Seeing Double

Two Royal Navy University Patrol Boats Set Off To Circumnavigate UK, Visiting Dozens Of Regional Ports As They Go.

University Royal Naval Unit (URNU) ships, HMS Tracker and HMS Raider, are about to embark on a summer deployment which will see them circumnavigate the British Isles.

Tracker, which is the patrol vessel for universities in Oxford, and Raider, which is Bristol’s equivalent, will set off from Portsmouth on Monday June 27.

Being small ships, their deployment is unusual not only in the fact that they will sail all around the UK, but also that they will call in at many ports along the way where other Royal Navy vessels would never be seen.

As well as large oft-visited ports like London, Newcastle, Leith, Liverpool and Cardiff, some of the other stops include the likes of Scarborough, Wick, Scrabster, Portrush, Pwllheli and Padstow.

Each ship carries a full-time Royal Navy crew of five, which will be joined by up to 12 university students at any one time – all in all the student crews will change three times during the voyage, while the Royal Navy crew remains permanent throughout.

During the six weeks plus at sea, the ships will each cover 2,336 nautical miles, visiting a total of 28 different ports.

After setting out from Portsmouth the ships’ first port of call is Brighton, where they will overnight in the city’s marina.

But this is no summer cruise.