive team at the Trust said: “We are a low carbon organisation and are delighted that Essex County Council have sponsored this project to help us show how a Thames sailing barge using just wind and tide alone, can deliver up to 110 tonnes of cargo locally around the coast of Suffolk, Essex, London and Kent, removing up to four lorries off the road in one go.
“We are looking out for more cargoes to deliver and as an incentive to try waterborne transport, we will be charging the 1931 freight rate for the cargo – as charged by the original barge.
“In the past thousands of Thames sailing barges traded around the coast of the UK and Europe, and they were very much the mainstay of the UK’s transport network.
“Maldon in Essex has a rich heritage associated with the Thames sailing barge and it is very fitting that our first cargo as part of the Essex Climate Change Challenge is beer brewed by the Might Oak Brewery in Maldon itself.”
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