The Red Sails Project.

Brixham's sail trawling heritage is to be filmed.

Vigilance has been given £25,000 by the Heritage Lottery to work with students from Brixham Community College to produce a broadcast quality film of Brixham's sail trawling heritage. The project has been given the name 'Red Sails', reflecting the red sails of the old Brixham sailing trawlers, immortalised in the song 'Red Sails in the Sunset'.

A professional film maker, Tom Adams, has been hired to work with crew members and other supporters of Vigilance and the student team. The students have undertaken research on Brixham heritage, which is a major feature of the Lottery 'Young Roots' scheme, under which this award has been made. A script has been drafted and filming is likely to start in June and will last throughout the sailing season. Subsequent editing and sound recording will follow and the project should be completed by early 2008. The film will be available as a DVD.

The partners in the project are:

• the Friends of Vigilance (the fund-raising arm of Vigilance),
• Brixham Community College,
• the Brixham Heritage Museum,
• the Brixham Sailing Trawler Archive
• and All Saints Festival of the Sea.

Mike Gilbert and Bob Tricker are the two Vigilance directors co-ordinating the project.

Friends of the Vigilance.

Formed in September 2006, Friends of the Vigilance is an association established with the objects of education, preservation and promotion of the heritage of sail trawling and sailing trawlers, including supporting heritage sail trawlers, particularly the heritage sailing trawler Vigilance. The creation of the 'Friends of the Vigilance' enables grants and other fund-raising activities to be sought, which could not be pursued by a limited company owned by shareholders. The 'Friends' have already made a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery for funding for the Red Sails project. The officers of the Association are the directors of the Vigilance of Brixham Preservation Company Limited.